Page:The Works of Alexander Pope (1717).djvu/88

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52
WINDSOR-FOREST.
To savage beasts and [1]savage laws a prey,And Kings more furious and severe than they;Who claim'd the skies, dispeopled air and floods,The lonely Lords of empty wilds and woods.Cities laid waste, they storm'd the dens and caves;(For wiser Brutes were backward to be slaves.)What could be free, when lawless beasts obey'd,And ev'n the Elements a Tyrant sway'd?In vain kind seasons swell'd the teeming grain,Soft show'rs distill'd, and Suns grew warm in vain;The swain with tears to beasts his labour yields,And famish'd dies amidst his ripen'd fields.No wonder savages or subjects slainWere equal crimes in a despotic reign,Both doom'd alike for sportive Tyrants bled,But subjects starv'd while savages were fed.Proud Nimrod first the bloody chace began,A mighty hunter, and his prey was Man.
  1. ↑ The forest Laws.

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