STREPHON.
Say, Daphnis, say, in what glad soil appears,85
A wondrous tree that sacred monarchs bears;[52]
Tell me but this, and I'll[53] disclaim the prize,
And give the conquest to thy Sylvia's eyes.
DAPHNIS.
Nay tell me first, in what more happy fields[54]
The thistle springs, to which the lily yields:[55]90
And then a nobler prize I will resign;
For Sylvia, charming Sylvia shall be thine.
DAMON.
Cease to contend; for, Daphnis, I decree
The bowl to Strephon, and the lamb to thee.[56]
Blest swains, whose nymphs in ev'ry grace excel;95
Blest nymphs, whose swains those graces sing so well!
Now rise, and haste to yonder woodbine bow'rs,
A soft retreat from sudden vernal show'rs;
The turf with rural dainties shall be crowned,[57]
While op'ning blooms diffuse their sweets around.100
For see! the gath'ring flocks to shelter tend,
And from the Pleiads[58] fruitful show'rs descend.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Our author's friendship with this gentleman commenced at very unequal years; he was under sixteen, but Sir William above sixty, and had lately resigned his employment of secretary of state to King William.—Pope.
This amiable old man, who had been a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and doctor of civil law, was sent by Charles II. judge advocate to Tangier, and afterwards in a public character to Florence, to Turin, to Paris; and by James II. ambassador to Constantinople; to which city he went through the continent on foot. He was afterwards a lord of the treasury, and secretary of state, with the Duke of Shrewsbury, which office he resigned 1697, and retiring to East Hampstead, died there in December, 1716, aged seventy-seven. Nothing of his writing remains but an elegant character of Archbishop Dolben.—Warton.
Pope says that Sir William Trumbull had "lately" resigned his office at the period of their acquaintance, but seven years had elapsed after the date of Sir William's retirement, before Pope had reached the age of sixteen.