Original - Duke Divinity School

Were it by forceful Destiny decreed,
Or did from Chance, or Nature’s power proceed; […] 225
Whatever was the Cause, the tender Dame
Felt the first Motions of an infant flame;
Received th’ impressions of the love-sick Squire,
And wasted in the soft infectious fire. …
His spacious Garden, made to yield to none,
Was compast round with walls of solid Stone: […]
A Place to tire the rambling Wits of France
In long descriptions, and exceed Romance;
Enough to shame the gentlest Bard that sings
Of painted Meadows, and of purling Springs.
Full in the center of the flow’ry Ground,
A crystal fountain spread its Streams around,
The fruitful Banks with verdant Laurels crown’d:
About this Spring (if ancient fame says true)
The dapper Elves their moonlit Sports pursue;
Their pigmy King, and little Fairy Queen,
In circling Dances gambold on the Green,
While tuneful Sprites a merry concert made,
And airy Music warbled thro’ the Shade.
Hither the noble Knight would oft repair,
(His Scene of Pleasure, and peculiar Care) […]
To this sweet place, in Summer’s sultry heat,
He us’d from noise and bus’ness to retreat;
Here midst the shades to spend the live-long Day,
And take no Partners but his sprightly May. […] 226
But ah! what mortal lives of bliss secure?
How short a space our worldly Joys endure!
O Fortune, Fair, like all thy treach’rous Kind,
But faithless still, and wavering as the Wind! […]
This rich, this wise, this venerable Knight, 227
Amidst his Ease, his Solace, and Delight,
Struck blind by Thee, resigns his days to Grief,
And calls on Death, the Wretch’s last Relief.
225 Wesley omits:
Or that some Star, with Aspect kind to Love, / Shed its selectest Infl’ence from above;
226 Wesley omits:
For, whate’er Work was undischarg’d a-bed, / The duteous Knight in this fair Garden sped.
227 Ori.: “This rich, this am’rous, venerable Knight.”
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