CHAP, iv S Y L V A 129 



Rough chesnuts, maple fleck'd with different granes, 



Stream-bordering willow, lotus loving lakes, 



Tough box, whom never sappy spring forsakes, 



The slender tamarisk, with trees that bear 



A purple fig, nor myrtles absent were. 



The wanton ivy wreath'd in amorous twines, 



Vines bearing grapes, and elms supporting vines, 



Straight service-trees, trees dropping pitch, fruit-red 



Arbutus, these the rest accompanied. 



With limber palms, of victory the prize : 



And upright pine, whose leaves like bristles rise, 



Priz'd by the mother of the gods 



Sandys. 



as the incomparable poet goes on, and is imitated by 

 our divine Spencer, where he brings his gentle knight 

 into a shady grove, praising 



the trees so straight, and high, 



The sailing pine, the cedar proud, and tall, 



The vine-prop elm, the poplar never dry, 



The builder oak, sole king of forests all ; 



The aspine, good for staves ; the cypress funeral : 



The laurel, meed of mighty conquerors 



And poets sage ; the fir that weepeth still ; 



The willow, worn of forlorn paramours : 



The yew, obedient to the bender's will ; 



The birch for shafts ; the sallow for the mill ; 



The myrrh sweet bleeding in the bitter wound ; 



The war-like beech ; the ash for nothing ill ; 



The fruitful olive ; and the platane round ; 



The carver holm ; the maple, seldom inward sound. 



Canto i. 



Et platanus genialis, acerque coloribus impar, 



Amnicolaeque simul salices, & aquatica lotos, 



Perpetuoque virens buxus, tenuesque myricae, 



Et bicolor myrtus, & baccis caerula ficus. 



Vos quoque flexipedes hederae venistis, & una 



Pampineae vites, & amictae vitibus ulmi, 



Ornique, & piceae, pomoque onerata rubenti 



Arbutus, & lentae victoris prasmia palmae, 



Et succincta comas, hirsutaque vertice pinus 



Grata Deum matri, &c. Met. 10 



QQ 



