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BAUCIS AND PHILEMON.

I

Imitated from the Eighth Book of OVID.

By Dean SWIFT.

N ancient times, as ftory tells,

The faints would often leave their cells,
And ftrole about, but hide their quality,
To try good people's hofpitality.

It happen'd on a winter night,
As authors of the legend write,
Two brother hermits, faints by trade,
Taking their tour in masquerade,
Difguis'd in tatter'd habits, went
To a small village down in Kent;
Where, in the stroller's canting ftrain,
They begg'd from door to door in vain,
Try'd ev'ry tone might pity win;

But not a foul would let them in.

Our wand'ring faints in weeful state,
Treated at this ungodly rate,
Having through all the village país'd,
To a small cottage came at last;
Where dwelt a good old honest ye’man,
Call'd in the neighbourhood Philemon,
Who kindly did these faints invite
In his poor hut to pass the night;

And

And then the hospitable fire

Bid goody Baucis mend the fire;
While he from out the chimney took

A flitch of bacon off the hook,
And freely from the fatteft fide
Cut out large flices to be fry'd;
Then stepp'd afide to fetch 'em drink,
Fill'd a large jug up to the brink,
And faw it fairly twice go round;
Yet (what is wonderful!) they found
"Twas still replenish'd to the top,
As if they had not touch'd a drop.
The good old couple were amaz'd,
And often on each other gaz'd;
For both were frighten'd to the heart,
And just began to cry,-What ar't!
Then foftly turn'd afide to view
Whether the lights were burning blue.
The gentle pilgrims, foon aware on't,
Told them their calling, and their errant ;
Good folks, you need not be afraid,
We are but faints, the hermits faid;
No hurt fhall come to you or yours:
But for that pack of churlish boors,
Not fit to live on chriftian ground,
They and their houfes fhall be drown'd;
Whilft you fhall fee your cottage rife,

And grow a church before your eyes.

They

Then o'er the bounding billows fhall we fly;

Secure to live together, or to die.

These reasons mov'd her ftarlike hufband's heart,

But ftill he held his purpose to depart :
For as he lov'd her equal to his life,

He would not to the feas expose his wife;
Nor could be wrought his voyage to refrain,
But fought by arguments to footh her pain:
Nor these avail'd; at length he lights on one,
With which fo difficult a cause he won :
My love, fo fhort an absence cease to fear,
For by my father's holy flame I swear,
Before two moons their orb with light adorn,
If heav'n allow me life, I will return.

This promise of so short a stay prevails;
He foon equips the fhip, fupplies the fails,
And gives the word to launch; fhe trembling views
This pomp of death, and parting tears renews :
Laft with a kifs fhe took a long farewel,

Sigh'd with a fad prefage, and fwooning fell:
While Ceyx feeks delays, the lufty crew,
Rais'd on their banks, their oars in order drew
To their broad breasts, the thip with fury flew.
The queen recover'd, rears her humid eyes,
And firft her husband on the poop espies,
Shaking his hand at diftance on the main ;
She took the fign, and fhook her hand again.
Still as the ground recedes, contracts her view
With fharpen'd fight, 'till fhe no longer knew

}

The

The much lov'd face; that comfort loft fupplies
With lefs, and with the galley feeds her eyes:
The galley borne from view by rifing gales,
She follow'd with her fight the flying fails:
When ev'n the flying fails were seen no more,
Forfaken of all fight fhe left the fhore.

Then on her bridal bed her body throws,
And fought in fleep her wearied eyes to clofe:
Her husband's pillow, and the widow'd part
Which once he prefs'd, renew'd the former fmart.

And now a breeze from fhore began to blow,
The failors fhip their oars, and cease to row;
Then hoift their yards a-trip, and all their fails
Let fall, to court the wind, and catch the gales:
By this the veffel half her course had run ;
And as much refted 'till the rising fun;

Both fhores were loft to fight, when at the clofe
Of day a ftiffer gale at Eaft arose :

The fea grew white, the rolling waves from far,
Like heralds, firft denounce the watry war.

This feen, the mafter foon began to cry,
Strike, ftrike the top-fail; let the main-fheet fly,
And furl your fails: the winds repel the found,
And in the speaker's mouth the speech is drown'd.
Yet of their own accord, as danger taught
Each in his way, officiously they wrought:
Some ftow their oars, or stop the leaky fides,
Another bolder yet the yard beftrides,

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And folds the fails; a fourth with labour laves
Th' intruding feas, and waves ejects on waves.

In this confufion while their work they ply,
The winds augment the winter of the sky,
And wage inteftine wars; the fuff'ring feas
Are tofs'd, and mingled, as their tyrants please.
The mafter would command, but in defpair
Of fafety, ftands amaz'd with ftupid care;
Nor what to bid, or what forbid he knows,
Th' ungovern'd tempeft to fuch fury grows :
Vain is his force, and vainer is his skill;
With fuch a concourse comes the flood of ill;
The cries of men are mix'd with rattling fhrowds;
Seas dash on feas, and clouds encounter clouds :
At once from Eaft to Weft, from pole to pole,
The forky lightnings flash, the roaring thunders roll.
Now waves on waves afcending scale the skies,

And in the fires above the water fries:

When yellow fands are fifted from below,
The glittering billows give a golden fhow:
And when the fouler bottom spews the black,
The Stygian dye the tainted waters take :
Then frothy white appear the flatted seas,
And change their colour, changing their disease,
Like various fits the Trachin veffel finds :
And now fublime, she rides upon the winds;
As from a lofty fummit looks from high,
And from the clouds beholds the nether sky;

Now

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