So softly death succeeded life in her

Their heavenly harps a lower strain began, And in soft music mourn the fall of man.

But Shakespeare's magic could not copied be; Within that circle none durst walk but he.

An horrid stillness first invades the ear, And in that silence we the tempest fear.

Thus all below is strength, and all above is grace.

All things are hush'd, as Nature's self lay dead, The Mountains seem to nod their drowsy head; The little Birds in dreams their Songs repeat, And sleeping Flowers, beneath the night-dew sweat; Even Lust and Envy sleep.

Thespis, the first professor of our art, At country wakes sung ballads from a cart.