Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/127

Past. I. Fool that I was, I thought Imperial Rome Like Mantua, where on Market-days we come, And thether drive our tender Lambs from home. So Kids and Whelps their Sires and Dams express: And so the Great I measur'd by the Less. But Country Towns, compar'd with her, appear Like Shrubs, when lofty Cypresses are near. What great Occasion call'd you hence to Rome? Freedom, which came at length, tho' slow to come: Nor did my Search of Liberty begin, Till my black Hairs were chang'd upon my Chin. Nor Amarillis wou'd vouchsafe a look, Till Galeatea's meaner bonds I broke. Till then a helpless, hopeless, homely Swain, I sought not freedom, nor aspir'd to Gain: Tho' many a Victim from my Folds was bought, And many a Cheese to Country Markets brought, Yet all the little that I got, I spent, And still return'd as empty as I went. We stood amaz'd to see your Mistress mourn; Unknowing that she pin'd for your return: We wonder'd why she kept her Fruit, so long, For whom so late th' ungather'd Apples hung. Rh