Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/342

Their Morning Milk, the Peasants press at Night:
Their Evening Meal, before the rising Light
To Market bear: or sparingly they steep
With seas'ning Salt, and stor'd, for Winter keep.615
Nor last, forget thy faithful Dogs: but feed
With fat'ning Whey the Mastiffs gen'rous breed;
And Spartan Race: who for the Folds relief
Will prosecute with Cries the nightly Thief:
Repulse the prouling Wolf, and hold at Bay,620
The Mountain Robbers, rushing to the Prey.
With cries of Hounds, thou may'st pursue the fear
Of flying Hares, and chace the fallow Deer;
Rouze from their desart Dens, the brisl'd Rage
Of Boars, and beamy Stags in Toils engage.625
With smoak of burning Cedar scent thy Walls:
And fume with stinking Galbanum thy Stalls:
With that rank Odour from thy dwelling Place
To drive the Viper's brood, and all the venom'd Race.
For often under Stalls unmov'd, they lye,630
Obscure in shades, and shunning Heav'ns broad Eye.
And Snakes, familiar, to the Hearth succeed,
Disclose their Eggs, and near the Chimney breed.
Whether, to roofy Houses they repair,
Or Sun themselves abroad in open Air,635
In all abodes of pestilential Kind,
To Sheep and Oxen, and the painful Hind.
Take, Shepherd take, a plant of stubborn Oak;
And labour him with many a sturdy stroak: