Muscosi fontes—mossy fountains.—Wakefield.
[44] This thought occurs in several authors. Persius, Sat. ii. 39,
Quicquid calcaverit hic, rosa fiat.
Butler finely ridicules this trite fancy of the poets:
Where'er you tread your foot shall set
The primrose and the violet.—Wakefield.
[45] The six lines from ver. 71 to ver. 76 stood thus in the original manuscript:
Oh, deign to grace our happy rural seats,
Our mossy fountains, and our green retreats;
While you your presence to the groves deny,
Our flowers are faded, and our brooks are dry;
Though with'ring herbs lay dying on the plain,
At your return they shall be green again.
The two last couplets were copied from Dryden's Virg. Ecl. vii. 77:
But if Alexis from our mountains fly,
Ev'n running rivers leave their channels dry.
And ver. 81: