7 



OF FOREST-TREES. 



Or as the sweet Papinius again : 



. Nemorum vos stirpe rigenti 



Fama satos, cum prima pedum vestigia tellus 

 i^dmirata tulit, nondum arva, domusque ferebant 

 Cruda puerperia, ac populos umbrosa creavit 

 FraxinuSj et foeta viridis puer excidit Orno : 

 Hi lucis stupuisse vices, noctisque feruntur 

 Nubila, et occiduum longe Titana secuti 

 Desperasse diem 



Fame goes, that ye brake forth from the hard rind. 

 When the new earth with the first feet was sign'd ; 

 Fields yet nor houses doleful pangs reliev'd. 

 But shady Ash the num'rous births receiv'd. 

 And the green babe dropp'd from the pregnant Elm, 

 Whom strange amazement first did overwhelm 

 At break of day, and when the gloomy night, 

 Ravish'd the sun from their pursuing sight. 

 They gave the day for lost 



Almost like that which Rinaldo saw in the enchanted forest : 



Querela gli appar, che per se stessa incisa 

 Apve feconda il cavo ventre, e figlia ; 

 E n'esce fuor vestita in strania guisa 



Ninfa d'eta cresciuta canto 18. 



A lab'ring Oak a sudden cleft disclos'd, 

 And from its bark a living birth expos'd ; 

 Where (passing all belief) in strange array, 

 A lovely damsel issu'd to the day. 



And that every great tree included a certain tutelar genius or nymph, 

 living and dying with it, the poets are full ; a special instance we have 

 in that prodigious Oak which fell by the fatal stroke of Erisichthon ; 

 but the Hamadryads, it seems, were immortal, and had power to re- 

 move and change their wooden habitations. 



In the mean while, as the fall of a very aged Oak, giving a crack like 

 thunder, has often been heard at many miles distance, (constrained though 

 I often am to fell them with reluctancy,) I do not at any time remember 

 to have heard the groans of those nymphs (grieving to be dispossessed of 



Volume II. Y y 



349 



BOOK IV. 



