Note 3 — SPRING:
Reading edition
Pope not only imitated the lines he quotes from Virgil, but, as Wakefield points out, was also indebted to Dryden's translation of them.
I first transferred to Rome Sicilian strains: Nor blushed the Doric muse to dwell on Mantuan plains.
Originally Pope had written,
First in these fields I sing the sylvan strains, Nor blush to sport in Windsor's peaceful plains.
Upon this he says to Walsh, "Objection that the letter is hunted too much—sing the sylvan—peaceful plains—and that the word sing is used two lines afterwards, Sicilian muses sing." He proposed to read "try" in the place of "sing;" "happy" instead of "peaceful," and adds, "Quære. If try be not properer in relation to first, as we first attempt a thing; and more modest? and if happy be not more than peaceful?" Walsh replies, "Try is better than sing. Happy does not sound right, the first syllable being short. Perhaps you may find a better word than peaceful as flow'ry." Pope rejected all three epithets, and substituted "blissful."