IMAPLE THEE. 



241 



" Thus having said^ the bowls (removed for fear) 

 The youths replaced, and soon restored the cheer. 

 On sods of turf he set the soldiers round ; 

 A maple throne, raised higher from the ground, 

 Received the Trojan chief ; and o'er the bed 

 A lion's shaggy hide for ornament they spread." 



Dryden's Translation. 



" Surely,*" says Evelyn, " there were some of them 

 of large bulk and noble shade, that Virgil should choose 

 it for the Court of his Evander (one of his worthiest 

 princes in his best of poems) sitting on his Maple throne.*" 



0\id describes the Maple as " acerque colorihis 

 Impar'' — " the mottled maple," that being the character 

 for which it was so much valued by the Romans : 



" The maple famed for wood of varied grain." 



Rapin. 



This author compares it to the lime-tree : 



" The maple not unlike the lime-tree grows. 

 Like her, her spreading arms abroad she throws. 

 Well clothed with leaves ; but that the maple s bole 

 Is clad by nature with a ruder stole." 



A maple-bowl generally makes a part of the scanty 

 furniture of a hermit's cell : 



His dwelling, a recess in some rude rock. 

 Books, beads, and maple-dish, his meagre stock." 



COWPER. 



Many a visitant 



Had sat within his hospitable cave. 

 From his maple-bowl the unpolluted spring 

 Drunk fearless, and with him partook the bread 

 That his pale lips most reverently had bless'd 

 With words becoming such a holy man !" 



Wir.soK, 



