What care with flocks, and what with herds

agrees,

And all the mangement of frugal bees;
I fing, Macenas! Ye immenfely clear,
Vaft orbs of light, which guide the rolling year;
Bacchus, and mother Ceres, if by you

We fat'ning corn for hungry ma purfue,
If, taught by you, we firft the cluster preft,
And thin cold freams with fpritely juice refresht;
Ye fawns, the prefent numens of the field,
Wood-nymphs and fawns, your kind affistance

yield;

Your gifts I fing: and thou, at whofe fear'd ftroke

From rending earth the fiery courfer broke,
Great Neptune, O affift my artful fong,

And thou to whom the woods and groves be

long,

Whose snowy heifers on her flow'ry plains
In mighty herds the Caan Ile maintains!
Pan, happy fhepherd, if thy cares divine,
E'er to improve thy Manalus incline,
Leave thy Lycaan wood and native grove,
And with thy lucky fmiles our work approve;
Be Pallas too, fweet oil's inventor, kind;
And he, who firft the crooked plougb design'd,
Sylvanus, god of all the woods, appear,
Whofe hands a new-drawn tender cypress bear!

Ye

Ye gods and goddesses, who e'er with love Would guard our pastures, and our fields im

prove;

You, who new plants from unknown lands fup

ply,

And with condenfing clouds obfcure the sky, And drop them foftly thence in fruitful showers; Affift my enterprize, ye gentle powers!

And thou, great Cafar! though we know not

yet

Among what gods thou'lt fix thy lofty feat;
Whether thou'lt be the kind tutelar god
Of thy own Rome, or with thy awful nod
Guide the vaft world, while thy great hand
fhall bear

The fruits and feafons of the turning year,

And thy bright brows thy mother's myrtles

wear;

Whether thou❜lt all the boundless ocean fway, And fea-men only to thyfelf fhall pray,

Thule, the fairest island, kneel to thee,

And, that thou may'ft her fon by marriage be,
Tethys will for the happy purchase yield

To make a dowry of her war'ry field:
Whether thou'lt add to heaven a brighter fign,
And o'er the fummer months ferenely shine;
Where between Cancer and Erigone,
There yet remains a fpacious room for thee;

Where the hot Scorpion too his arms declines,
And more to thee than half his arch resigns;
Whate'er thou'lt be; for fure the realms below
No juft pretence to thy command can show:
No fuch ambition fways thy vaft defires,
Though Greece her own Elyfian Fields admires.
And now, at last, contented Proferpine
Can all her mother's earnest prayers decline.
Whate'er thou'lt be, O guide our gentle courfe;
And with thy fmiles our bold attempts enforce;
With me th' unknowing ruftics' wants relieve,
And, though on earth, our facred vows receive!

Mr. DRYDEN, having received from Rhymer his Remarks on the Tragedies of the laft Age, wrote obfervations on the blank leaves; which, having been in the poffeffion of Mr. Garrick, are by his favour communicated to the publick, that no particle of Dryden may be loft.

"That we may the lefs wonder why pity " and terror are not now the only springs on "which our tragedies move, and that Shakspeare may be more excufed, Rapin confeffes that the French tragedies now all "run on the tendre; and gives the reafon, "because love is the paffion which most 66 pre

"predominates in our fouls, and that there"fore the paffions reprefented become in

fipid, unless they are conformable to the thoughts of the audience. But it is to be "concluded, that this paffion works not "now amongst the French fo ftrongly as the "other two did amongst the ancients.

66

Amongst us, who have, a ftronger genius "for writing, the operations from the writing are much stronger for the raifing of Shakspeare's paffions is more from the ex"cellency of the words and thoughts, than "the juftness of the occafion; and, if he

has been able to pick fingle occafions, he "has never founded the whole reasonably: yet, by the genius of poetry in writing, he *has fucceeded.

"Rapin attributes more to the dictio, that "is, to the words and difcourfe of a tragedy, "than Ariftotle has done, who places them. in the last rank of beauties; perhaps, only laft in order, because they are the laft pro "duct of the defign, of the difpofition or "connection of its parts; of the characters, "of the manners of thofe characters, and of "the thoughts proceeding from those man

66 ners.

"ners. Rapin's words are remarkable: 'Tis "not the admirable intrigue, the surprising "events, and extraordinary incidents, that "make the beauty of a tragedy; 'tis the dif"courfes, when they are natural and paffionate: fo are Shakspeare's.

66

"The parts of a poem, tragick or heroick,

<< are,

1

"1. The fable itself.

"2. The order or manner of its contrivance, in relation of the parts to the " whole.

66

3. The manners, or decency, of the "characters, in fpeaking or acting what is proper for them, and proper to be shewn " by the poet.

66

66 4. The thoughts which exprefs the

« manners.

5. The words which exprefs those "thoughts.