So fared it with the little love-sick maid,
Forbid to utter what her eyes betray'd:
He saw her anguish and reveal'd his flame,
And spared the blushes of the tongue-tied dame.
The day would fail me should I reckon o'er
The sighs they lavish'd and the oaths they swore,
In words so melting that, compar'd with those,
The nicest courstship of terrestrial beaux
Would sound like compliments, from country
clowns

To red-cheek'd sweethearts in their home-spun
All in a lawn of many a various hue [gowns.
A bed of flowers (a Fairy forest) grew:

'Twas here one noon, the gaudiest of the May,
The still, the secret, silent hour of day,
Beneath a lofty tulip's ample shade
Sat the young lover and the' immortal maid.
They thought all fairies slept. Ah, luckless fair!
Hid but in vain in the sun's noontide glare!
When Albion, leaning on his Kenna's breast,
Thus all the softness of his soul express'd:

'All things are hush'd; the sun's meridian rays Veil the horizon in one mighty blaze:

Nor moon nor star in heaven's blue arch is seen,
With kindly rays to silver o'er the green;
Grateful to fairy eyes they secret take
Their rest, and only wretched mortals wake.
This dead of day I fly to thee alone,

A world to me, a multitude in one.

Oh! sweet as dew-drops on these flowery lawns, When the sky opens and the evening dawns! Straight as the pink that towers so high in air! Soft as the blowbell! as the daisy fair!

Blest be the hour when first I was convey'd
An infant captive to this blissful shade!
And blest the hand that did my form refine,
And shrunk my stature to a match with thine!
Glad, I for thee renounce my royal birth,
And all the giant daughters of the Earth.
Thou, if thy breast with equal ardour burn,
Renounce thy kind, and love for love return;
So from us two, combined by nuptial ties,
A race unknown of demigods shall rise.
O speak, my love! my vows with vows repay,
And sweetly swear my rising fears away.'
To whom (the shining azure of her eyes

More brighten'd) thus the' enamour'd maid replies:

6

By all the stars, and first, the glorious moon, I swear, and by the head of Oberon,

A dreadful oath! no prince of fairy line
Shall e'er in wedlock plight his vows with mine.
Where'er my footsteps in the dance are seen
May toadstools rise, and mildews blast the green;
May the keen east-wind blight my favourite flowers,
And snakes and spotted adders haunt my bowers;
Confined whole ages in a hemlock shade
There rather pine I, a neglected maid;
Or worse, exiled from Cynthia's gentle rays,
Parch in the sun a thousand summer days,
Than any prince, a prince of fairy line,
In sacred wedlock plight his vows with mine.'
She ended, and with lips of rosy hue

Dipped five times over in ambrosial dew,
Stifled his words, when from his covert rear'd
The frowning brow of Oberon appear'd: [sight!)
A sun-flower's trunk was near, whence (killing
The monarch issued, half an ell in height;

Full on the pair a furious look he cast,
Nor spoke, but gave his bugle-horn a blast,
That through the woodland echo'd far and wide,
And drew a swarm of subjects to his side.
A hundred chosen knights, in war renown'd,
Drive Albion banish'd from the sacred ground;.
And twice ten myriads guard the bright abodes
Where the proud king, amidst his demi-gods,
For Kenna's sudden bridal bids prepare,
And to Azuriel gives the weeping fair.

If fame in arms with ancient birth combined,
A faultless beauty and a spotless mind,
To love and praise can generous souls incline,
That love, Azuriel! and that praise was thine.
Blood only less than royal fill'd thy veins;

Proud was thy roof and large thy fair domains.
Where now the skies high Holland-House invades,
And short-lived Warwick sadden'd all the shades,
Thy dwelling stood, nor did in him afford
A nobler owner or a lovelier lord:

For thee a hundred fields produced their store,
And by thy name ten thousand vassals swore;
So loved thy name, that at their monarch's choice
All fairy shouted with a general voice!

Oriel alone a secret rage suppress'd,

That from his bosom heaved the golden vest.
Along the banks of Thame his empire ran,
Wide was his range and populous his clan.
When cleanly servants, if we trust old tales,
Beside their wages had good fairy vails,
Whole heaps of silver tokens, nightly paid
The careful wife or the neat dairy-maid, [bribes
Sunk not his stores. With smiles and powerful
He gain'd the leaders of his neighbour tribes,