Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/158

Or will you to the cooler Cave succeed,
Whose Mouth the curling Vines have overspread?

MENALCAS.

Your Merit and your Years command the Choice:

Amyntas only rivals you in Voice.10

MOPSUS.

What will not that presuming Shepherd dare,

Who thinks his Voice with Phœbus may compare?

MENALCAS.

Begin you first; if either Alcon's Praise,

Or dying Phillis have inspir'd your Lays:
If her you mourn, or Codrus you commend,15
Begin, and Tityrus your Flock shall tend.

MOPSUS.

Or shall I rather the sad Verse repeat,

Which on the Beeches Bark I lately writ:
I writ, and sung betwixt; now bring the Swain
Whose Voice you boast, and let him try the Strain.20

MENALCAS.

Such as the Shrub to the tall Olive shows,

Or the pale Sallow to the blushing Rose;
Such is his Voice, if I can judge aright,
Compar'd to thine, in sweetness and in height.

MOPSUS.

No more, but sit and hear the promis'd Lay,25

The gloomy Grotto makes a doubtful day.
The Nymphs about the breathless Body wait
Of Daphnis, and lament his cruel Fate.