He probably consulted Creech's translation of the passage in Virgil:
Sly Galatea drives me o'er the green,
And apples throws, then hides, yet would be seen.—Wakefield.
[41] Dryden's Don Sebastian;
A brisk Arabian girl came tripping by;
Passing, she cast at him a sidelong glance,
And looked behind, in hopes to be pursued.—Steevens.
[42] A very trifling and false conceit.—Warton.
[43] In place of the next speech of Strephon, and the reply of Daphnis, the dialogue continued thus in the original manuscript:
STREPHON.
Go, flow'ry wreath, and let my Silvia know,
Compared to thine how bright her beauties show;
Then die; and dying, teach the lovely maid
How soon the brightest beauties are decayed.
DAPHNIS.
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: