Go, tuneful bird, that pleased the woods so long,
Of Amaryllis learn a sweeter song;
To heav'n arising then her notes convey,
For heav'n alone is worthy such a lay.
The speech of Strephon is an echo of Waller's well-known song:
Go, lovely rose,
Tell her that wastes her time and me,
That now she knows
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be.
Then die, that she
The common fate of all things rare
May read in thee;
How small a part of time they share,
That are so wondrous sweet and fair.
The speech of Daphnis is from Dryden's Virgil, Ecl. iii. 113:
Winds, on your wings to heav'n her accents bear,
Such words as heav'n alone is fit to hear.]
[Footnote 44: It stood thus at first:
Let rich Iberia golden fleeces boast,
Her purple wool the proud Assyrian coast,
Blest Thames's shores, &c.--POPE.]
[Footnote 45: It is evident from the mention of the "golden sands" of
Pactolus, and the "amber" of the poplars in connection with the Thames,
that he had in view Denham's description in Cooper's Hill:
Though with those streams he no resemblance hold,
Whose foam is amber, and their gravel gold.--WAKEFIELD.
The sisters of Phaeton, according to the classical fable, were, upon the
death of their brother, turned into poplars on the banks of the Po, and
the tears which dropt from these trees were said to be converted into
amber.]
[Footnote 46: This couplet is a palpable imitation of Virgil, Ecl. vii.
67:
Saepius at si me, Lycida formose, revisas,
Fraxinus in silvis cedet tibi, pinus in hortis.--WAKEFIELD.
The entire speech is a parody of the lines quoted by Wakefield, and of
the lines which immediately precede them in Virgil's Eclogue. The
passage omitted by Wakefield is thus translated in vol. i. of Tonson's
Miscellany:
Bacchus the vine, the laurel Phoebus loves;
Fair Venus cherishes the myrtle groves;
Phyllis the hazel loves, while Phyllis loves that tree,
Myrtles and laurels of less fame shall be.]
[Footnote 47: Virg. Ecl. vii. 57:
Aret ager, vitio moriens sitit aeris herba [&c.]
Phyllidis adventu nostrae nemus omne virebit.--POPE.]
[Footnote 48: These verses were thus at first:
All nature mourns, the birds their songs deny,
Nor wasted brooks the thirsty flow'rs supply;
If Delia smile, the flow'rs begin to spring,
The brooks to murmur, and the birds to sing.--POPE.
Wakefield remarks that the last couplet of the original version, which
is but slightly modified in the text, was closely imitated from
Addison's Epilogue to the British Enchanters:
The desert smiles, the woods begin to grow,
The birds to warble, and the springs to flow.]
[Footnote 49: Dryden, Ecl. vii. 76: