The lady thus address'd her spouse' What a mere dungeon is this house! By no means large enough; and was it, Yet this dull room, and that dark closet, Those hangings with their worn-out graces,...
The suitors sinn'd, but with a fair excuse, Whom all this elegance might well seduce; Nor can our censure on the husband fall, Who, for a wife so lovely, slew them all.
The birds put off their every hue To dress a room for Montagu. The peacock sends his heavenly dyes, His rainbows and his starry eyes; The pheasant plumes, which round enfold...
I should have deem'd it once an effort vain To sweeten more sweet Maro's matchless strain, But from that error now behold me free, Since I received him as a gift from thee.
Am pius extrema veniens Jacobus ab arcto Teucrigenas populos, lateque patentia regna Albionum tenuit, jamque inviolabile foedus Sceptra Caledoniis conjunxerat Anglica Scotis:...
What portents, from what distant region, ride, Unseen till now in ours, the astonish'd tide? In ages past, old Proteus, with his droves Of sea-calves, sought the mountains and the groves....
I shall not ask Jean Jaques Rousseau[1] If birds confabulate or no; 'Tis clear, that they were always able To hold discourse, at least in fable; And e'en the child who knows no better...