Dick Tastewell, slain by a blush from the Queen's box in the third act of the 'Trip to the Jubilee.'

Samuel Felt, haberdasher, wounded in his walk to Islington by Mrs. Susannah Cross-stitch, as she was clambering over a stile.

R., F. T., W. S., I. M., P., &c., put to death in the last Birthday massacre.

Roger Blinko, cut off in the twenty-first year of his age by a whitewash.

Musidorus, slain by an arrow that flew out of a dimple in Belinda's left cheek.

Ned Courtly, presenting Flavia with her glove (which she had droped on purpose), she received it, and took away his life with a curtsey.

John Gosselin, having received a slight hurt from a pair of blue eyes, as he was making his escape, was despatched by a smile.

Strephon, killed by Clarinda as she looked down into the pit.

Charles Careless, shot flying by a girl of fifteen, who unexpectedly popped her head upon him out of a coach.

Josiah Wither, aged threescore and three, sent to his long home by Elizabeth Jett-well, spinster. Jack Freelove, murdered by Melissa in her hair. William Wiseaker, gent., drowned in a flood of tears by Moll Common.

John Pleadwell, Esq., of the Middle Temple, barrister-at-law, assassinated in his chambers the 6th instant by Kitty Sly, who pretended to come to him for his advice.

I.

No. 378.

I

Wednesday, May 14, 1712

[STEELE.

Aggredere, O magnos, aderit jam tempus, honores.
-VIRG., Ecl. iv. 48.

WILL make no apology for entertaining the reader with the following poem, which is written by a great genius, a friend of mine in the country, who is not ashamed to employ his wit in the praise of his Maker :

MESSIAH.

A SACRED ECLOGUE, COMPOSED OF SEVERAL PASSAGES OF

ISAIAH THE PROPHET.

Written in imitation of Virgil's Pollio.'

Ye nymphs of Solyma! begin the song:
To heavenly themes sublimer strains belong.
The
mossy fountains and the sylvan shades,
The dreams of Pindus and th' Aonian maids
Delight no more-O Thou my voice inspire
Who touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire!
Rapt into future times, the bard begun,

A virgin shall conceive, a virgin bear a son!
From Jesse's Root behold a Branch arise,*
Whose sacred flower with fragrance fills the skies.
The ethereal spirit o'er its leaves shall move,

And on its top

descends the mystic dove.

* Isaiah xi. I.

1 Alexander Pope. Virgil's fourth eclogue celebrates the coming birth, during Pollio's consulship, of a boy who was to usher in the golden age; and the poem bears, in parts, a curious resemblance to Isaiah. The modern reader will find little pleasure in Pope's adulteration, as Wordsworth called it, of the prophet's words. In No. 534 Steele took an opportunity of naming Pope as the writer of the poem.

Ye heavens! from high the dewy nectar pour,
And in soft silence shed the kindly shower!
The sick and weak the healing Plant shall aid,†
From storms a shelter, and from heat a shade.
All crimes shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail;
Returning justice lift aloft her scale; ‡

Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend,
And white-robed innocence from heaven descend.
Swift fly the years, and rise th' expected morn!
Oh spring to light, auspicious Babe be born!
See, nature hastes her earliest wreaths to bring,
With all the incense of the breathing spring:
See lofty Lebanon his head advance, §
See nodding forests on the mountains dance,
See spicy clouds from lowly Saron rise,
And Carmel's flowery top perfumes the skies!
Hark! a glad voice the lonely desert cheers;
Prepare the way! a God, a God appears ! ' ||
'A God, a God!' the vocal hills reply,
The rocks proclaim the approaching Deity.
Lo, earth receives Him from the bending skies!
Sink down, ye mountains, and ye valleys rise:
With heads declined, ye cedars, homage pay;
Be smooth ye rocks, ye rapid floods give way!
The Saviour comes! by ancient bards foretold;
Hear Him ye deaf, and all ye blind behold! ¶
He from thick films shall purge the visual ray,*
And on the sightless eyeball pour the day.
'Tis He th' obstructed paths of sound shall clear,
And bid new music charm the unfolding ear.
The dumb shall sing, the lame his crutch forego,
And leap exulting like the bounding roe.
No1 sigh, no murmur the wide world shall hear,

*

* Isaiah xlv. 8.

|| xl. 3, 4.

+ xxv. 4. ¶ xlii. 18.

ix. 7.
§ xxxv. 2.
xxxv. 5, 6.

1 This and the three next lines were, at Steele's suggestion, substituted in the collected edition for the following lines in the folio issue :

Before Him Death, the grisly tyrant, flies;

He wipes the tears for ever from our eyes.'

'I have,' wrote Steele (June 1, 1712), 'turned to every verse

From every face he wipes off every tear.
In adamantine chains shall Death be bound,*
And Hell's grim tyrant feel the eternal wound.
As the good shepherd tends his fleecy care,†
Seeks freshest pastures and the purest air,
Explores the lost, the wandering sheep directs,
By day o'ersees them, and by night protects;
The tender lambs he raises in his arms,
Feeds from his hand, and in his bosom warms:
Mankind shall thus His guardian care engage,
The promised Father of the future age. ‡
No more shall nation against nation rise, §
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes,
Nor fields with gleaming steel be covered o'er,
The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more;
But useless lances into scythes shall bend,
And the broad falchion in a ploughshare end.
Then palaces shall rise; the joyful son ||
Shall finish what his short-lived sire begun;
Their vines a shadow to their race shall yield,
And the same hand that sowed shall reap the field.
The swain in barren deserts with surprise¶
Sees lilies spring, and sudden verdure rise,
And starts amidst the thirsty wilds to hear

New falls of water murmuring in his ear:
On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes,
The green reed trembles, and the bulrush nods.
Waste sandy valleys, once perplexed with thorn,* *
The spiry fir and shapely box adorn;

* Isaiah xxv. 8. † xl. II.

|| lxv. 21, 22.

¶ xxxix. 1, 7.

‡ ix. 6.
§ ii. 4.
** xli. 19, lv. 13.

and chapter, and think you have preserved the sublime, heavenly spirit throughout the whole, especially at "Hark! a glad voice,' and "The lamb with wolves shall graze.' which I think is below the original

There is but one line

He wipes the tears for ever from our eyes.'

You have expressed it with a good and pious but not so exalted and poetical a spirit as the prophet: "The Lord God shall wipe away tears from off all faces." If you agree with me in this, alter it by way of paraphrase or otherwise, that when it comes into a volume it may be amended.'

To leafless shrubs the flowering palms succeed,

And odorous myrtle to the noisome weed.

The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead,*
And boys in flowery bands the tiger lead;
The steer and lion at one crib shall meet,
And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's feet.
The smiling infant in his hand shall take
The crested basilisk and speckled snake;
Pleased the green lustre of the scales survey,

And with their forky tongue and pointless sting shall play.

Rise, crowned with light, imperial Salem rise! †

Exalt thy towery head, and lift thy eyes!
See, a long race thy spacious courts adorn; ‡
See future sons and daughters yet unborn
In crowding ranks on every side arise,
Demanding life, impatient for the skies!
See barbarous nations at thy gates attend, §
Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend;
See thy bright altars thronged with prostrate kings,
And heaped with products of Sabæan springs! ||
For thee Idume's spicy forests blow,

And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow.
See heaven its sparkling portals wide display,
And break upon thee in a flood of day!
No more the rising sun shall gild the morn,¶
Nor evening Cynthia fill her silver horn,
But lost, dissolved in thy superior rays,
One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze

O'erflow thy courts: the Light Himself shall shine
Revealed, and God's eternal day be thine!
The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay,* *
Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away;
But fixed His word, His saving power remains,
Thy realm for ever lasts, thy own Messiah reigns.