Joseph Warton, 1740 (1722-1800)
What are the lays of artful Addison,
Coldly correct, to Shakespeare’s warblings wild?
Whom on the winding Avon’s willow’d banks
Fair Fancy found, and bore the smiling babe
To a close cavern (still the shepherds show
The sacred place, whence with religious awe
They hear, returning from the field at eve,
Strange whisp’rings of sweet music through the air):
Here, as with honey gather’d from the rock
She fed the little prattler, and with songs
Oft sooth’d his wond’ring ears with deep delight.
On her soft lap he sat, and caught the sounds.
The Enthusiast: or the Lover of Nature, ll. 168-79.