[47] Virg. Ecl. vii. 57:
Aret ager, vitio moriens sitit aëris herba [&c.]
Phyllidis adventu nostræ nemus omne virebit.—Pope.
[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.
[49] Dryden, Ecl. vii. 76:
And lavish nature laughs.
[50] Pope had at first written,
If Sylvia smiles she brightens all the shore,
The sun's outshined, and nature charms no more.