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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Poetical Works of William Collins + With a Memoir + +Author: William Collins + +Commentator: Sir Harris Nicolas + Sir Egerton Brydges + +Release Date: August 31, 2009 [EBook #29879] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POETICAL WORKS--WILLIAM COLLINS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Katherine Ward, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_1' id='linki_1'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/frontis.jpg' alt='' title='' width='425' height='500' /><br /> +<p class='caption'> +<i><span class="larger">William Collins</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smaller">Ætatis</span><br /> +<br /> +Quos primus equis Oriens afflavit anhelis––Virg.</i><br /> +</p> +</div> +<hr class='pb' /> +<h1><span class="smaller"><i>THE</i></span><br /> +<span class="muchlarger smcap">Poetical Works</span><br /> +<span class="smaller">OF</span><br /> +WILLIAM COLLINS.</h1> +<div class="center"> +<p><i>WITH A MEMOIR.</i></p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_2' id='linki_2'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/pub_mark.png' alt='' title='' width='238' height='250' /><br /> +</div> +<p class='padtop'>BOSTON:<br /> +LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.<br /> +1865.</p> +</div> +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> +<table border='0' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='Contents' style='margin:1em auto;'> +<tr> + <td /> + <td valign='top' align='right'><p class="smaller ralign">Page</p></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Memoir by Sir Harris Nicolas</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#MEMOIR_OF_COLLINS'>v</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>An Essay on the Genius and Poems of Collins, by Sir Egerton Brydges, Bart.</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#AN_ESSAY_ON_THE_GENIUS_AND_POEMS_OF_COLLINS__BY_SIR_EGERTON_BRYDGES__BART'>xliii</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td /> + <td /> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' class='chalgn'><p class="center"> ORIENTAL ECLOGUES.</p></td> + <td /> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>Selim; or, The Shepherd’s Moral</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#ECLOGUE_I_SELIM_OR_THE_SHEPHERDS_MORAL'>3</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>Hassan; or, The Camel Driver</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#ECLOGUE_II_HASSAN_OR_THE_CAMEL_DRIVER'>7</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>Abra; Or, The Georgian Sultana</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#ECLOGUE_III_ABRA_OR_THE_GEORGIAN_SULTANA'>11</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>Agib And Secander; or, The Fugitives</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#ECLOGUE_IV_AGIB_AND_SECANDER_OR_THE_FUGITIVES'>15</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td /> + <td /> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' class='chalgn'><p class="center"> ODES.</p></td> + <td /> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>To Pity</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#ODE_TO_PITY'>21</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>To Fear</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#ODE_TO_FEAR'>24</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>To Simplicity</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#ODE_TO_SIMPLICITY'>28</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>On the Poetical Character</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#ODE_ON_THE_POETICAL_CHARACTER'>31</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>Written in the Beginning of the Year 1746</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#ODE_WRITTEN_IN_THE_BEGINNING_OF_THE_YEAR_1746'>34</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>To Mercy</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#ODE_TO_MERCY'>35</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>To Liberty</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#ODE_TO_LIBERTY'>37</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>To a Lady, On the Death of Colonel Ross, written in May, 1745</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#ODE_TO_A_LADY_ON_THE_DEATH_OF_COLONEL_ROSS_IN_THE_ACTION_OF_FONTENOY___WRITTEN_IN_MAY_1745'>44</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>To Evening</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#ODE_TO_EVENING'>48</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>To Peace</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#ODE_TO_PEACE'>52</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>The Manners</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#THE_MANNERS_AN_ODE'>54</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>The Passions</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#THE_PASSIONS_AN_ODE_FOR_MUSIC'>58</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>On the Death of Thomson</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#ODE_ON_THE_DEATH_OF_THOMSON_THE_SCENE_IS_SUPPOSED_TO_LIE_ON_THE_THAMES_NEAR_RICHMOND'>63</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>On the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland; considered as the Subject of Poetry; inscribed to Mr. John Home</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#ODE_ON_THE_POPULAR_SUPERSTITIONS_OF_THE_HIGHLANDS_OF_SCOTLAND_CONSIDERED_AS_THE_SUBJECT_OF_POETRY_INSCRIBED_TO_MR_JOHN_HOME'>66</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>An Epistle, addressed to Sir Thomas Hanmer, on his Edition of Shakespeare’s Works</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#AN_EPISTLE_ADDRESSED_TO_SIR_THOMAS_HANMER_ON_HIS_EDITION_OF_SHAKESPEARES_WORKS'>78</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>Dirge in Cymbeline, sung by Guiderus and Arviragus over Fidele, supposed to be dead</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#DIRGE_IN_CYMBELINE_SUNG_BY_GUIDERUS_AND_ARVIRAGUS_OVER_FIDELE_SUPPOSED_TO_BE_DEAD'>87</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>Verses written on a Paper which contained a Piece of Bride-cake, given to the Author by a Lady</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#VERSES_WRITTEN_ON_A_PAPER_WHICH_CONTAINED_A_PIECE_OF_BRIDECAKE_GIVEN_TO_THE_AUTHOR_BY_A_LADY'>89</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>To Miss Aurelia C–––R, on her Weeping at her Sister’s Wedding</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#TO_MISS_AURELIA_CR_ON_HER_WEEPING_AT_HER_SISTERS_WEDDING'>91</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>Sonnet</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#SONNET'>91</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>Song. The Sentiments borrowed from Shakespeare</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#SONG_THE_SENTIMENTS_BORROWED_FROM_SHAKESPEARE'>92</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>On our late Taste in Music</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#ON_OUR_LATE_TASTE_IN_MUSIC'>94</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td /> + <td /> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>Observations on the Oriental Eclogues, by Dr. Langhorne</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#OBSERVATIONS_ON_THE_ORIENTAL_ECLOGUES_AND_ODES_BY_DR_LANGHORNE'>101</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>Observations on the Odes, by the same</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#OBSERVATIONS_ON_THE_ODES_DESCRIPTIVE_AND_ALLEGORICAL'>118</a></td> +</tr> +</table> +<hr class='pb' /> +<div class='chsp' style='padding-top:0'> +<a name='MEMOIR_OF_COLLINS' id='MEMOIR_OF_COLLINS'></a> +<h2>MEMOIR OF COLLINS.</h2> +</div> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p class='ralign'>“A Bard, </p> +<p>Who touched the tenderest notes of Pity’s lyre.”</p> +<p class='ralign'><span class='smcap'>Hayley.</span> </p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>No one can have reflected on the history of genius +without being impressed with a melancholy +feeling at the obscurity in which the lives of the +poets of our country are, with few exceptions, +involved. That they lived, and wrote, and died, +comprises nearly all that is known of many, and, +of others, the few facts which are preserved are +often records of privations, or sufferings, or errors. +The cause of the lamentable deficiency of materials +for literary biography may, without difficulty, +be explained. The lives of authors are seldom +marked by events of an unusual character; and +they rarely leave behind them the most interesting +work a writer could compose, and which +would embrace nearly all the important facts in +his career, a “History of his Books,” containing +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_vi' name='page_vi'></a>vi</span> +the motives which produced them, the various +incidents respecting their progress, and a faithful +account of the bitter disappointment, whether the +object was fame or profit, or both, which, in most +instances, is the result of his labours. Various +motives deter men from writing such a volume; +for, though quacks and charlatans readily become +auto-biographers, and fill their prefaces with their +personal concerns, real merit shrinks from such +disgusting egotism, and, flying to the opposite +extreme, leaves no authentic notice of their struggles, +its hopes, or its disappointments. Nor is +the history of writers to be expected from their +contemporaries; because few will venture to anticipate +the judgment of posterity, and mankind +are usually so isolated in self, and so jealous of +others, that neither time nor inclination admits of +their becoming the Boswells of all those whose +productions excite admiration.</p> +<p>If these remarks be true, surprise cannot be felt, +though there is abundance of cause for regret, +that little is known of a poet whose merits were +not appreciated until after his decease: whose +powers were destroyed by a distressing malady +at a period of life when literary exertions begin +to be rewarded and stimulated by popular applause.</p> +<p>For the facts contained in the following Memoir +of Collins, the author is indebted to the +researches of others, as his own, which were +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_vii' name='page_vii'></a>vii</span> +very extensive, were rewarded by trifling discoveries. +Dr. Johnson’s Life is well known; but +the praise of collecting every particular which +industry and zeal could glean belongs to the +Rev. Alexander Dyce, the result of whose inquiries +may be found in his notes to Johnson’s +Memoir, prefixed to an edition of Collins’s works +which he lately edited. Those notices are now, +for the first time, wove into a Memoir of Collins; +and in leaving it to another to erect a +fabric out of the materials which he has collected +instead of being himself the architect, Mr. Dyce +has evinced a degree of modesty which those who +know him must greatly lament.</p> +<hr class='invis' /> +<p><span class='smcap'>William Collins</span> was born at Chichester, +on the 25th of December, 1721, and was baptized +in the parish church of St. Peter the Great, +alias Subdeanery in that city, on the first of the +following January. He was the son of William +Collins, who was then the Mayor of Chichester, +where he exercised the trade of a hatter, and +lived in a respectable manner. His mother was +Elizabeth, the sister of a Colonel Martyn, to whose +bounty the poet was deeply indebted.</p> +<p>Being destined for the church, young Collins +was admitted a scholar of Winchester College on +the 19th of January, 1733, where he was educated +by Dr. Burton; and in 1740 he stood first +on the list of scholars who were to be received at +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_viii' name='page_viii'></a>viii</span> +New College. No vacancy, however, occurred, +and the circumstance is said by Johnson to have +been the original misfortune of his life. He became +a commoner of Queen’s,<a name='FNanchor_0001' id='FNanchor_0001'></a><a href='#Footnote_0001' class='fnanchor'>[1]</a> whence, on the +29th of July, 1741, he was elected a demy of +Magdalen College. During his stay at Queen’s +he was distinguished for genius and indolence, +and the few exercises which he could be induced +to write bear evident marks of both qualities. +He continued at Oxford until he took his bachelor’s +degree, and then suddenly left the University, +his motive, as he alleged, being that he +missed a fellowship, for which he offered himself; +but it has been assigned to his disgust at the +dulness of a college life, and to his being involved +in debt.</p> +<p>On arriving in London, which was either in 1743 +or 1744, he became, says Johnson, “a literary +adventurer, with many projects in his head and +very little money in his pocket.” Collins was not +without some reputation as an author when he +proposed to adopt the most uncertain and deplorable +of all professions, that of literature, for +a subsistence. Whilst at Winchester school he +wrote his Eclogues, and had appeared before the +public in some verses addressed to a lady weeping +at her sister’s marriage, which were printed in the +Gentleman’s Magazine, Oct. 1739, when Collins +was in his eighteenth year. In January, 1742, +he published his Eclogues, under the title of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_ix' name='page_ix'></a>ix</span> +“Persian Eclogues;”<a name='FNanchor_0002' id='FNanchor_0002'></a><a href='#Footnote_0002' class='fnanchor'>[2]</a> and, in December, 1743, +his “Verses to Sir Thomas Hanmer on his Edition +of Shakespeare,” appeared. To neither did +he affix his name, but the latter was said to be +by “a Gentleman of Oxford.”</p> +<p>From the time he settled in London, his mind +was more occupied with literary projects than +with steady application; nor had poesy, for +which Nature peculiarly designed him, sufficient +attractions to chain his wavering disposition. It +is not certain whether his irresolution arose from +the annoyance of importunate debtors, or from +an original infirmity of mind, or from these causes +united. A popular writer<a name='FNanchor_0003' id='FNanchor_0003'></a><a href='#Footnote_0003' class='fnanchor'>[3]</a> has defended Collins +from the charge of irresolution, on the ground +that it was but “the vacillations of a mind broken +and confounded;” and he urges, that “he +had exercised too constantly the highest faculties +of fiction, and precipitated himself into the dreariness +of real life.” But this explanation does +not account for the want of steadiness which prevented +Collins from accomplishing the objects he +meditated. His mind was neither “broken nor +confounded,” nor had he experienced the bitter +pangs of neglect, when with the buoyancy of hope, +and a full confidence in his extraordinary powers, +he threw himself on the town, at the age of twenty-three, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_x' name='page_x'></a>x</span> +intending to live by the exercise of his +talents; but his indecision was then as apparent +as at any subsequent period, so that, in truth, +the effect preceded the cause to which it has +been assigned.</p> +<p>Mankind are becoming too much accustomed +to witness splendid talents and great firmness of +mind united in the same person to partake the +mistaken sympathy which so many writers evince +for the follies or vices of genius; nor will it +much longer tolerate the opinion, that the possession +of the finest imagination, or the highest +poetic capacity, must necessarily be accompanied +by eccentricity. It may, indeed, be difficult to +convert a poetical temperament into a merchant, +or to make the man who is destined to delight or +astonish mankind by his conceptions, sit quietly +over a ledger; but the transition from poetry to +the composition of such works as Collins planned +is by no means unnatural, and the abandonment +of his views respecting them must, in justice to +his memory, be attributed to a different cause.</p> +<p>The most probable reason is, that these works +were mere speculations to raise money, and that +the idea was not encouraged by the booksellers; +but if, as Johnson, who knew Collins well, asserts, +his character wanted decision and perseverance, +these defects may have been constitutional, and +were, perhaps, the germs of the disease which too +soon ripened into the most frightful of human +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xi' name='page_xi'></a>xi</span> +calamities. Endued with a morbid sensibility, +which was as ill calculated to court popularity as +to bear neglect; and wanting that stoical indifference +to the opinions of the many, which ought +to render those who are conscious of the value of +their productions satisfied with the approbation of +the few; Collins was too impatient of applause, +and too anxious to attain perfection, to be a voluminous +writer. To plan much rather than to execute +any thing; to commence to-day an ode, to-morrow +a tragedy, and to turn on the following +morning to a different subject, was the chief occupation +of his life for several years, during +which time he destroyed the principal part of the +little that he wrote. To a man nearly pennyless, +such a life must be attended by privations and +danger; and he was in the hands of bailiffs, +possibly not for the first time, very shortly before +he became independent by the death of his maternal +uncle, Colonel Martyn. The result proved +that his want of firmness and perseverance was +natural, and did not arise from the uncertainty +or narrowness of his fortune; for being rescued +from imprisonment, on the credit of a translation +of Aristotle’s Poetics, which he engaged to furnish +a publisher, a work, it may be presumed, peculiarly +suited to his genius, he no sooner found +himself in the possession of money by the death +of his relative, than he repaid the bookseller, and +abandoned the translation for ever.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xii' name='page_xii'></a>xii</span></div> +<p>From the commencement of his career, Collins +was, however, an object for sympathy instead of +censure; and though few refuse their compassion +to the confirmed lunatic, it is rare that the +dreadful state of irresolution and misery, which +sometimes exist for years before the fatal catastrophe, +receives either pity or indulgence.</p> +<p>In 1747, Collins published his Odes, to the +unrivaled splendour of a few of which he is +alone indebted for his fame; but neither fame +nor profit was the immediate result; and the +author of the Ode on the Passions had little +reason to expect, from its reception by the +public, that it was destined to live as long as +the passions themselves animate or distract the +world.</p> +<p>It is uncertain at what time he undertook to +publish a volume of Odes in conjunction with +Joseph Warton, but the intention is placed beyond +dispute by the following letter from Warton +to his brother. It is without a date, but it +must have been written before the publication of +Collins’s Odes in 1747, and before the appearance +of Dodsley’s Museum,<a name='FNanchor_0004' id='FNanchor_0004'></a><a href='#Footnote_0004' class='fnanchor'>[4]</a> as it is evident the +Ode to a Lady on the Death of Colonel Ross, +which was inserted in that work, was not then in +print.</p> +<blockquote> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xiii' name='page_xiii'></a>xiii</span></div> +<p>“<span class='smcap'>Dear Tom</span>,</p> +<p>“You will wonder to see my name in an advertisement +next week, so I thought I would apprise +you of it. The case was this. Collins met me in +Surrey, at Guildford races, when I wrote out for +him my odes, and he likewise communicated +some of his to me; and being both in very high +spirits, we took courage, resolved to join our +forces, and to publish them immediately. I flatter +myself that I shall lose no honor by this +publication, because I believe these odes, as they +now stand, are infinitely the best things I ever +wrote. You will see a very pretty one of Collins’s, +on the Death of Colonel Ross before Tournay. +It is addressed to a lady who was Ross’s +intimate acquaintance, and who, by the way, is +Miss Bett Goddard. Collins is not to publish +the odes unless he gets ten guineas for them. I +returned from Milford last night, where I left +Collins with my mother and sister, and he sets +out to-day for London. I must now tell you, +that I have sent him your imitation of Horace’s +Blandusian Fountain, to be printed amongst +ours, and which you shall own or not, as you +think proper. I would not have done this without +your consent, but because I think it very +poetically and correctly done, and will get you +honour. You will let me know what the Oxford +critics say. Adieu, dear Tom,</p> +<p class='ralign'>“I am your most affectionate brother,<span class='rindent4'> </span><br /> +“<span class='smcap'>J. Warton</span>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xiv' name='page_xiv'></a>xiv</span></div> +<p>Like so many of Collins’s projects this was +not executed; but the reason of its failure is unknown.</p> +<p>On the death of Thomson, in August, 1748, +Collins wrote an ode to his memory, which is no +less remarkable for its beauty as a composition, +than for its pathetic tenderness as a memorial of +a friend.</p> +<p>The Poet’s pecuniary difficulties were removed +in 1749, by the death of his maternal uncle, +Lieutenant-Colonel Edmund Martyn, who, after +bequeathing legacies to some other relations, +ordered the residue of his real and personal +estate to be divided between his nephew William +Collins, and his nieces Elizabeth and Anne Collins, +and appointed the said Elizabeth his executrix, +who proved her uncle’s will on the 30th of +May, 1749. Collins’s share was, it is said, about +two thousand pounds; and, as has been already +observed, the money came most opportunely: a +greater calamity even than poverty, however, +shortly afterwards counterbalanced his good fortune; +but the assertion of the writer in the Gentleman’s +Magazine, that his mental aberration +arose from his having squandered this legacy, +appears to be unfounded.</p> +<p>One, and but one, letter of Collins’s has ever +been printed; nor has a careful inquiry after +others been successful. It is of peculiar interest, +as it proves that he wrote an Ode on the Music +of the Grecian Theatre, but which is unfortunately +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xv' name='page_xv'></a>xv</span> +lost. The honour to which he alludes was +the setting his Ode on the Passions to music.</p> +<blockquote> +<p class='center'>“<span class='smcap'>TO DR. WILLIAM HAYES, PROFESSOR OF +MUSIC, OXFORD.</span></p> +<p>“<span class='smcap'>Sir</span>,</p> +<p>“<span class='smcap'>Mr. Blackstone</span> of Winchester some time +since informed me of the honour you had done +me at Oxford last summer; for which I return +you my sincere thanks. I have another more +perfect copy of the ode; which, had I known +your obliging design, I would have communicated +to you. Inform me by a line, if you should +think one of my better judgment acceptable. In +such case I could send you one written on a +nobler subject; and which, though I have been +persuaded to bring it forth in London, I think +more calculated for an audience in the university. +The subject is the Music of the Grecian Theatre; +in which I have, I hope naturally, introduced the +various characters with which the chorus was +concerned, as Œdipus, Medea, Electra, Orestes, +etc. etc. The composition too is probably more +correct, as I have chosen the ancient tragedies +for my models, and only copied the most affecting +passages in them.</p> +<p>“In the mean time, you would greatly oblige +me by sending the score of the last. If you can +get it written, I will readily answer the expense. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xvi' name='page_xvi'></a>xvi</span> +If you send it with a copy or two of the ode (as +printed at Oxford) to Mr. Clarke, at Winchester, +he will forward it to me here. I am, Sir,</p> +<p class='ralign'>“With great respect,<span class='rindent8'> </span><br /> +“Your obliged humble servant,<span class='rindent4'> </span><br /> +“<span class='smcap'>William Collins</span>.</p> +<p class='smaller'>“Chichester, Sussex, November 8, 1750.”</p> +<p>“P. S. Mr. Clarke past some days here while +Mr. Worgan was with me; from whose friendship, +I hope, he will receive some advantage.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Soon after this period, the disease which had +long threatened to destroy Collins’s intellects +assumed a more decided character; but for some +time the unhappy poet was the only person who +was sensible of the approaching calamity. A +visit to France was tried in vain; and when Johnson +called upon him, on his return, an incident +occurred which proves that Collins wisely sought +for consolation against the coming wreck of his +faculties, from a higher and more certain source +than mere human aid. Johnson says, “he paid +him a visit at Islington, where he was then +waiting for his sister, whom he had directed +to meet him: there was then nothing of disorder +discernible in his mind by any but himself; but +he had withdrawn from study, and travelled with +no other book than an English Testament, such +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xvii' name='page_xvii'></a>xvii</span> +as children carry to the school: when his friend +took it into his hand, out of curiosity to see what +companion a man of letters had chosen, ‘I have +but one book,’ said Collins, ‘but that is the +best.’”</p> +<p>To this circumstance Hayley beautifully alludes +in his epitaph on him:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>He, “in reviving reason’s lucid hours,</p> +<p>Sought on <i>one</i> book his troubled mind to rest,</p> +<p>And rightly deem’d the Book of God the best.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>A journey to Bath proved as useless as the one +to France; and in 1754, he went to Oxford for +change of air and amusement, where he stayed a +month. It was on this occasion that a friend, +whose account of him will be given at length, saw +him in a distressing state of restraint under the +walls of Merton College. From the paucity of +information respecting Collins, the following letters +are extremely valuable; and though the +statements are those of his friends, they may be +received without suspicion of partiality, because +they are free from the high colouring by which +friendship sometimes perverts truth.</p> +<p>The first of the letters in question was printed +in the Gentleman’s Magazine:</p> +<blockquote> +<p class='ralign'>“Jan. 20, 1781.</p> +<p>“<span class='smcap'>Mr. Urban</span>,</p> +<p>“<span class='smcap'>William Collins</span>, the poet, I was intimately +acquainted with, from the time that he came to +reside at Oxford. He was the son of a tradesman +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xviii' name='page_xviii'></a>xviii</span> +in the city of Chichester, I think a hatter; +and being sent very young to Winchester school, +was soon distinguished for his early proficiency, +and his turn for elegant composition. About the +year 1740, he came off from that seminary first +upon roll,<a name='FNanchor_0005' id='FNanchor_0005'></a><a href='#Footnote_0005' class='fnanchor'>[5]</a> and was entered a commoner of +Queen’s college. There, no vacancy offering for +New College, he remained a year or two, and +then was chosen demy of Magdalen college; +where, I think, he took a degree. As he brought +with him, for so the whole turn of his conversation +discovered, too high an opinion of his school +acquisitions, and a sovereign contempt for all +academic studies and discipline, he never looked +with any complacency on his situation in the +university, but was always complaining of the +dulness of a college life. In short, he threw up +his demyship, and, going to London, commenced +a man of the town, spending his time in all the +dissipation of Ranelagh, Vauxhall, and the playhouses; +and was romantic enough to suppose +that his superior abilities would draw the attention +of the great world, by means of whom he +was to make his fortune.</p> +<p>“In this pleasurable way of life he soon wasted +his little property, and a considerable legacy left +him by a maternal uncle, a colonel in the army, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xix' name='page_xix'></a>xix</span> +to whom the nephew made a visit in Flanders +during the war. While on his tour he wrote +several entertaining letters to his Oxford friends, +some of which I saw. In London I met him +often, and remember he lodged in a little house +with a Miss Bundy, at the corner of King’s-square-court, +Soho, now a warehouse, for a long +time together. When poverty overtook him, +poor man, he had too much sensibility of temper +to bear with misfortunes, and so fell into a +most deplorable state of mind. How he got +down to Oxford, I do not know; but I myself saw +him under Merton wall, in a very affecting situation, +struggling, and conveyed by force, in the +arms of two or three men, towards the parish of +St. Clement, in which was a house that took in +such unhappy objects: and I always understood, +that not long after he died in confinement; but +when, or where, or where he was buried, I never +knew.</p> +<p>“Thus was lost to the world this unfortunate +person, in the prime of life, without availing himself +of fine abilities, which, properly improved, +must have raised him to the top of any profession, +and have rendered him a blessing to his +friends, and an ornament to his country.</p> +<p>“Without books, or steadiness and resolution +to consult them if he had been possessed of any, +he was always planning schemes for elaborate +publications, which were carried no further than +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xx' name='page_xx'></a>xx</span> +the drawing up proposals for subscriptions, some +of which were published; and in particular, as +far as I remember, one for ‘a History of the +Darker Ages.’</p> +<p>“He was passionately fond of music; good-natured +and affable; warm in his friendships, and +visionary in his pursuits; and, as long as I knew +him, very temperate in his eating and drinking. +He was of moderate stature, of a light and clear +complexion, with gray eyes, so very weak at times +as hardly to bear a candle in the room; and often +raising within him apprehensions of blindness.</p> +<p>“With an anecdote respecting him, while he +was at Magdalen College, I shall close my letter. +It happened one afternoon, at a tea visit, that +several intelligent friends were assembled at his +rooms to enjoy each other’s conversation, when +in comes a member of a certain college,<a name='FNanchor_0006' id='FNanchor_0006'></a><a href='#Footnote_0006' class='fnanchor'>[6]</a> as remarkable +at that time for his brutal disposition +as for his good scholarship; who, though he met +with a circle of the most peaceable people in the +world, was determined to quarrel; and, though +no man said a word, lifted up his foot and kicked +the tea-table, and all its contents, to the other +side of the room. Our poet, though of a warm +temper, was so confounded at the unexpected +downfall, and so astonished at the unmerited +insult, that he took no notice of the aggressor, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xxi' name='page_xxi'></a>xxi</span> +but getting up from his chair calmly, he began +picking up the slices of bread and butter, and +the fragments of his china, repeating very mildly,</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p class='smaller'>Invenias etiam disjecti membra poetæ.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p class='ralign'>“I am your very humble servant,<span class='rindent4'> </span><br /> +“V.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The next letter was found among the papers of +Mr. William Hymers, of Queen’s College, Oxford, +who was preparing a new edition of the works of +the poet for publication, when death prevented +the completion of his design.</p> +<blockquote> +<p class='smaller ralign'>“Hill Street, Richmond in Surrey, July, 1783.</p> +<p>“<span class='smcap'>Sir</span>,</p> +<p>“Your favour of the 30th June I did not receive +till yesterday. The person who has the care of +my house in Bond Street, expecting me there +every day, did not send it to Richmond, or I +would have answered sooner. As you express a +wish to know every particular, however trifling, +relating to Mr. William Collins, I will endeavour, +so far as can be done by a letter, to satisfy you. +There are many little anecdotes, which tell well +enough in conversation, but would be tiresome for +you to read, or me to write, so shall pass them +over. I had formerly several scraps of his poetry, +which were suddenly written on particular occasions. +These I lent among our acquaintance, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xxii' name='page_xxii'></a>xxii</span> +who were never civil enough to return them; and +being then engaged in extensive business, I forgot +to ask for them, and they are lost: all I have remaining +of his are about twenty lines, which +would require a little history to be understood, +being written on trifling subjects. I have a few +of his letters, the subjects of which are chiefly +on business, but I think there are in them some +flights, which strongly mark his character; for +which reason I preserved them. There are so +few of his intimates now living, that I believe I +am the only one who can give a true account of +his family and connexions. The principal part of +what I write is from my own knowledge, or what +I have heard from his nearest relations.</p> +<p>“His father was not the manufacturer of hats, +but the vender. He lived in a genteel style at +Chichester; and, I think, filled the office of +mayor more than once; he was pompous in his +manner; but, at his death, he left his affairs +rather embarrassed. Colonel Martyn, his wife’s +brother, greatly assisted his family, and supported +Mr. William Collins at the university, +where he stood for a fellowship, which, to his +great mortification, he lost, and which was his +reason for quitting that place, at least that was +his pretext. But he had other reasons: he was +in arrears to his bookseller, his tailor, and other +tradesmen. But, I believe, a desire to partake +of the dissipation and gaiety of London was his +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xxiii' name='page_xxiii'></a>xxiii</span> +principal motive. Colonel Martyn was at this +time with his regiment; and Mr. Payne, a near +relation, who had the management of the colonel’s +affairs, had likewise a commission to supply +the Collinses with small sums of money. The +colonel was the more sparing in this order, having +suffered considerably by Alderman Collins, who +had formerly been his agent, and, forgetting that +his wife’s brother’s cash was not his own, had applied +it to his own use. When Mr. William Collins +came from the university, he called on his cousin +Payne, gaily dressed, and with a feather in his hat; +at which his relation expressed surprise, and told +him his appearance was by no means that of a +young man who had not a single guinea he could +call his own. This gave him great offence; but +remembering his sole dependence for subsistence +was in the power of Mr. Payne, he concealed his +resentment; yet could not refrain from speaking +freely behind his back, and saying ‘he thought +him a d–––d dull fellow;’ though, indeed, this +was an epithet he was pleased to bestow on every +one who did not think as he would have them. +His frequent demands for a supply obliged Mr. +Payne to tell him he must pursue some other +line of life, for he was sure Colonel Martyn would +be displeased with him for having done so much. +This resource being stopped, forced him to set +about some work, of which his ‘History of the +Revival of Learning’ was the first; and for +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xxiv' name='page_xxiv'></a>xxiv</span> +which he printed proposals (one of which I have), +and took the first subscription money from many +of his particular friends: the work was begun, +but soon stood still. Both Dr. Johnson and +Mr. Langhorne are mistaken when they say, the +‘Translation of Aristotle’ was never begun: I +know the contrary, for some progress was made +in both, but most in the latter. From the freedom +subsisting between us, we took the liberty of +saying any thing to each other. I one day reproached +him with idleness; when, to convince +me my censure was unjust, he showed me many +sheets of his ‘Translation of Aristotle,’ which he +said he had so fully employed himself about, as +to prevent him calling on many of his friends so +frequently as he used to do. Soon after this he +engaged with Mr. Manby, a bookseller on Ludgate +Hill, to furnish him with some Lives for +the Biographia Britannica, which Manby was +then publishing. He showed me some of the +lives in embryo; but I do not recollect that any +of them came to perfection. To raise a present +subsistence he set about writing his odes; and, +having a general invitation to my house, he frequently +passed whole days there, which he employed +in writing them, and as frequently burning +what he had written, after reading them to me: +many of them, which pleased me, I struggled to +preserve, but without effect; for, pretending he +would alter them, he got them from me, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xxv' name='page_xxv'></a>xxv</span> +thrust them into the fire. He was an acceptable +companion every where; and, among the gentlemen +who loved him for a genius, I may reckon +the Doctors Armstrong, Barrowby, and Hill, +Messrs. Quin, Garrick, and Foote, who frequently +took his opinion on their pieces before they were +seen by the public. He was particularly noticed +by the geniuses who frequented the Bedford and +Slaughter’s Coffee Houses. From his knowledge +of Garrick he had the liberty of the scenes and +green-room, where he made diverting observations +on the vanity and false consequence of that +class of people; and his manner of relating them +to his particular friends was extremely entertaining. +In this manner he lived, with and upon +his friends, until the death of Colonel Martyn, +who left what fortune he died possessed of unto +him and his two sisters. I fear I cannot be certain +as to dates, but believe he left the university +in the year 43. Some circumstances I +recollect, make me almost certain he was in +London that year; but I will not be so certain +of the time he died, which I did not hear of till +long after it happened. When his health and +faculties began to decline, he went to France, +and after to Bath, in hope his health might be +restored, but without success. I never saw him +after his sister removed him from M’Donald’s +madhouse at Chelsea to Chichester, where he +soon sunk into a deplorable state of idiotism, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xxvi' name='page_xxvi'></a>xxvi</span> +which, when I was told, shocked me exceedingly; +and, even now, the remembrance of a +man for whom I had a particular friendship, and +in whose company I have passed so many pleasant +happy hours, gives me a severe shock. +Since it is in consequence of your own request, +Sir, that I write this long farrago, I expect you +will overlook all inaccuracies. I am, Sir,</p> +<p class='ralign'>“Your very humble servant,<span class='rindent4'> </span><br /> +“<span class='smcap'>John Ragsdale</span>.</p> +<p class='smaller'>“Mr. William Hymers, Queen’s College, Oxford.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The following communication, by Thomas Warton, +was also found among the papers of Mr. +Hymers. A few passages, concerning various +readings, are omitted.</p> +<blockquote> +<p>“I often saw Collins in London in 1750. +This was before his illness. He then told me +of his intended History of the Revival of +Learning, and proposed a scheme of a review, +to be called the Clarendon Review, and to be +printed at the university press, under the conduct +and authority of the university. About Easter, +the next year, I was in London; when, being +given over, and supposed to be dying, he desired +to see me, that he might take his last leave of +me; but he grew better; and in the summer he +sent me a letter on some private business, which +I have now by me, dated Chichester, June 9, +1751, written in a fine hand, and without the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xxvii' name='page_xxvii'></a>xxvii</span> +least symptom of a disordered or debilitated understanding. +In 1754, he came to Oxford for +change of air and amusement, where he stayed a +month; I saw him frequently, but he was so +weak and low, that he could not bear conversation. +Once he walked from his lodgings, opposite +Christ Church, to Trinity College, but +supported by his servant. The same year, in +September, I and my brother visited him at Chichester, +where he lived, in the cathedral cloisters, +with his sister. The first day he was in high +spirits at intervals, but exerted himself so much +that he could not see us the second. Here he +showed us an Ode to Mr. John Home, on his +leaving England for Scotland, in the octave stanza, +very long, and beginning,</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>Home, thou return’st from Thames.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>I remember there was a beautiful description of +the spectre of a man drowned in the night, or, in +the language of the old Scotch superstitions, +seized by the angry spirit of the waters, appearing +to his wife with pale blue cheek, &c. Mr. +Home has no copy of it. He also showed us +another ode, of two or three four-lined stanzas, +called the Bell of Arragon; on a tradition that, +anciently, just before the king of Spain died, the +great bell of the cathedral of Sarragossa, in Arragon, +tolled spontaneously. It began thus:</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xxviii' name='page_xxviii'></a>xxviii</span></div> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>The bell of Arragon, they say,</p> +<p>Spontaneous speaks the fatal day.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>Soon afterwards were these lines:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>Whatever dark aerial power,</p> +<p>Commission’d, haunts the gloomy tower.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>The last stanza consisted of a moral transition to +his own death and knell, which he called ‘some +simpler bell.’ I have seen all his odes already +published in his own handwriting; they had the +marks of repeated correction: he was perpetually +changing his epithets. Dr. Warton, my brother, +has a few fragments of some other odes, but +too loose and imperfect for publication, yet containing +traces of high imagery.</p> +<p>“In illustration of what Dr. Johnson has related, +that during his last malady he was a great +reader of the Bible, I am favoured with the following +anecdote from the Reverend Mr. Shenton, +Vicar of St. Andrews, at Chichester, by whom +Collins was buried: ‘Walking in my vicaral garden +one Sunday evening, during Collins’s last +illness, I heard a female (the servant, I suppose) +reading the Bible in his chamber. Mr. Collins +had been accustomed to rave much, and make +great moanings; but while she was reading, or +rather attempting to read, he was not only silent +but attentive likewise, correcting her mistakes, +which indeed were very frequent, through the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xxix' name='page_xxix'></a>xxix</span> +whole of the twenty-seventh chapter of Genesis.’ +I have just been informed, from undoubted authority, +that Collins had finished a Preliminary +Dissertation to be prefixed to his History of the +Restoration of Learning, and that it was written +with great judgment, precision, and knowledge of +the subject.</p> +<p class='ralign'>“T. W.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The overthrow of Collins’s mind was too complete +for it to be restored by variety of scene or +the attentions of friendship. Thomas Warton +describes him as being in a weak and low condition, +and unable to bear conversation, when he +saw him at Oxford. He was afterwards confined +in a house for the insane at Chelsea; but before +September, 1754, he was removed to Chichester, +under the care of his sister, where he was +visited by the two Wartons. At this time his +spirits temporarily rallied; and he adverted with +delight to literature, showing his guest the Ode +to Mr. Home on his leaving England for Scotland. +During Collins’s illness Johnson was a frequent +inquirer after his health, and those inquiries were +made with a degree of feeling which, as he himself +hints, may have partly arisen from the dread +he entertained lest he might be the victim of a +similar calamity. The following extracts are +from letters addressed to Joseph Warton:</p> +<blockquote> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xxx' name='page_xxx'></a>xxx</span></div> +<p class='ralign'>“March 8, 1754.</p> +<p>“But how little can we venture to exult in any +intellectual powers or literary attainments, when +we consider the condition of poor Collins. I +knew him a few years ago, full of hopes and full +of projects, versed in many languages, high in +fancy, and strong in retention. This busy and +forcible mind is now under the government of +those who lately would not have been able to +comprehend the least and most narrow of its designs. +What do you hear of him? are there +hopes of his recovery? or is he to pass the +remainder of his life in misery and degradation? +perhaps with complete consciousness of his calamity.”</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote> +<p class='ralign'>“December 24, 1754.</p> +<p>“Poor dear Collins! Let me know whether +you think it would give him pleasure if I should +write to him. I have often been near his state, +and therefore have it in great commiseration.”</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote> +<p class='ralign'>“April 15, 1756.</p> +<p>“What becomes of poor dear Collins? I wrote +him a letter which he never answered. I suppose +writing is very troublesome to him. That man is +no common loss. The moralists all talk of the +uncertainty of fortune, and the transitoriness of +beauty; but it is yet more dreadful to consider +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xxxi' name='page_xxxi'></a>xxxi</span> +that the powers of the mind are equally liable to +change, that understanding may make its appearance +and depart, that it may blaze and +expire.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In this state of mental darkness did Collins +pass the last six or seven years of his existence, +in the house now occupied by Mr. Mason, a +bookseller in Chichester. His malady is described +by Johnson as being, not so much an alienation +of mind as a general laxity and feebleness of his +vital, rather than his intellectual, powers; but his +disorder seems, from other authorities, to have +been of a more violent nature. As he was never +married, he was indebted for protection and +kindness to his youngest sister; and death, the +only hope of the afflicted, came to his relief on +the 12th of June, 1759, in the thirty-ninth year +of his age, a period of life when the fervour of +imagination is generally chastened without being +subdued, and when all the mental powers are in +their fullest vigour. He was buried in the church +of St. Andrew, at Chichester, on the 15th of +June; and the admiration of the public for his +genius has been manifested by the erection of a +monument by Flaxman, to his memory, in the +Cathedral, which is thus described by Mr. Dallaway, +the historian of Sussex:</p> +<p>“Collins is represented as sitting in a reclining +posture, during a lucid interval of the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xxxii' name='page_xxxii'></a>xxxii</span> +afflicting malady to which he was subject, with a +calm and benign aspect, as if seeking refuge +from his misfortunes in the consolations of the +gospel, which appears open on a table before +him, whilst his lyre and one of his best compositions +lie neglected on the ground. Upon +the pediment of the table are placed two female +ideal figures in relief, representing love and pity, +entwined each in the arms of the other; the proper +emblems of the genius of his poetry.” It +bears the following epitaph from the pen of +Hayley:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Ye who the merits of the dead revere,</p> +<p>Who hold misfortune’s sacred genius dear,</p> +<p>Regard this tomb, where Collins, hapless name,</p> +<p>Solicits kindness with a double claim.</p> +<p>Though nature gave him, and though science taught</p> +<p>The fire of fancy, and the reach of thought,</p> +<p>Severely doom’d to penury’s extreme,</p> +<p>He pass’d in maddening pain life’s feverish dream,</p> +<p>While rays of genius only served to show</p> +<p>The thickening horror, and exalt his woe.</p> +<p>Ye walls that echo’d to his frantic moan,</p> +<p>Guard the due records of this grateful stone;</p> +<p>Strangers to him, enamour’d of his lays,</p> +<p>This fond memorial to his talents raise.</p> +<p>For this the ashes of a bard require,</p> +<p>Who touch’d the tenderest notes of pity’s lyre;</p> +<p>Who join’d pure faith to strong poetic powers;</p> +<p>Who, in reviving reason’s lucid hours,</p> +<p>Sought on one book his troubled mind to rest,</p> +<p>And rightly deem’d the book of God the best.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>Collins’s character has been portrayed by all +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xxxiii' name='page_xxxiii'></a>xxxiii</span> +his biographers in very agreeable colours. He +was amiable and virtuous, and was as much +courted for his popular manners as for the charms +of his conversation. The associate of Johnson, +Armstrong, Hill, Garrick, Quin, Foote, the two +Wartons, and Thomson, and the friend of several +of these eminent men, he must have possessed +many of the qualities by which they were distinguished; +for though an adviser may be chosen +from a very different class of persons, genius will +only herd with genius. Johnson has honoured +him by saying, that “his morals were pure and +his opinions pious;” and though he hints that +his habits were sometimes at variance with these +characteristics, he assigns the aberration to the +temptations of want, and the society into which +poverty sometimes drives the best disposed persons, +adding, that he “preserved the sources +of action unpolluted, that his principles were +never shaken, that his distinctions of right and +wrong were never confounded, and that his faults +had nothing of malignity or design, but proceeded +from some unexpected pressure or casual +temptation.” A higher eulogium, from so rigid +a moralist, could not be pronounced on a man +whose life was, for many years, unsettled and +perplexed; and those only who have experienced +the pressure of pecuniary necessities can be aware +of the difficulty of resisting meanness, or avoiding +vice, if not in the sense in which these terms are +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xxxiv' name='page_xxxiv'></a>xxxiv</span> +usually understood, at least in a sense to which +they may as properly be applied––that of refusing +to prostitute talents to purposes foreign to the +conviction and taste of their possessor.</p> +<p>On this mainly depend the annoyances and +dangers of him who seeks a subsistence from his +pen. The opinions which he may be desirous to +express, or the subject he may be capable of +illustrating, may not be popular, and the more +important or learned they be, the more likely is +such to be the case. Of course his labours would +be rejected by publishers, who cannot buy what +will not sell; hence no alternative remains but for +him to manufacture marketable commodities; and +when the <i>popular</i> taste of the present, as well as +of former times, is remembered, the degradation +to which a man of high intellect must often submit, +when he neglects that for which nature and +study peculiarly qualified him, for what is in +general demand, may be easily conceived. It is +not requisite to advert to the taste of the age +in which we live, farther than to allude to the +class of works which issues from the bazaars of +<i>fashionable</i> publishers, and to ask, when such +are alone in request, what would have been the +fate, had they lived in our own times, of Johnson, +Pope, Dryden, Addison, and the other ornaments +of the golden age of literature? But if even in +that age the Odes of Collins were too abstracted +from mundane feelings, too rich in imagery, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xxxv' name='page_xxxv'></a>xxxv</span> +too strongly marked by the fervour of inspiration +to be generally appreciated, his chance of being +so, by the public generally, is at this moment +less; and the only hope of his obtaining that +popularity to which he is unquestionably entitled, +is by placing his works within the reach of all, +and, more especially, by acquainting the multitude +with the opinion entertained of him, by those +whose judgments they have the sense to venerate, +since they are sometimes willing to receive, on the +credit of another, that which they have not themselves +the discrimination or feeling to perceive.</p> +<p>An anecdote is related of Collins which, if true, +proves that he felt the neglect with which his +Odes were treated with the indignation natural +to an enthusiastic temper. Having purchased +the unsold copies of the first edition from the +booksellers, he set fire to them with his own +hand, as if to revenge himself on the apathy and +ignorance of the public.</p> +<p>It is unnecessary to append to the Memoir of +Collins many observations on the character of his +poetry, because its peculiar beauties, and the +qualities by which it is distinguished, are described +with considerable force and eloquence by +Sir Egerton Brydges, in the Essay prefixed to +this edition. Campbell’s remarks on the same +subject cannot be forgotten; and other critics of +the highest reputation have concurred in ascribing +to Collins a conception and genius scarcely exceeded +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xxxvi' name='page_xxxvi'></a>xxxvi</span> +by any English poet. To say that Sir +Egerton Brydges’s Essay exaggerates the merit +of some of his productions may produce the retort +which has been made to Johnson’s criticism, that +he was too deficient in feeling to be capable of +appreciating the excellence of the pieces which +he censures. It is not, however, inconsistent +with a high respect for Collins, to ascribe every +possible praise to that unrivaled production, the +Ode to the Passions, to feel deeply the beauty, +the pathos, and the sublime conceptions of the +Odes to Evening, to Pity, to Simplicity, and a +few others, and yet to be sensible of the occasional +obscurity and imperfections of his imagery +in other pieces, to find it difficult to discover the +meaning of some passages, to think the opening +of four of his odes which commence with the +common-place invocation of “O thou,” and the +alliteration by which so many lines are disfigured, +blemishes too serious to be forgotten, unless the +judgment be drowned in the full tide of generous +and enthusiastic admiration of the great and extraordinary +beauties by which these faults are +more than redeemed.</p> +<p>That these defects are to be ascribed to haste +it would be uncandid to deny; but haste is no +apology for such faults in productions which +scarcely fill a hundred pages, and which their +author had ample opportunities to remove.</p> +<p>It may also be thought heterodoxy by the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xxxvii' name='page_xxxvii'></a>xxxvii</span> +band, which, if small in numbers, is distinguished +by taste, feeling, and genius, to concur in Collins’s +opinion, when he expressed himself dissatisfied +with his Eclogues; for, though they are not without +merit, it is very doubtful if they would have lived, +even till this time, but for the Odes with which +they are published, notwithstanding the zeal of +Dr. Langhorne, who is in raptures over passages +the excellence of which is not very conspicuous. +To give a preference to the Verses to Sir Thomas +Hanmer, of which all that Langhorne could find +to say is, “that the versification is easy and +genteel, and the allusions always poetical,” and +especially to the Ode addressed to Mr. Home, +on the superstition of the Highlands, over the +Eclogues, may possibly be deemed to betray a +corrupt taste, since it is an admission which is, it +is believed, made for the first time. In that Ode, +among a hundred other beautiful verses, the following +address to Tasso has seldom been surpassed:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Prevailing Poet! whose undoubting mind</p> +<p>Believed the magic wonders which he sung!</p> +<p>Hence, at each sound, imagination glows!</p> +<p>Hence, at each picture, vivid life starts here!</p> +<p>Hence, his warm lay with softest sweetness flows!</p> +<p>Melting it flows, pure, murmuring, strong, and clear,</p> +<p>And fills the impassion’d heart, and wins the harmonious ear!”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>The picture of the swain drowned in a fen, and +the grief of his widow, possessing every charm +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xxxviii' name='page_xxxviii'></a>xxxviii</span> +which simplicity and tenderness can bestow, and +give to that Ode claims to admiration which, if +admitted, have been hitherto conceded in silence.</p> +<p>From the coincidence between Collins’s love of, +and addresses to, Music, his residence at Oxford, +and from internal evidence, Some Verses on Our +Late Taste in Music, which appeared in the Gentleman’s +Magazine for 1740, and there said to +be “by a Gentleman of Oxford,” are printed in +this edition of Collins’s works, not, however, as +positively his, but as being so likely to be written +by him, as to justify their being brought to the +notice of his readers.</p> +<p>A poet, and not to have felt the tender passion, +would be a creature which the world has never +yet seen. It is said that Collins was extremely +fond of a young lady who was born the day +before him, and who did not return his affection; +and that, punning upon his misfortune, he observed, +“he came into the world a day after the +fair.” The lady is supposed to have been Miss +Elizabeth Goddard, the intended bride of Colonel +Ross, to whom he addressed his beautiful Ode on +the death of that Officer at the battle of Fontenoy, +at which time she was on a visit to the family of +the Earl of Tankerville, who then resided at Up-Park, +near Chichester, a place that overlooks the +little village of Harting, mentioned in the Ode.</p> +<p>Collins’s person was of the middle size and +well formed; of a light complexion, with gray, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xxxix' name='page_xxxix'></a>xxxix</span> +weak eyes. His mind was deeply imbued with +classical literature, and he understood the Italian, +French, and Spanish languages. He was well +read, and was particularly conversant with early +English writers, and to an ardent love of literature +he united, as is manifest from many of his +pieces, a passionate devotion to Music, that</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“–––Sphere-descended maid,</p> +<p>Friend of Pleasure, Wisdom’s aid.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>His family, which were very respectable, were +established at Chichester in the sixteenth century +as tradesmen of the higher order, and his immediate +ancestor was mayor of that city in 1619:<a name='FNanchor_0007' id='FNanchor_0007'></a><a href='#Footnote_0007' class='fnanchor'>[7]</a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xl' name='page_xl'></a>xl</span> +his mother’s relations appear to have been of a +superior condition in life.<a name='FNanchor_0008' id='FNanchor_0008'></a><a href='#Footnote_0008' class='fnanchor'>[8]</a> Collins lost his father +in 1734, and on the 5th of July, 1744, his mother +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xli' name='page_xli'></a>xli</span> +died. He was an only son: of his two sisters, +Elizabeth, the eldest, died unmarried, and Anne, +the youngest, who took care of him when he was +bereft of reason, married first Mr. Hugh Sempill, +who died in 1762, and secondly the Rev. +Dr. Thomas Durnford, and died at Chichester in +November, 1789. Her character is thus described +on the authority of Mr. Park: “The Reverend +Mr. Durnford, who resided at Chichester, and +was the son of Dr. Durnford, informed me, in +August, 1795, that the sister of Collins loved +money to excess, and evinced so outrageous an +aversion to her brother, because he squandered +or gave away to the boys in the cloisters whatever +money he had, that she destroyed, in a +paroxysm of resentment, all his papers, and +whatever remained of his enthusiasm for poetry, +as far as she could. Mr. Hayley told me, when +I visited him at Eartham, that he had obtained +from her a small drawing by Collins, but it possessed +no other value than as a memorial that +the bard had attempted to handle the pencil as +well as the pen.”<a name='FNanchor_0009' id='FNanchor_0009'></a><a href='#Footnote_0009' class='fnanchor'>[9]</a> That Mrs. Durnford was indifferent +to her brother’s fame, is stated by +others, and Sir Egerton Brydges, in his Essay, +has made some just observations on the circumstance.</p> +<p>This Memoir must not be closed without an +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xlii' name='page_xlii'></a>xlii</span> +expression of acknowledgment to the Bishop of +Hereford, to the President of Magdalen College, +to H. Gabell, Esq., and to I. Sanden, Esq., of +Chichester, for the desire which they were so +good as to manifest that this account of Collins +might be more satisfactory than it is; and if his +admirers consider that his present biographer has +not done sufficient justice to his memory, an antidote +to the injury will be found in the fervent +and unqualified admiration which Sir Egerton +Brydges has evinced for his genius.</p> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xliii' name='page_xliii'></a>xliii</span> +<a name='AN_ESSAY_ON_THE_GENIUS_AND_POEMS_OF_COLLINS__BY_SIR_EGERTON_BRYDGES__BART' id='AN_ESSAY_ON_THE_GENIUS_AND_POEMS_OF_COLLINS__BY_SIR_EGERTON_BRYDGES__BART'></a> +<h2>AN ESSAY ON THE GENIUS AND POEMS OF COLLINS.</h2> +<h3> BY SIR EGERTON BRYDGES,<br /> BART.</h3> +</div> +<p>Collins is the founder of a new school of poetry, +of a high class. It is true that, unless Buckhurst +and Spenser had gone before him, he could not +have written as he has done; yet he is an inventor +very distinct from both. He calls his odes descriptive +and allegorical; and this characterises +them truly, but too generally. The personification +of abstract qualities had never been so happily +executed before; the pure spirituality of the conception, +the elegance and force of the language, +the harmony and variety of the numbers, were +all executed with a felicity which none before or +since have reached. That these poems did not +at once captivate the public attention cannot be +accounted for by any cause hitherto assigned. +We may not wonder that the multitude did not +at once perceive their full beauties; but that, +among readers of taste and learning, there should +not have been found a sufficient number to set +the example of admiration, is very extraordinary. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xliv' name='page_xliv'></a>xliv</span> +In addition to all their other high merits, the +mere novelty of thought and manner were sufficient +to excite immediate notice. Nor was +there any thing in Collins’s station or character +to create prejudices against the probability that +beautiful effusions of genius might be struck out +by his hand. His education at the college of +Winchester, his fame at Oxford, his associates in +London, all were fair preludes to the production +of beautiful poetry. Indeed, he had already +produced beautiful poetry in his Oriental Eclogues, +four years before his Odes appeared. +These were, it is admitted, of a different cast +from his Odes, and of a gentleness and chastity +of thought and diction, which he himself was +conscious, some years afterwards, did not very +well represent the gorgeousness of eastern composition.</p> +<p>It was a crisis when there was a fair opening +for new candidates for the laurel. The uniformity +of Pope’s style began already to pall upon +the public ear. Thomson was indolent, and +Young eccentric; Gray had not yet appeared on +the stage; and Akenside’s metaphysical subject +and diffuse style were not calculated to engross +the general taste. Johnson had taken possession +of the field of satire, but there are too many +readers of enthusiastic mind to be satisfied with +satire. The pedantry and uncouthness of Walter +Harte had precluded him from ever being a favourite +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xlv' name='page_xlv'></a>xlv</span> +with the public; Shenstone had not yet +risen into fame; and Lyttelton was engrossed by +politics. When, therefore, Collins’s Odes appeared, +all speculation would have anticipated +that they must have been successful. But we +must recollect that they did not excite the admiration +of Johnson; and that Gray did not read +them with that unqualified approval which his +native taste would have inspired. This singularity +must be accounted for by other causes +than their want of merit.</p> +<p>The disappointment of Collins was so keen and +deep, that he not only burned the unsold copies +with his own hand, but soon fell into a melancholy +which ended in insanity. Many persons +have affected to comment on this result with an +unfeeling ignorance of human nature, and, more +especially, of fervid genius. It is, undoubtedly, +highly dangerous to give the entire reins to imagination; +the discipline of a constant exercise +of reason is not only salutary, but necessary. +But one can easily conceive how the indulgence +of that state of mind which produced Collins’s +Odes could end in an entire overthrow of the +intellect, when embittered by a defect of the +principal objects of his worldly ambition. He is +said to have been puffed up by a vanity which +prompted him to expect that all eyes would be +upon him, and all voices lifted in his praise. +Such was the conception of a vulgar observer of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xlvi' name='page_xlvi'></a>xlvi</span> +the human character. Why should it have been +vanity that prompted this hope? It was a consciousness +of merit, of those brilliant powers which +produced the Ode to the Passions! was ever a +voice content which sung to those who would not +hear, which was condemned</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“To waste its sweetness on the desert air?”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>Spenser’s power of personification is copious +beyond example; but it is seldom sufficiently +select; rich as it is in imagination, it too commonly +wants taste and delicacy; it has the fault +of coarseness, which Burke’s images in prose two +centuries afterwards, sometimes fell into. But +Collins’s images are as pure, and of as exquisite +delicacy, as they are spiritual. They are not +human beings invested with some of the attributes +of angels, but the whole figure is purely angelic, +and of a higher order of creation; in this they +are distinct even from the admirable personifications +of Gray, because they are less earthly. The +Ode to the Passions is, by universal consent, +the noblest of Collins’s productions, because it +exhibits a much more extended invention, not of +one passion only, but of all the passions combined, +acting, according to the powers of each, +to one end. The execution, also, is the happiest, +each particular passion is drawn with inimitable +force and compression. Let us take only <span class='smcap'>Fear</span> +and <span class='smcap'>Despair</span>, each dashed out in four lines, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xlvii' name='page_xlvii'></a>xlvii</span> +of which every word is like inspiration. Beautiful +as Spenser is, and sometimes sublime, yet +he redoubles his touches too much, and often +introduces some coarse feature or expression, +which destroys the spell. Spenser, indeed, has +other merits of splendid and inexhaustible invention, +which render it impossible to put Collins on +a par with him: but we must not estimate merit +by mere quantity: if a poet produces but one +short piece, which is perfect, he must be placed +according to its quality. And surely there is not +a single figure in Collins’s Ode to the Passions +which is not perfect, both in conception and +language. He has had many imitators, but no +one has ever approached him in his own department.</p> +<p>The Ode to Evening is, perhaps, the next in +point of merit. It is quite of a different cast; it +is descriptive of natural scenery; and such a +scene of enchanting repose was never exhibited +by Claude, or any other among the happiest of +painters. Though a mere verbal description can +never rival a fine picture in a mere address to the +material part of our nature, yet it far eclipses it +with those who have the endowment of a brilliant +fancy, because it gratifies their taste, selection, +and sentiment. Delightful, therefore, as it is to +look upon a Claude, it is more delightful to look +upon this description. It is vain to attempt to +analyse the charm of this Ode; it is so subtle, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xlviii' name='page_xlviii'></a>xlviii</span> +that it escapes analysis. Its harmony is so perfect, +that it requires no rhyme: the objects are +so happily chosen, and the simple epithets convey +ideas and feelings so congenial to each other, as to +throw the reader into the very mood over which +the personified being so beautifully designed presides. +No other poem on the same subject has +the same magic. It assuredly suggested some +images and a tone of expression to Gray in his +Elegy.</p> +<p>The Ode on the Poetical Character is here and +there a little involved and obscure; but its general +conception is magnificent, and beaming +that spirit of inventive enthusiasm, which alone +can cherish the poet’s powers, and bring forth +the due fruits. Collins never touched the lyre +but he was borne away by the inspiration under +which he laboured. The Dirge in Cymbeline, +the lines on Thomson, and the Ode on Colonel +Ross breathe such a beautiful simplicity of pathos, +and yet are so highly poetical and graceful in +every thought and tone, that, exquisitely polished +as they are, and without one superfluous or one +prosaic word, they never once betray the artifices +of composition. The extreme transparency of +the words and thoughts would induce a vulgar +reader to consider them trite, while they are the +expression of a genius so refined as to be all essence +of spirit. In Gray, excellent as he is, we +continually encounter the marks of labour and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_xlix' name='page_xlix'></a>xlix</span> +effort, and occasional crudeness, which shows +that effort had not always succeeded, such as +“iron hand and torturing hour;” but nothing of +this kind occurs in the principal poems of Collins. +There is a fire of mind which supersedes labour, +and produces what labour cannot. It has been +said that Collins is neither sublime nor pathetic; +but only ingenious and fanciful. The truth is, +that he was cast in the very mould of sublimity +and pathos. He lived in an atmosphere above +the earth, and breathed only in a visionary world. +He was conversant with nothing else, and this +must have been the secret by which he produced +compositions so entirely spiritual. He who has +daily intercourse with the world, and feels the +vulgar human passions, cannot be in a humour +to write poems which do not partake of earthly +coarseness.</p> +<p>It may be asked, <i>cui bono?</i> what is the moral +use of such poems as these? Whatever refines the +intellect improves the heart; whatever augments +and fortifies the spiritual part of our nature raises +us in the rank of created beings. And what +poems are more calculated to refine our intellect, +and increase our spirituality, than the poems of +Collins? To embody, in a brilliant manner, the +most beautiful abstractions, to put them into +action, and to add to them splendour, harmony, +strength, and purity of language, is to complete +a task as admirable for its use and its delight, as +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_l' name='page_l'></a>l</span> +it is difficult to be executed. No one can receive +the intellectual gratification which such works +are capable of producing without being the better +for it. The understanding was never yet roused +to the conception of such pure and abstract +thinking without an elevation of the whole nature +of the being so roused. The expression of subtle +and evanescent ideas, carried to its perfection, is +among the very noblest and most exalted studies +with which the human mind can be conversant.</p> +<p>It has been the fashion of our own age to beat +out works into twentyfold and fiftyfold the size +of those of Collins. I do not quarrel with that +fashion; each fashion has its use: and my own +taste induces me to perceive the value and many +attractions of long narrative poems, full of human +passions and practical wisdom. The matter is +more desirable than the workmanship; and much +of occasional carelessness in the language may +be forgiven, for fertility of natural and just +thought and interest of story. But this in no +degree diminishes the value of those gems, which, +though of the smallest size, comprehend perfections +of every kind. It is easier to work upon a +large field than a small one,––one where is</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Ample room and verge enough</p> +<p>The characters of hell to trace.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>But these diffuse productions are not calculated +to give the same sort of pleasure as the gems. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_li' name='page_li'></a>li</span> +How difficult was the path chosen by Collins is +sufficiently proved by the want of success of all +who have entered the same walk: Gray’s was +not the same, as I shall endeavour presently to +show. In the miscellany of Dodsley and other +collectors will be found numerous attempts at +Allegorical Odes: they are almost all nauseous +failures––without originality or distinctness of +conception; bald in their language, lame in their +numbers, and repulsive from their insipidity of +ideas.</p> +<p>Gray’s personifications can scarcely be called +allegorical, they have so much of humanity about +them. He dealt in all the noble and melancholy +feelings of the human heart: he never for +one moment forgot to be a moralist: he was +constantly under the influence of powerful sympathy +for the miseries of man’s life; and wrote +from the overflow of his bosom rather than of his +imagination. It is true that his imagination presented +the pictures to him; but it was his heart +which impelled him to speak. Take the Ode on +the Prospect of Eton College; there is not one +word which did not break from the bottom of +his heart. The multitude cannot enter into the +visionary world of Collins: all who have a spark +of virtuous human feelings can sympathize with +Gray. It is impossible to deny that of these two +beautiful poets Gray is the most instructive as a +moralist; but Gray is not so original as Collins, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_lii' name='page_lii'></a>lii</span> +not so inventive, not so perfect in his language, +and has not so much the fire and flow of inspiration.</p> +<p>When Collins is spoken of as one of the <i>minor</i> +poets, it is a sad misapplication of the term. +Unless he be minor because the number and size +of his poems is small, no one is less a minor +poet. In him every word is poetry, and poetry +either sublime or pathetic. He does not rise to +the sublimity of Milton or Dante, or reach the +graceful tenderness of Petrarch; but he has a +visionary invention of his own, to which there is +no rival. As long as the language lasts, every +richly gifted and richly cultivated mind will read +him with intense and wondering rapture; and +will not cease to entertain the conviction, from +his example, if from no other, that true poetry of +the higher orders is real inspiration.</p> +<p>It will occur to many readers, on perusing these +passages of exalted praise, that Johnson has +spoken of Collins in a very different manner. +Almost fifty years have elapsed since Johnson’s +final criticism on him appeared in his Lives of +the Poets. It disgusted me so much at the time, +and the disgust continued so violent, that for a +long period it blinded me to all his stupendous +merits, because it evinced not only bad taste +but unamiable feelings. I cannot yet either +justify it, or account for it. He speaks of Collins +having sought for splendour without attaining +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_liii' name='page_liii'></a>liii</span> +it––of clogging his lines with consonants, and of +mistaking inversion of language for poetry. Not +one of these faults belongs to Collins. In almost +all his poems the words follow their natural order, +and are mellifluous beyond those of almost any +other verse writer. If the Passions are not described +with splendour, there is no such thing as +splendour. If the beauties which he sought and +attained are unnatural and extravagant, then the +tests of correctness and good taste which have +been hitherto set up must be abandoned.</p> +<p>This severe criticism is the more extraordinary +because Johnson professed a warm personal +friendship for Collins; he professes admiration +of his talents, learning, and taste, as well as +of his disposition and heart, and speaks of his +afflicting ill health with a passionate tenderness +which has seldom been equalled in beauty, pathos, +and force of language. That he could love +him personally with such fondness, but be blind +to his splendid and unrivaled genius, is utterly +beyond my power to account for. Who can say +that Johnson wanted taste when we read his +sublime and acute criticisms on Milton, Dryden, +and Pope? Was it that he roused all the faculties +of his judgment when he spoke of these +great men of past times; yet, that when he +descended to his contemporaries, he indulged his +feelings rather than his intellect, and suffered +himself to be overcome by the evil passions of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_liv' name='page_liv'></a>liv</span> +envy and contempt? His natural taste was, probably, +not the best; when his criticisms were +perfect he had tasked his intellect rather than his +feelings. He was a man of general wisdom and +undoubted genius, but not a very nice scholar, +and he prided himself upon his every-day sense, +his practical knowledge, rather than those visionary +musings which he thought a dangerous indulgence +of imagination. He could not put the +compositions of Collins among the mere curiosities +of literature, but he permitted himself to +depreciate habits of mental excursion which he +had not himself cultivated.</p> +<p>It was not till more than twenty years after +Collins’s death that his Ode on the Superstitions +of the Highlands was recovered. The two Wartons +had seen it, and spoke highly of it to Johnson +and others. About 1781, or 1782, a copy +was found among the papers of Dr. Carlysle, +with a chasm of two or three stanzas. The public +deemed it equal to the expectations which had +been raised of it; for my part I will confess +that I was always deeply disappointed at it. +There are in it occasional traces of Collins’s genius +and several good lines––but none grand––none +of that felicitous flow and inspired vigour +which mark the Ode to the Passions and other +of his lyrics––none of that happy personification +of abstract conceptions which is the characteristic +of his genius. The majority of the lines lag and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_lv' name='page_lv'></a>lv</span> +move heavily, and do not seem to me to rise +much above mediocrity in the expression. The +subject was attractive, and might have afforded +space for the wild excursions of Collins’s creative +powers. As to the edition of Bell, in which it is +pretended that the lost stanzas have been recovered, +I have no more doubt that they are <i>spurious</i> +than that I did not write them myself: I +will not dwell upon this subject, but only mention +that it is quite impossible Collins could write +“<i>Fate</i> gave the <i>fatal</i> blow,” and “bowing to +Freedom’s <i>yoke</i>;” and such a line as</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“In the first year of the first George’s reign,” &c.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>There is not one line among these interpolated +stanzas which it is possible that Collins could +have written.</p> +<p>Mr. Ragdale relates that Collins was in the +habit of writing numerous fragments, and then +throwing them into the flames. Jackson, of +Exeter, says the same of John Bampfylde. A +sensitive mind is scarce ever satisfied with the +reception it meets, when, in first heat of composition, +it hopes to delight some listener, to which +it first communicates its new effusions. It almost +always considers itself to be “damn’d by +faint praise.” I have known fervid authors who, +if they read or communicated a piece before it +was finished, never went on with it. They +thought it became blown upon, and turned from +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_lvi' name='page_lvi'></a>lvi</span> +it with coldness, disgust, and despair. Yet the +hearer is commonly not in fault: who can satisfy +the warm hopes of aspiring and restless genius?</p> +<p>The Wartons have expressed themselves with +praise and affection of Collins, but not, I think, +with the entire admiration which was due to him. +Joseph Warton was a good-natured and generous-minded +man, but something of rivalry lurked in +his bosom; and the fraternal partiality of Thomas +Warton had the same effect. The younger brother +seems to have thought that Joseph’s genius was +equal to that of Collins. Gray had the critical +acumen to discern the difference; but still he in +no degree does justice to Collins. He accuses +him of want of taste and selection, which is a +surprising charge; and the more so, because Gray +did not disdain to borrow from him. Gray’s +fault was an affected fastidiousness, as appears +by the slighting manner in which he speaks of +Thomson’s Castle of Indolence on its first appearance, +as well as of Akenside’s Pleasures of +Imagination, and Shenstone’s Elegies. That +Gray had exquisite taste, and was a perfect +scholar, no one can doubt.</p> +<p>Collins lived thirteen years after the publication +of his Odes. It does not appear that he produced +any thing after this publication. How +soon his grand mental malady extinguished his +literary powers, I do not exactly know, nor is +it recorded, whether any part of it arose from +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_lvii' name='page_lvii'></a>lvii</span> +bodily disorders. Medical men have never agreed +regarding this most deplorable of human afflictions. +In Collins’s case it probably arose from +the mind. On such an intellectual temperament +the extinction of the visions which Hope had +painted to him seems to have been sufficient to +produce that derangement, which first enfeebled, +and then perverted and annihilated his faculties. +The account given by Johnson is different from +that supplied by Mr. Ragdale and another anonymous +communication.</p> +<p>He had, perhaps, lucid intervals in which he +discovered nothing but weakness and exhaustion. +But he appears to have sometimes had fits of +violence and despair. It seems that he was an +enthusiastic admirer of Shakespeare, and a great +reader of black letter books. It may be inferred +that his studies were not entirely given up during +his malady; but it is a subject of great wonder +and regret that the Wartons, the intimate friends +both of his better and darker days, have left no +particular memorials of him. He had a sister, +lately, if not still, living, from whom, though +of a very uncongenial nature, something might +surely have been gathered. But there is a familiarity +which, by destroying admiration, destroys +the perception of what will interest others. There +are few of our poets of rare genius, of whose +private life and character much is known. Little +is known of Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton: +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_lviii' name='page_lviii'></a>lviii</span> +not much even of Thomson. More is known of +Gray by the medium of his beautiful letters; +but when Southey, Wordsworth, and Scott are +gone, posterity will know every particular of +them; and, even now, know much which fills +them with delight and admiration. But let us +know something in good time, also of the new +candidates for poetical fame!</p> +<p>If the life of a poet is not in accordance with +his song, it may be suspected that the song itself +is not genuine. Who can be a poet, and yet be +a worldling in his passions and habits? An artificial +poet is a disgusting dealer in trifles: nothing +but the predominance of strong and unstimulated +feeling will give that inspiration without +which it is worse than an empty sound. When +the passion is factitious, the excitement has always +an immoral tendency; but the delineation +of real and amiable sentiments calls up a sympathy +in other bosoms which thus confirms and +fixes them where they would otherwise die away. +The memory may preserve what is artificial, but, +when it becomes stale, it turns to offensiveness, +and thus breeds an alienation from literature +itself.</p> +<p>That Collins has continued to increase in fame +as years have passed away, is the most decisive +of all proofs that his poems have the pure and +sterling merit which began to be ascribed to them +soon after his death. M. Bonstetten tells me +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_lix' name='page_lix'></a>lix</span> +that Gray died without a suspicion of the high +rank he was thereafter to hold in the annals of +British genius? What did poor Collins think +when he submitted his sublime odes to the flames? +He must have had fits of confidence, even then, +in himself; but intermixed with gloom and despair, +and curses of the wretched doom of his birth! +Is it sufficient that a man should wrap himself +up in himself, and be content if the poetry creates +itself and expires in his own heart? We strike +the lyre to excite sympathy, and, if no one will +hear, will any one not feel that he strikes in +vain; and that the talent given us is useless, +and even painful? But who can be assured that +he has the talent if no one acknowledges it? +To have it, and not to be assured that we have +it, is a restless fire that burns to consume us.</p> +<p>Let no one envy the endowments, if he looks +at the fate, of poets. Let him contemplate Spenser, +Denham, Rochester, Otway, Collins, Chatterton, +Burns, Kirke White, Bloomfield, Shelley, +Keats, and Byron, besides those of foreign countries! +Perhaps Collins was the most unhappy of +all; as he was assuredly one of the most inspired +and most amiable.</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“In woful measures wan Despair––</p> +<p class='indent2'>Low sullen sounds his grief beguiled,</p> +<p>A solemn, strange, and mingled air;</p> +<p class='indent2'>’Twas sad by fits, by starts ’twas wild.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_lx' name='page_lx'></a>lx</span></div> +<p>Langhorne’s edition of Collins first appeared +in 1765, accompanied by observations which +have been generally appended to subsequent editions. +These observations have commonly borne +the character of feebleness and affectation; they +have a sort of pedantic prettiness, which is somewhat +repulsive, but they do not want ingenuity, +or justness of criticism. Part of them, at least, +had previously appeared in the Monthly Review, +probably written by Langhorne. Langhorne was +not deficient himself in poetical genius, but is +principally remembered by a single beautiful +stanza, “Cold on Canadian hills,” &c. From +the time of Langhorne’s first edition, Collins became +a popular poet; a miniature edition appeared +soon after that of Langhorne; and as +long as I can remember books, which goes +back at least to the year 1770, Collins’s poems +were almost universally on the lips of readers of +English poetry. That Cowper, in 1784, should +speak of him as “a poet of no great fame,” +proves nothing, since Cowper’s long seclusion +from the world had made him utterly ignorant +of contemporary literature. The negative inference, +from the omission of Beattie, is not of +much weight. I cannot recollect the date of +the article in the Monthly Review; but, as it +appears that Collins survived till 1759, I suspect +it was before Collins’s death. It was in +September, 1754, that the Wartons visited him +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_lxi' name='page_lxi'></a>lxi</span> +at Chichester: in that year he paid a visit to +Oxford, when it appears that he was suffering +under exhausture, not alienation, of mind.</p> +<p>The critics, and, among the rest, Mrs. Barbauld +and Campbell, have ascribed to him “frequent +obscurity;” this is unjust,––his general +characteristic is lucidness and transparency: he +is never obscure, unless in the Ode to Liberty, +and, perhaps, in a few passages of the Ode on +the Manners. Campbell’s criticism is, otherwise, +worthy of this beautiful poet, whom he +praises with congenial spirit. When Hazlitt +speaks of the “tinsel and splendid patchwork” +of Collins, “mixed with the solid, sterling ore of +his genius,” he speaks of a base material not to +be found there. In Collins there is no tinsel or +patchwork, one of his excellencies is, that the +whole of every piece is of one web; there are no +joinings or meaner threads. There is no height +to which Collins might not have risen, had he +lived long, had his mind continued sound, and +had he persevered in exercising his genius. +Campbell remarks that, at the same age, Milton +had written nothing which could eclipse his productions.</p> +<p>Of the two communications regarding Collins, +to which I have already alluded, one anonymous, +the other by a Mr. John Ragsdale, I must say +something more. The first, signed V., appeared +in the Gentleman’s Magazine, with the date of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_lxii' name='page_lxii'></a>lxii</span> +the 20th Jan. 1781. I well remember its publication, +and with what eagerness I read it. I +suspect it was at the very crisis of the appearance +of the last portion of Johnson’s Lives, but possibly +a year earlier. I perused it with a mixture +of delight, melancholy, and disgust; the first +passage which struck me was this: “As he +brought with him [to Oxford], for so the whole +tone of his conversation discovered, too high an +opinion of his school acquisitions and a sovereign +contempt for all academic studies and discipline, +he never looked with any complacency on his +situation in the University, but was always complaining +of the dulness of a college life. In +short, he threw up his demyship, and going to +London, commenced a man of the town, spending +his time in all the dissipation of Ranelagh, +Vauxhall, and the playhouses; and was romantic +enough to suppose that his superior abilities +would draw the attention of the great world, by +means of whom he was to make his fortune,” +&c., &c.––“Thus was lost to the world this unfortunate +person, in the prime of life, without +availing himself of fine abilities, which, if properly +improved, must have raised him to the top +of any profession, and have rendered him a blessing +to his friends, and an ornament to his country.”</p> +<p>The vulgarity and narrow-mindedness of this +last paragraph filled me with indignation and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_lxiii' name='page_lxiii'></a>lxiii</span> +contempt. In a selfish point of view Collins +might, unquestionably, have done better by binding +himself to the trammels of a profession; but +would he have been more an honor to his friends +and an ornament to his country? Are the fruits +of genius he has left behind no ornament or use +to his country? Professional men, for the most +part, live for themselves, and not for the world. +Who now remembers Lord Camden, Lord Thurlow, +Lord Rosslyn, Lord Kenyon, Lord Ellenborough, +or a hundred episcopal or medical characters, +all rich and famous in their day?</p> +<p>The character of his person and habits we +read with deep interest. “He was passionately +fond of music, good-natured, and affable, warm +in his friendships, and visionary in his pursuits; +and, as long as I knew him, very temperate in +his eating and drinking. He was of a moderate +stature, of a light and clear complexion, with +gray eyes, so very weak at times as hardly to +bear a candle in the room, and often raising +within him apprehensions of blindness.”</p> +<p>The letter from Mr. John Ragsdale is addressed +to Mr. William Hymers, Queen’s College, Oxford, +dated “Hill Street, Richmond, in Surrey, +July, 1783.” He appears to have been a tradesman +in Bond Street; and he surveyed the character +of Collins (with whom he was familiar) +with a tradesman’s eye. He reproached the poet +with idleness, not because he was lingering and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_lxiv' name='page_lxiv'></a>lxiv</span> +losing his time on the road to fame, but because +he omitted to get money by his pen. “To raise +a present subsistence,” says Ragsdale, “he set +about writing his Odes; and having a general +invitation to my house, he frequently passed +whole days there, which he employed in writing +them, and as frequently burning what he had +written after he had read them to me: many of +them, which pleased me, I struggled to preserve, +but without effect; for, pretending he would +alter them, he got them from me, and thrust +them into the fire.” That he wrote the Odes to +gain a present subsistence is but the tradesman’s +mistaken comment.</p> +<p>Gray was about four years older than Collins, +and he survived him twelve years; he appears to +have spent these years in gloominess and spleen; +but we know not what intense pleasures he received +from his solitary studies, from the improvement +of his mind, from that exquisite taste and +increasing erudition of which every day added to +the stores. The enthusiasm of Collins was more +active and adventurous, and his erudition probably +more acute. Timidity and fastidiousness +were great defects in Gray; they kept down his +invention, and made him resort to the wealth of +others, when he could better have relied upon +himself. But as to borrowing expressions and +simple materials, no genius ever did otherwise; +it is the new and happy combination in which +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_lxv' name='page_lxv'></a>lxv</span> +lies the invention. It may be doubted which are +now most popular, the Odes of Collins or of +Gray. On the one hand, what is most abstract +is least calculated for the general reader; on the +other hand, the variety of learned allusions in +Gray renders the style and thoughts of his most +celebrated Odes less simple, less direct, and less +easily comprehended at once; but then his deep +morality, the touching strokes which go immediately +to the heart, his sensibility to the common +sorrows of human life, his powerful reflection of +the sentiments which “come home to every one’s +business and bosom,” form an attraction which +perhaps turns the scale in his favour. Of both +these sublime poets the correctness of composition +renders the writings a national good.</p> +<p>The French Revolution, which affected and +partly reversed the minds of all Europe, produced +a new era in our literature. There was good as +well as evil in the new force thus infused into the +human intellect. Our poetry had generally become +tame and trite; a sort of languid mechanism +had brought it into contempt; it was very little +read, and still less esteemed. This might be not +merely the effect, but also the cause of a deficiency +of striking genius in the candidates for +the laurel. Collins and Gray were dead; Mason +had hung up the lyre; and Thomas Warton was +then thought too laboured and quaint; Hayley +had succeeded beyond expectation by a return to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_lxvi' name='page_lxvi'></a>lxvi</span> +moral and didactic poetry at a moment when the +public was satiated by vile imitations of lyrical +and descriptive composition; but Cowper gave a +new impulse to the curiosity of poetical readers, +by a natural train of thought and the unlaboured +effusions of genuine feeling. There is no doubt +that a fearful regard to models stifles all force +and preeminent merit. The burst of the French +Revolution set the faculties of all young persons +free. It was dangerous to secondary talents, and +only led them into extravagances and absurdities. +To Wordsworth, Southey, Scott, it was the +removal of a weight, which would have hid the +fire of their genius. But the exuberance of their +inexhaustible minds in no degree lessens the value +of the more reserved models of excellence of a +tamer age. The contrast of their varied attractions +supplies the reader with opposite kinds of +merit, which delight and improve the more by +this very opposition.</p> +<p>Authors seldom estimate each other rightly in +their lifetimes. The race of poets, of whom the +last died with the century, had little friendship, +or even acquaintance among themselves; or +rather, they broke into little sets of two and +three, which narrowed their opinions and their +hearts; Gray and Mason, Johnson and the two +Wartons, Cowper and Hayley, Darwin and Miss +Seward; but Shenstone, Beattie, Akenside, Burns, +Mrs. Carter, Mrs. Smith, &c. stood alone. This +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_lxvii' name='page_lxvii'></a>lxvii</span> +is not desirable. Innumerable advantages spring +from frank and generous communication. Collins +and Gray had not the most remote personal +knowledge of each other. Gray never mentions +Dr. Sneyd Davies, a poet and an Etonian, nearly +contemporary; nor Nicholas Hardinge, a scholar +and a poet also. Mundy, the author of Needwood +Forest, passed a long life in the country, +totally removed from poets and literati, except +the small coterie of Miss Seward, at Litchfield. +The lives of poets would be the most amusing of +all biography, if the materials were less scanty: +it is strange that so few of them have left any +ample records of themselves; of many not even +a letter or fragment of memorials is preserved. +None of Cowley’s letters, a mode of composition +in which he is said to have eminently excelled, +have come down to us. Of Prior, Tickell, Thomson, +Young, Dyer, Akenside, the Wartons, there +are few of any importance known to be in existence. +Those of Hayley, which Dr. J. Johnson +has brought forward, are not of the interest which +might have been expected. Mrs. Carter’s are +excellent, and many of Beattie’s amusing and +amiable: it had been well for Miss Seward if +most of hers had been consigned to the flames. +Those of Charlotte Smith it has not been thought +prudent to give to the public. The greater part +of those of Lord Byron, which Moore has hitherto +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_lxviii' name='page_lxviii'></a>lxviii</span> +put forth, had better have been spared: they are +written in false taste, and are under a factitious +character: in general, the prose style of poets is +admirable;––it was not Lord Byron’s excellence. +We have no specimens of the prose of Collins: +it is grievous that he did not execute his project +of The History of the Revival of Literature, or of +the Lives for the Biographia Britannica, which +he undertook. Poets of research are, of all +authors, best qualified to write biography with +sagacity and eloquence; they see into the human +heart, and detect its most secret movements; and +if there be a class of literature more amusing and +more instructive than another, it is well written +biography.</p> +<p>We have a few poets who have not possessed +erudition; for genius will overcome all deficiencies +of art and labour, such as Shakespeare, Chatterton, +Burns, and Bloomfield: but it cannot be +questioned that erudition is a mighty aid. Milton +could never have been what he was without profound +and laborious erudition. Another necessary +knowledge is the knowledge of the human heart, +which no industry and learning will give. It is +an intuitive gift, which mainly depends on an +acute and correct imagination, and a sympathetic +sensibility of the human passions. Among the +innumerable rich endowments of Shakespeare this +was the first; it was the predominant brilliance +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_lxix' name='page_lxix'></a>lxix</span> +of his knowledge which gave him correctness of +description, sentiment, and observation, and clearness, +force, and eloquence of language.</p> +<p>Collins had only reached the age of twenty-six +when his Odes were published: what inconceivable +power would the maturity of age have given +him? It is lamentable that he had no familiar +friend and companion from that period capable +of apprehending and remembering his conversations. +In his lucid intervals he must have said +many wise, many learned, and many brilliant +things; perhaps his very disease, in its vacillation +between light and darkness, may have struck out +many unexpected and surprising beauties, which +common attendants were utterly incapable of +appreciating. The flushes of the mind under the +unnatural impulses of malady are sometimes inimitably +splendid. His reason, at times, was +sound, for his reason was fervid to the last. But +it is said that his shrieks sometimes resounded +through the cathedral cloisters of Chichester till +the horror of those who heard him was insupportable.</p> +<p>All these speculations may appear tedious to +those whose curiosity is confined to facts: but +new facts regarding Collins are not to be had: +and what are facts unless they are accompanied +by reflections, conclusions, and sentiments? The +use of facts is to teach us to think, to judge, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_lxx' name='page_lxx'></a>lxx</span> +to feel: and facts, regarding men of genius, are +valuable in enabling us to contemplate how far +the gifts of high intellect contribute to our happiness, +or afford guides for the rest of mankind; +in what respects they have the possessors upon +an equality with the herd of the people; and +where they expose them to temptations from +which others are free. For these purposes the +ill fated Collins is a melancholy illustration: the +Muse had touched the lips of his infancy, and +infused her spirit into him; she had given him a +piercing understanding, and an amiable disposition +and temper; she enabled him to come forth +with poetry of the first class, in the earliest bloom +of youth; and to deserve, if not to win, the envied +laurel, which millions have reached at in +vain! What seeming glories and blessings were +these! Yet to how few was so much misery dispensed +as to this once envied being! May we +not hope that his spirit now has its mighty +reward?</p> +<p>Let it not be denied that there is high virtue in +the culture of the mind, when directed to pure +and elevated objects, and accustoming itself to +travel in lofty paths! The mind cannot attain +the necessary refinement, nor have its sight +cleared of the film of earthly grossness, unless +the heart throws off the dregs of coarser feeling, +and keeps its wings afloat on a lighter and airier +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_lxxi' name='page_lxxi'></a>lxxi</span> +atmosphere. It may be said, that there have +been bad men who have been great poets: but +this position remains to be proved. The dissolute +men who have written verses have not been +great poets. Were Dante, Petrarch, Tasso, +Spenser, Shakespeare, Dryden, Pope, Thomson, +Burns, bad men? We know that Milton’s character +was great and holy, whatever were his +politics: and who could be more virtuous than +Gray, Beattie, Cowper, and Kirke White? And +have we not virtuous poets among the living,––men +whose native splendour and intellectual culture +have almost purified them into spirits? Let +us never cease to meditate on the dejected inspiration, +which could pour forth such strains as +these:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>“With eyes upraised, as one inspired,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Pale Melancholy sat retired;</p> +<p class='indent2'>And from her wild sequester’d seat,</p> +<p class='indent2'>In notes by distance made more sweet,</p> +<p>Pour’d through the mellow horn her pensive soul:</p> +<p class='indent2'>And, dashing soft from rocks around,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Bubbling runnels join’d the sound;</p> +<p>Through glades and glooms the mingled measures stole,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Or o’er some haunted stream with fond delay</p> +<p class='indent2'>Round a holy calm diffusing,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Love of peace and lonely musing,</p> +<p class='indent2'>In hollow murmurs died away.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>There are those who will think the praises thus +bestowed upon Collins extravagant. It is now +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_lxxii' name='page_lxxii'></a>lxxii</span> +sixty years since I became familiar with him; +and I still think of him with unabated admiration. +When the calm judgment of age confirms +the passion of youth and boyhood, we cannot be +much mistaken in the merit we ascribe to him +who is the object of it.</p> +<p class='ralign'>S. E. B.</p> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<a name='ORIENTAL_ECLOGUES_WRITTEN_ORIGINALLY_FOR_THE_ENTERTAINMENT_OF_THE_LADIES_OF_TAURIS' id='ORIENTAL_ECLOGUES_WRITTEN_ORIGINALLY_FOR_THE_ENTERTAINMENT_OF_THE_LADIES_OF_TAURIS'></a> +<h2>ORIENTAL ECLOGUES.</h2> +<h3>WRITTEN ORIGINALLY FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT OF THE LADIES OF TAURIS.</h3> +</div> +<p class='center'>AND NOW TRANSLATED.</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>–––Ubi primus equis Oriens adflavit anhelis. </p> +<p class='ralign'><span class='smcap'>Virg.</span></p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>The First Edition was entitled, “Persian Eclogues, +written originally for the Entertainment of the Ladies of +Tauris. And now first translated, &c.</p> +<blockquote> +<p>Quod si non hic tantus fructus ostenderetur, et si ex +his studiis delectatio sola peteretur; tamen, ut opinor, +hanc animi remissionem humanissimam ac liberalissimam +judicaretis.</p> +<p class='ralign'><i><span class='smcap'>Cic.</span> pro Arch. Poeta.</i>”</p> +</blockquote> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<a name='PREFACE' id='PREFACE'></a> +<h3>PREFACE.</h3> +</div> +<p>It is with the writings of mankind, in some measure, +as with their complexions or their dress; +each nation hath a peculiarity in all these, to distinguish +it from the rest of the world.</p> +<p>The gravity of the Spaniard, and the levity of +the Frenchman, are as evident in all their productions +as in their persons themselves; and the +style of my countrymen is as naturally strong and +nervous, as that of an Arabian or Persian is rich +and figurative.</p> +<p>There is an elegancy and wildness of thought +which recommends all their compositions; and +our geniuses are as much too cold for the entertainment +of such sentiments, as our climate is +for their fruits and spices. If any of these beauties +are to be found in the following Eclogues, I +hope my reader will consider them as an argument +of their being original. I received them at +the hands of a merchant, who had made it his +business to enrich himself with the learning, as +well as the silks and carpets of the Persians. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_2' name='page_2'></a>2</span> +The little information I could gather concerning +their author, was, that his name was Abdallah, +and that he was a native of Tauris.</p> +<p>It was in that city that he died of a distemper +fatal in those parts, whilst he was engaged in +celebrating the victories of his favourite monarch, +the great Abbas.<a name='FNanchor_0010' id='FNanchor_0010'></a><a href='#Footnote_0010' class='fnanchor'>[10]</a> As to the Eclogues themselves, +they give a very just view of the miseries +and inconveniences, as well as the felicities, that +attend one of the finest countries in the East.</p> +<p>The time of writing them was probably in the +beginning of Sha Sultan Hosseyn’s reign, the +successor of Sefi or Solyman the Second.</p> +<p>Whatever defects, as, I doubt not, there will +be many, fall under the reader’s observation, I +hope his candour will incline him to make the +following reflection:</p> +<p>That the works of Orientals contain many peculiarities, +and that, through defect of language, +few European translators can do them justice.</p> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_3' name='page_3'></a>3</span> +<a name='ORIENTAL_ECLOGUES' id='ORIENTAL_ECLOGUES'></a> +<h2>ORIENTAL ECLOGUES.</h2> +</div> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<a name='ECLOGUE_I_SELIM_OR_THE_SHEPHERDS_MORAL' id='ECLOGUE_I_SELIM_OR_THE_SHEPHERDS_MORAL'></a> +<h3>ECLOGUE I.</h3> +<h4>SELIM; OR, THE SHEPHERD’S MORAL.</h4> +</div> +<p class='center'><span class='smcap'>Scene</span>, A valley near Bagdat.<br /> +<span class='smcap'>Time</span>, The morning.</p> +<table summary='' class='widthall'><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>‘Ye Persian maids, attend your poet’s lays,</p> +<p>And hear how shepherds pass their golden days.</p> +<p>Not all are blest, whom fortune’s hand sustains</p> +<p>With wealth in courts, nor all that haunt the plains:</p> +<p>Well may your hearts believe the truths I tell; <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p>’Tis virtue makes the bliss, where’er we dwell.’</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>Thus Selim sung, by sacred Truth inspired;</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>No praise the youth, but hers alone desired:</p> +</div> +<p>Nor praise, but such as Truth bestow’d, desired:</p> +<p>Wise in himself, his meaning songs convey’d</p> +<p>Informing morals to the shepherd maid; <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p>Or taught the swains that surest bliss to find,</p> +<p>What groves nor streams bestow, a virtuous mind.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_4' name='page_4'></a>4</span></p> +<div class='variation'> +<p class='indent2'>When sweet and odorous, like an eastern bride,</p> +</div> +<p class='indent2'>When sweet and blushing, like a virgin bride,</p> +<p>The radiant morn resumed her orient pride;</p> +<p>When wanton gales along the valleys play, <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p>Breathe on each flower, and bear their sweets away;</p> +<p>By Tigris’ wandering waves he sat, and sung</p> +<p>This useful lesson for the fair and young.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>‘Ye Persian dames,’ he said, ‘to you belong––</p> +<p>Well may they please––the morals of my song: <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +<p>No fairer maids, I trust, than you are found,</p> +<p>Graced with soft arts, the peopled world around!</p> +<p>The morn that lights you, to your loves supplies</p> +<p>Each gentler ray delicious to your eyes:</p> +<p>For you those flowers her fragrant hands bestow; <span class="linenum">25</span></p> +<p>And yours the love that kings delight to know.</p> +<p>Yet think not these, all beauteous as they are,</p> +<p>The best kind blessings heaven can grant the fair!</p> +<p>Who trust alone in beauty’s feeble ray</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Balsora’s pearls have more of worth than they:</p> +</div> +<p>Boast but the worth<a name='FNanchor_0011' id='FNanchor_0011'></a><a href='#Footnote_0011' class='fnanchor'>[11]</a> Balsora’s pearls display: <span class="linenum">30</span></p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Drawn from the deep, they sparkle to the sight,</p> +<p>And all-unconscious shoot a lustrous light:</p> +</div> +<p>Drawn from the deep we own their surface bright,</p> +<p>But, dark within, they drink no lustrous light:</p> +<p>Such are the maids, and such the charms they boast,</p> +<p>By sense unaided, or to virtue lost.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_5' name='page_5'></a>5</span></p> +<p>Self-flattering sex! your hearts believe in vain <span class="linenum">35</span></p> +<p>That love shall blind, when once he fires, the swain;</p> +<p>Or hope a lover by your faults to win,</p> +<p>As spots on ermine beautify the skin:</p> +<p>Who seeks secure to rule, be first her care</p> +<p>Each softer virtue that adorns the fair; <span class="linenum">40</span></p> +<p>Each tender passion man delights to find,</p> +<p>The loved perfections of a female mind!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>‘Blest were the days when Wisdom held her reign,</p> +<p>And shepherds sought her on the silent plain!</p> +<p>With Truth she wedded in the secret grove, <span class="linenum">45</span></p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>The fair-eyed Truth, and daughters bless’d their love.</p> +</div> +<p>Immortal Truth, and daughters bless’d their love.</p> +<p>O haste, fair maids! ye Virtues, come away!</p> +<p>Sweet Peace and Plenty lead you on your way!</p> +<p>The balmy shrub, for you shall love our shore,</p> +<p>By Ind excell’d, or Araby, no more. <span class="linenum">50</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>‘Lost to our fields, for so the fates ordain,</p> +<p>The dear deserters shall return again.</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>O come, thou Modesty, as they decree,</p> +<p>The rose may then improve her blush by thee.</p> +</div> +<p>Come thou, whose thoughts as limpid springs are clear,</p> +<p>To lead the train, sweet Modesty, appear:</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_6' name='page_6'></a>6</span></p> +<p>Here make thy court amidst our rural scene, <span class="linenum">55</span></p> +<p>And shepherd girls shall own thee for their queen:</p> +<p>With thee be Chastity, of all afraid,</p> +<p>Distrusting all, a wise suspicious maid,</p> +<p>But man the most:––not more the mountain doe</p> +<p>Holds the swift falcon for her deadly foe. <span class="linenum">60</span></p> +<p>Cold is her breast, like flowers that drink the dew;</p> +<p>A silken veil conceals her from the view.</p> +<p>No wild desires amidst thy train be known;</p> +<p>But Faith, whose heart is fix’d on one alone:</p> +<p>Desponding Meekness, with her downcast eyes, <span class="linenum">65</span></p> +<p>And friendly Pity, full of tender sighs;</p> +<p>And Love the last: by these your hearts approve;</p> +<p>These are the virtues that must lead to love.’</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Thus sung the swain, and eastern legends say</p> +</div> +<p class='indent2'>Thus sung the swain; and ancient legends say</p> +<p>The maids of Bagdat verified the lay: <span class="linenum">70</span></p> +<p>Dear to the plains, the Virtues came along,</p> +<p>The shepherds loved, and Selim bless’d his song.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_7' name='page_7'></a>7</span> +<a name='ECLOGUE_II_HASSAN_OR_THE_CAMEL_DRIVER' id='ECLOGUE_II_HASSAN_OR_THE_CAMEL_DRIVER'></a> +<h3>ECLOGUE II.</h3> +<h4>HASSAN; OR, THE CAMEL DRIVER.</h4> +</div> +<p class='center'><span class='smcap'>Scene</span>, The desert.<br /> +<span class='smcap'>Time</span>, Midday.</p> +<table summary='' class='widthall'><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class='variation'> +<p>In silent horror o’er the desert waste</p> +</div> +<p>In silent horror o’er the boundless waste</p> +<p>The driver Hassan with his camels past:</p> +<p>One cruise of water on his back he bore,</p> +<p>And his light scrip contain’d a scanty store;</p> +<p>A fan of painted feathers in his hand, <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p>To guard his shaded face from scorching sand.</p> +<p>The sultry sun had gain’d the middle sky,</p> +<p>And not a tree, and not an herb was nigh;</p> +<p>The beasts with pain their dusty way pursue;</p> +<p>Shrill roar’d the winds, and dreary was the view! <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p>With desperate sorrow wild, the affrighted man</p> +<p>Thrice sigh’d, thrice struck his breast, and thus began:</p> +<p class='indent2'>‘Sad was the hour, and luckless was the day,</p> +<p class='indent2'>‘When first from Schiraz’ walls I bent my way!’</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_8' name='page_8'></a>8</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>‘Ah! little thought I of the blasting wind, <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p>The thirst, or pinching hunger, that I find!</p> +<p>Bethink thee, Hassan, where shall thirst assuage,</p> +<p>When fails this cruise, his unrelenting rage?</p> +<p>Soon shall this scrip its precious load resign;</p> +<p>Then what but tears and hunger shall be thine? <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>‘Ye mute companions of my toils, that bear</p> +<p>In all my griefs a more than equal share!</p> +<p>Here, where no springs in murmurs break away,</p> +<p>Or moss-crown’d fountains mitigate the day,</p> +<p>In vain ye hope the green delights to know, <span class="linenum">25</span></p> +<p>Which plains more blest, or verdant vales bestow:</p> +<p>Here rocks alone, and tasteless sands, are found,</p> +<p>And faint and sickly winds for ever howl around.</p> +<p class='indent2'>‘Sad was the hour, and luckless was the day,</p> +<p class='indent2'>‘When first from Schiraz’ walls I bent my way!’ <span class="linenum">30</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>‘Curst be the gold and silver which persuade</p> +<p>Weak men to follow far fatiguing trade!</p> +<p>The lily peace outshines the silver store,</p> +<p>And life is dearer than the golden ore:</p> +<p>Yet money tempts us o’er the desert brown, <span class="linenum">35</span></p> +<p>To every distant mart and wealthy town.</p> +<p>Full oft we tempt the land, and oft the sea;</p> +<p>And are we only yet repaid by thee?</p> +<p>Ah! why was ruin so attractive made?</p> +<p>Or why fond man so easily betray’d? <span class="linenum">40</span></p> +<p>Why heed we not, whilst mad we haste along,</p> +<p>The gentle voice of peace, or pleasure’s song?</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_9' name='page_9'></a>9</span></p> +<p>Or wherefore think the flowery mountain’s side,</p> +<p>The fountain’s murmurs, and the valley’s pride,</p> +<p>Why think we these less pleasing to behold <span class="linenum">45</span></p> +<p>Than dreary deserts, if they lead to gold?</p> +<p class='indent2'>‘Sad was the hour, and luckless was the day,</p> +<p class='indent2'>‘When first from Schiraz’ walls I bent my way!’</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>‘O cease, my fears!––all frantic as I go,</p> +<p>When thought creates unnumber’d scenes of woe, <span class="linenum">50</span></p> +<p>What if the lion in his rage I meet!––</p> +<p>Oft in the dust I view his printed feet:</p> +<p>And, fearful! oft, when day’s declining light</p> +<p>Yields her pale empire to the mourner night,</p> +<p>By hunger roused, he scours the groaning plain, <span class="linenum">55</span></p> +<p>Gaunt wolves and sullen tigers in his train:</p> +<p>Before them Death with shrieks directs their way,</p> +<p>Fills the wild yell, and leads them to their prey.</p> +<p class='indent2'>‘Sad was the hour, and luckless was the day,</p> +<p class='indent2'>‘When first from Schiraz’ walls I bent my way!’ <span class="linenum">60</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>‘At that dead hour the silent asp shall creep,</p> +<p>If aught of rest I find, upon my sleep:</p> +<p>Or some swoln serpent twist his scales around,</p> +<p>And wake to anguish with a burning wound.</p> +<p>Thrice happy they, the wise contented poor, <span class="linenum">65</span></p> +<p>From lust of wealth, and dread of death secure!</p> +<p>They tempt no deserts, and no griefs they find;</p> +<p>Peace rules the day, where reason rules the mind.</p> +<p class='indent2'>‘Sad was the hour, and luckless was the day,</p> +<p class='indent2'>‘When first from Schiraz’ walls I bent my way!’ <span class="linenum">70</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_10' name='page_10'></a>10</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>‘O hapless youth!––for she thy love hath won,</p> +<p>The tender Zara will be most undone!</p> +<p>Big swell’d my heart, and own’d the powerful maid,</p> +<p>When fast she dropt her tears, as thus she said:</p> +<p>“Farewell the youth whom sighs could not detain; <span class="linenum">75</span></p> +<p>Whom Zara’s breaking heart implored in vain!</p> +<p>Yet, as thou go’st, may every blast arise</p> +<p>Weak and unfelt, as these rejected sighs!</p> +<p>Safe o’er the wild, no perils mayst thou see,</p> +<p>No griefs endure, nor weep, false youth, like me.” <span class="linenum">80</span></p> +<p>O let me safely to the fair return,</p> +<p>Say, with a kiss, she must not, shall not mourn;</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Go teach my heart to lose its painful fears.</p> +</div> +<p>O! let me teach my heart to lose its fears,</p> +<p>Recall’d by Wisdom’s voice, and Zara’s tears.’</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>He said, and call’d on heaven to bless the day, <span class="linenum">85</span></p> +<p>When back to Schiraz’ walls he bent his way.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_11' name='page_11'></a>11</span> +<a name='ECLOGUE_III_ABRA_OR_THE_GEORGIAN_SULTANA' id='ECLOGUE_III_ABRA_OR_THE_GEORGIAN_SULTANA'></a> +<h3>ECLOGUE III.</h3> +<h4>ABRA; OR, THE GEORGIAN SULTANA.</h4> +</div> +<p class='center'><span class='smcap'>Scene</span>, A forest.<br /> +<span class='smcap'>Time</span>, The evening.</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>In Georgia’s land, where Tefflis’ towers are seen,</p> +<p>In distant view, along the level green,</p> +<p>While evening dews enrich the glittering glade,</p> +<p>And the tall forests cast a longer shade,</p> +<p>What time ’tis sweet o’er fields of rice to stray, <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p>Or scent the breathing maize at setting day;</p> +<p>Amidst the maids of Zagen’s peaceful grove,</p> +<p>Emyra sung the pleasing cares of love.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>Of Abra first began the tender strain,</p> +<p>Who led her youth with flocks upon the plain. <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p>At morn she came those willing flocks to lead,</p> +<p>Where lilies rear them in the watery mead;</p> +<p>From early dawn the livelong hours she told,</p> +<p>Till late at silent eve she penn’d the fold.</p> +<p>Deep in the grove, beneath the secret shade, <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p>A various wreath of odorous flowers she made:</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_12' name='page_12'></a>12</span></p> +<p>Gay-motley’d<a name='FNanchor_0012' id='FNanchor_0012'></a><a href='#Footnote_0012' class='fnanchor'>[12]</a> pinks and sweet jonquils she chose,</p> +<p>The violet blue that on the moss-bank grows;</p> +<p>All sweet to sense, the flaunting rose was there;</p> +<p>The finish’d chaplet well adorn’d her hair. <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>Great Abbas chanced that fated morn to stray,</p> +<p>By love conducted from the chase away;</p> +<p>Among the vocal vales he heard her song,</p> +<p>And sought, the vales and echoing groves among;</p> +<p>At length he found, and woo’d the rural maid; <span class="linenum">25</span></p> +<p>She knew the monarch, and with fear obey’d.</p> +<p class='indent2'>‘Be every youth like royal Abbas moved,</p> +<p class='indent2'>‘And every Georgian maid like Abra loved!’</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>The royal lover bore her from the plain;</p> +<p>Yet still her crook and bleating flock remain: <span class="linenum">30</span></p> +<p>Oft, as she went, she backward turn’d her view,</p> +<p>And bade that crook and bleating flock adieu.</p> +<p>Fair, happy maid! to other scenes remove,</p> +<p>To richer scenes of golden power and love!</p> +<p>Go leave the simple pipe and shepherd’s strain; <span class="linenum">35</span></p> +<p>With love delight thee, and with Abbas reign!</p> +<p class='indent2'>‘Be every youth like royal Abbas moved,</p> +<p class='indent2'>‘And every Georgian maid like Abra loved!’</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_13' name='page_13'></a>13</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Yet, ’midst the blaze of courts, she fix’d her love</p> +<p>On the cool fountain, or the shady grove; <span class="linenum">40</span></p> +<p>Still, with the shepherd’s innocence, her mind</p> +<p>To the sweet vale, and flowery mead, inclined;</p> +<p>And oft as spring renew’d the plains with flowers,</p> +<p>Breathed his soft gales, and led the fragrant hours,</p> +<p>With sure return she sought the sylvan scene, <span class="linenum">45</span></p> +<p>The breezy mountains, and the forests green.</p> +<p>Her maids around her moved, a duteous band!</p> +<p>Each bore a crook, all rural, in her hand:</p> +<p>Some simple lay, of flocks and herds, they sung;</p> +<p>With joy the mountain and the forest rung. <span class="linenum">50</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>‘Be every youth like royal Abbas moved,</p> +<p class='indent2'>‘And every Georgian maid like Abra loved!’</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>And oft the royal lover left the care</p> +<p>And thorns of state, attendant on the fair;</p> +<p>Oft to the shades and low-roof’d cots retired, <span class="linenum">55</span></p> +<p>Or sought the vale where first his heart was fired:</p> +<p>A russet mantle, like a swain, he wore,</p> +<p>And thought of crowns, and busy courts, no more.</p> +<p class='indent2'>‘Be every youth like royal Abbas moved,</p> +<p class='indent2'>‘And every Georgian maid like Abra loved!’ <span class="linenum">60</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>Blest was the life that royal Abbas led:</p> +<p>Sweet was his love, and innocent his bed.</p> +<p>What if in wealth the noble maid excel?</p> +<p>The simple shepherd girl can love as well.</p> +<p>Let those who rule on Persia’s jewel’d throne <span class="linenum">65</span></p> +<p>Be famed for love, and gentlest love alone;</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_14' name='page_14'></a>14</span></p> +<p>Or wreathe, like Abbas, full of fair renown,</p> +<p>The lover’s myrtle with the warrior’s crown.</p> +<p>O happy days! the maids around her say;</p> +<p>O haste, profuse of blessings, haste away! <span class="linenum">70</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>‘Be every youth like royal Abbas moved,</p> +<p class='indent2'>‘And every Georgian maid like Abra loved!’</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_15' name='page_15'></a>15</span> +<a name='ECLOGUE_IV_AGIB_AND_SECANDER_OR_THE_FUGITIVES' id='ECLOGUE_IV_AGIB_AND_SECANDER_OR_THE_FUGITIVES'></a> +<h3>ECLOGUE IV.</h3> +<h4>AGIB AND SECANDER; OR, THE FUGITIVES.</h4> +</div> +<p class='center'><span class='smcap'>Scene</span>, A mountain in Circassia.<br /> +<span class='smcap'>Time</span>, Midnight.</p> +<table summary='' class='widthall'><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>In fair Circassia, where, to love inclined,</p> +<p>Each swain was blest, for every maid was kind;</p> +<p>At that still hour, when awful midnight reigns,</p> +<p>And none, but wretches, haunt the twilight plains;</p> +<p>What time the moon had hung her lamp on high, <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p>And past in radiance through the cloudless sky;</p> +<p>Sad, o’er the dews, two brother shepherds fled,</p> +<p>Where wildering fear and desperate sorrow led:</p> +<p>Fast as they press’d their flight, behind them lay</p> +<p>Wide ravaged plains, and valleys stole away: <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p>Along the mountain’s bending sides they ran,</p> +<p>Till, faint and weak, Secander thus began.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'><span class='smcaplc'>SECANDER.</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>O stay thee, Agib, for my feet deny,</p> +<p>No longer friendly to my life, to fly.</p> +<p>Friend of my heart, O turn thee and survey! <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p>Trace our sad flight through all its length of way</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_16' name='page_16'></a>16</span></p> +<p>And first review that long extended plain,</p> +<p>And yon wide groves, already past with pain!</p> +<p>Yon ragged cliff, whose dangerous path we tried!</p> +<p>And, last, this lofty mountain’s weary side! <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'><span class='smcaplc'>AGIB.</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>Weak as thou art, yet, hapless, must thou know</p> +<p>The toils of flight, or some severer woe!</p> +<p>Still, as I haste, the Tartar shouts behind,</p> +<p>And shrieks and sorrows load the saddening wind:</p> +<p>In rage of heart, with ruin in his hand, <span class="linenum">25</span></p> +<p>He blasts our harvests, and deforms our land.</p> +<p>Yon citron grove, whence first in fear we came,</p> +<p>Droops its fair honors to the conquering flame:</p> +<p>Far fly the swains, like us, in deep despair,</p> +<p>And leave to ruffian bands their fleecy care. <span class="linenum">30</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'><span class='smcaplc'>SECANDER.</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>Unhappy land, whose blessings tempt the sword,</p> +<p>In vain, unheard, thou call’st thy Persian lord!</p> +<p>In vain thou court’st him, helpless, to thine aid,</p> +<p>To shield the shepherd, and protect the maid!</p> +<p>Far off, in thoughtless indolence resign’d, <span class="linenum">35</span></p> +<p>Soft dreams of love and pleasure soothe his mind:</p> +<p>’Midst fair sultanas lost in idle joy,</p> +<p>No wars alarm him, and no fears annoy.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'><span class='smcaplc'>AGIB.</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>Yet these green hills, in summer’s sultry heat,</p> +<p>Have lent the monarch oft a cool retreat. <span class="linenum">40</span></p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_17' name='page_17'></a>17</span></p> +<p>Sweet to the sight is Zabran’s flowery plain,</p> +<p>And once by maids and shepherds loved in vain!</p> +<p>No more the virgins shall delight to rove</p> +<p>By Sargis’ banks, or Irwan’s shady grove;</p> +<p>On Tarkie’s mountain catch the cooling gale, <span class="linenum">45</span></p> +<p>Or breathe the sweets of Aly’s flowery vale:</p> +<p>Fair scenes! but, ah! no more with peace possest,</p> +<p>With ease alluring, and with plenty blest!</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>No more the shepherds’ whitening seats appear,</p> +</div> +<p>No more the shepherds’ whitening tents appear,</p> +<p>Nor the kind products of a bounteous year; <span class="linenum">50</span></p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>No more the dale, with snowy blossoms crown’d!</p> +</div> +<p>No more the date, with snowy blossoms crown’d!</p> +<p>But ruin spreads her baleful fires around.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'><span class='smcaplc'>SECANDER.</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>In vain Circassia boasts her spicy groves,</p> +<p>For ever famed for pure and happy loves:</p> +<p>In vain she boasts her fairest of the fair, <span class="linenum">55</span></p> +<p>Their eyes’ blue languish, and their golden hair!</p> +<p>Those eyes in tears their fruitless grief must send;</p> +<p>Those hairs the Tartar’s cruel hand shall rend.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'><span class='smcaplc'>AGIB.</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>Ye Georgian swains, that piteous learn from far</p> +<p>Circassia’s ruin, and the waste of war; <span class="linenum">60</span></p> +<p>Some weightier arms than crooks and staves prepare,</p> +<p>To shield your harvests, and defend your fair:</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_18' name='page_18'></a>18</span></p> +<p>The Turk and Tartar like designs pursue,</p> +<p>Fix’d to destroy, and steadfast to undo.</p> +<p>Wild as his land, in native deserts bred, <span class="linenum">65</span></p> +<p>By lust incited, or by malice led,</p> +<p>The villain Arab, as he prowls for prey,</p> +<p>Oft marks with blood and wasting flames the way;</p> +<p>Yet none so cruel as the Tartar foe,</p> +<p>To death inured, and nurst in scenes of woe. <span class="linenum">70</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>He said; when loud along the vale was heard</p> +<p>A shriller shriek, and nearer fires appear’d:</p> +<p>The affrighted shepherds, through the dews of night,</p> +<p>Wide o’er the moonlight hills renew’d their flight.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p class='center smcaplc'>END OF THE ECLOGUES.</p> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_19' name='page_19'></a>19</span> +<a name='ODES_ON_SEVERAL_DESCRIPTIVE_AND_ALLEGORICAL_SUBJECTS' id='ODES_ON_SEVERAL_DESCRIPTIVE_AND_ALLEGORICAL_SUBJECTS'></a> +<h2>ODES</h2> +<h3>ON SEVERAL DESCRIPTIVE AND ALLEGORICAL SUBJECTS.</h3> +</div> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p><span lang="el" title="Eiên heurysiepês anageisthai">Ειην εὑρυσιεπης αναγεισθαι</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Prosphoros en Moisan diphrô:">Προσφορος εν Μοισαν διφρω:</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Tolma de kai amphilaphês dynamis">Τολμα δε και αμφιλαφης δυναμις</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Espoito.">Εσποιτο.</span></p> +<p class='ralign'><span lang="el" title="Pindar. Olymp. Th.">Πινδαρ. Ολυμπ. Θ.</span></p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<div class='chsp' style='padding-top:0'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_21' name='page_21'></a>21</span> +<a name='ODES' id='ODES'></a> +<h2>ODES.</h2> +</div> +<div class='chsp' style='padding-top:0'> +<a name='ODE_TO_PITY' id='ODE_TO_PITY'></a> +<h3>ODE TO PITY.</h3> +</div> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>O thou, the friend of man, assign’d</p> +<p>With balmy hands his wounds to bind,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And charm his frantic woe:</p> +<p>When first Distress, with dagger keen,</p> +<p>Broke forth to waste his destined scene, <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>His wild unsated foe!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>By Pella’s<a name='FNanchor_0013' id='FNanchor_0013'></a><a href='#Footnote_0013' class='fnanchor'>[13]</a> bard, a magic name,</p> +<p>By all the griefs his thought could frame,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Receive my humble rite:</p> +<p>Long, Pity, let the nations view <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p>The sky-worn robes of tenderest blue,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And eyes of dewy light!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_22' name='page_22'></a>22</span></p> +<p>But wherefore need I wander wide</p> +<p>To old Ilissus’ distant side,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Deserted stream, and mute? <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p>Wild Arun<a name='FNanchor_0014' id='FNanchor_0014'></a><a href='#Footnote_0014' class='fnanchor'>[14]</a> too has heard thy strains,</p> +<p>And Echo, ’midst my native plains,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Been soothed by Pity’s lute.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>There first the wren thy myrtles shed</p> +<p>On gentlest Otway’s infant head, <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>To him thy cell was shown;</p> +<p>And while he sung the female heart,</p> +<p>With youth’s soft notes unspoil’d by art,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Thy turtles mix’d their own.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>Come, Pity, come, by Fancy’s aid, <span class="linenum">25</span></p> +<p>E’en now my thoughts, relenting maid,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Thy temple’s pride design:</p> +<p>Its southern site, its truth complete,</p> +<p>Shall raise a wild enthusiast heat</p> +<p class='indent2'>In all who view the shrine. <span class="linenum">30</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>There Picture’s toils shall well relate</p> +<p>How chance, or hard involving fate,</p> +<p class='indent2'>O’er mortal bliss prevail:</p> +<p>The buskin’d Muse shall near her stand,</p> +<p>And sighing prompt her tender hand, <span class="linenum">35</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>With each disastrous tale.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_23' name='page_23'></a>23</span></p> +<p>There let me oft, retired by day,</p> +<p>In dreams of passion melt away,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Allow’d with thee to dwell:</p> +<p>There waste the mournful lamp of night, <span class="linenum">40</span></p> +<p>Till, Virgin, thou again delight</p> +<p class='indent2'>To hear a British shell!</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_24' name='page_24'></a>24</span> +<a name='ODE_TO_FEAR' id='ODE_TO_FEAR'></a> +<h3>ODE TO FEAR.</h3> +</div> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>Thou, to whom the world unknown,</p> +<p>With all its shadowy shapes, is shown;</p> +<p>Who seest, appall’d, the unreal scene,</p> +<p>While Fancy lifts the veil between:</p> +<p class='indent2'>Ah Fear! ah frantic Fear! <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>I see, I see thee near.</p> +<p>I know thy hurried step, thy haggard eye!</p> +<p>Like thee I start; like thee disorder’d fly.</p> +<p>For, lo, what monsters in thy train appear!</p> +<p>Danger, whose limbs of giant mould <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p>What mortal eye can fix’d behold?</p> +<p>Who stalks his round, an hideous form,</p> +<p>Howling amidst the midnight storm;</p> +<p>Or throws him on the ridgy steep</p> +<p>Of some loose hanging rock to sleep: <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p>And with him thousand phantoms join’d,</p> +<p>Who prompt to deeds accursed the mind:</p> +<p>And those, the fiends, who, near allied,</p> +<p>O’er Nature’s wounds, and wrecks, preside;</p> +<p>Whilst Vengeance, in the lurid air, <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +<p>Lifts her red arm, exposed and bare:</p> +<p>On whom that ravening<a name='FNanchor_0015' id='FNanchor_0015'></a><a href='#Footnote_0015' class='fnanchor'>[15]</a> brood of Fate,</p> +<p>Who lap the blood of sorrow, wait:</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_25' name='page_25'></a>25</span></p> +<p>Who, Fear, this ghastly train can see,</p> +<p>And look not madly wild, like thee! <span class="linenum">25</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'><span class='smcaplc'>EPODE.</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>In earliest Greece, to thee, with partial choice,</p> +<p class='indent2'>The grief-full Muse addrest her infant tongue;</p> +<p>The maids and matrons, on her awful voice,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Silent and pale, in wild amazement hung.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>Yet he, the bard<a name='FNanchor_0016' id='FNanchor_0016'></a><a href='#Footnote_0016' class='fnanchor'>[16]</a> who first invoked thy name, <span class="linenum">30</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Disdain’d in Marathon its power to feel:</p> +<p>For not alone he nursed the poet’s flame,</p> +<p class='indent2'>But reach’d from Virtue’s hand the patriot’s steel.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>But who is he whom later garlands grace,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Who left a while o’er Hybla’s dews to rove, <span class="linenum">35</span></p> +<p>With trembling eyes thy dreary steps to trace,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Where thou and furies shared the baleful grove?</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>Wrapt in thy cloudy veil, the incestuous<a name='FNanchor_0017' id='FNanchor_0017'></a><a href='#Footnote_0017' class='fnanchor'>[17]</a> queen</p> +<p class='indent2'>Sigh’d the sad call<a name='FNanchor_0018' id='FNanchor_0018'></a><a href='#Footnote_0018' class='fnanchor'>[18]</a> her son and husband heard,</p> +<p>When once alone it broke the silent scene, <span class="linenum">40</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>And he the wretch of Thebes no more appear’d.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_26' name='page_26'></a>26</span></p> +<p>O Fear, I know thee by my throbbing heart:</p> +<p class='indent2'>Thy withering power inspired each mournful line:</p> +<p>Though gentle Pity claim her mingled part,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Yet all the thunders of the scene are thine! <span class="linenum">45</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'><span class='smcaplc'>ANTISTROPHE.</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>Thou who such weary lengths hast past,</p> +<p>Where wilt thou rest, mad Nymph, at last?</p> +<p>Say, wilt thou shroud in haunted cell,</p> +<p>Where gloomy Rape and Murder dwell?</p> +<p class='indent4'>Or, in some hollow’d seat, <span class="linenum">50</span></p> +<p class='indent4'>’Gainst which the big waves beat,</p> +<p>Hear drowning seamen’s cries, in tempests brought?</p> +<p>Dark power, with shuddering meek submitted thought,</p> +<p>Be mine to read the visions old</p> +<p>Which thy awakening bards have told: <span class="linenum">55</span></p> +<p>And, lest thou meet my blasted view,</p> +<p>Hold each strange tale devoutly true;</p> +<p>Ne’er be I found, by thee o’erawed,</p> +<p>In that thrice hallow’d eve, abroad,</p> +<p>When ghosts, as cottage maids believe, <span class="linenum">60</span></p> +<p>Their pebbled beds permitted leave;</p> +<p>And goblins haunt, from fire, or fen,</p> +<p>Or mine, or flood, the walks of men!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>O thou, whose spirit most possest</p> +<p>The sacred seat of Shakespeare’s breast! <span class="linenum">65</span></p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_27' name='page_27'></a>27</span></p> +<p>By all that from thy prophet broke,</p> +<p>In thy divine emotions spoke;</p> +<p>Hither again thy fury deal,</p> +<p>Teach me but once like him to feel:</p> +<p>His cypress wreath my meed decree, <span class="linenum">70</span></p> +<p>And I, O Fear, will dwell with thee!</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_28' name='page_28'></a>28</span> +<a name='ODE_TO_SIMPLICITY' id='ODE_TO_SIMPLICITY'></a> +<h3>ODE TO SIMPLICITY.</h3> +</div> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>O thou, by Nature taught</p> +<p class='indent2'>To breathe her genuine thought,</p> +<p>In numbers warmly pure, and sweetly strong;</p> +<p class='indent2'>Who first, on mountains wild,</p> +<p class='indent2'>In Fancy, loveliest child, <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p>Thy babe, or Pleasure’s, nursed the powers of song!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>Thou, who, with hermit heart,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Disdain’st the wealth of art,</p> +<p>And gauds, and pageant weeds, and trailing pall;</p> +<p class='indent2'>But com’st a decent maid, <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>In attic robe array’d,</p> +<p>O chaste, unboastful Nymph, to thee I call!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>By all the honey’d store</p> +<p class='indent2'>On Hybla’s thymy shore;</p> +<p>By all her blooms, and mingled murmurs dear; <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>By her<a name='FNanchor_0019' id='FNanchor_0019'></a><a href='#Footnote_0019' class='fnanchor'>[19]</a> whose lovelorn woe,</p> +<p class='indent2'>In evening musings slow,</p> +<p>Soothed sweetly sad Electra’s poet’s ear:</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_29' name='page_29'></a>29</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>By old Cephisus deep,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Who spread his wavy sweep, <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +<p>In warbled wanderings, round thy green retreat;</p> +<p class='indent2'>On whose enamel’d side,</p> +<p class='indent2'>When holy Freedom died,</p> +<p>No equal haunt allured thy future feet.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>O sister meek of Truth, <span class="linenum">25</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>To my admiring youth,</p> +<p>Thy sober aid and native charms infuse!</p> +<p class='indent2'>The flowers that sweetest breathe,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Though Beauty cull’d the wreath,</p> +<p>Still ask thy hand to range their order’d hues. <span class="linenum">30</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>While Rome could none esteem</p> +<p class='indent2'>But virtue’s patriot theme,</p> +<p>You lov’d her hills, and led her laureat band:</p> +<p class='indent2'>But staid to sing alone</p> +<p class='indent2'>To one distinguish’d throne; <span class="linenum">35</span></p> +<p>And turn’d thy face, and fled her alter’d land.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>No more, in hall or bower,</p> +<p class='indent2'>The Passions own thy power,</p> +<p>Love, only Love her forceless numbers mean:</p> +<p class='indent2'>For thou hast left her shrine; <span class="linenum">40</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Nor olive more, nor vine,</p> +<p>Shall gain thy feet to bless the servile scene.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>Though taste, though genius, bless</p> +<p class='indent2'>To some divine excess,</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_30' name='page_30'></a>30</span></p> +<p>Faints the cold work till thou inspire the whole; <span class="linenum">45</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>What each, what all supply,</p> +<p class='indent2'>May court, may charm, our eye;</p> +<p>Thou, only thou, canst raise the meeting soul!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>Of these let others ask,</p> +<p class='indent2'>To aid some mighty task, <span class="linenum">50</span></p> +<p>I only seek to find thy temperate vale;</p> +<p class='indent2'>Where oft my reed might sound</p> +<p class='indent2'>To maids and shepherds round,</p> +<p>And all thy sons, O Nature, learn my tale.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_31' name='page_31'></a>31</span> +<a name='ODE_ON_THE_POETICAL_CHARACTER' id='ODE_ON_THE_POETICAL_CHARACTER'></a> +<h3>ODE ON THE POETICAL CHARACTER.</h3> +</div> +<table summary='' class='widthall'><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>As once,––if, not with light regard,</p> +<p>I read aright that gifted bard,</p> +<p>––Him whose school above the rest</p> +<p>His loveliest elfin queen has blest;––</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>She then shall dress a sweeter sod</p> +</div> +<p>One, only one, unrival’d<a name='FNanchor_0020' id='FNanchor_0020'></a><a href='#Footnote_0020' class='fnanchor'>[20]</a> fair, <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p>Might hope the magic girdle wear,</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>By hands unseen the knell is rung;</p> +</div> +<p>At solemn turney hung on high,</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>By fairy forms their dirge is sung;</p> +</div> +<p>The wish of each love-darting eye;</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>––Lo! to each other nymph, in turn, applied,</p> +<p class='indent2'>As if, in air unseen, some hovering hand, <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p>Some chaste and angel friend to virgin fame,</p> +<p class='indent2'>With whisper’d spell had burst the starting band,</p> +<p>It left unblest her loathed dishonour’d side;</p> +<p class='indent2'>Happier, hopeless Fair, if never</p> +<p class='indent2'>Her baffled hand, with vain endeavour, <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p>Had touch’d that fatal zone to her denied!</p> +<p>Young Fancy thus, to me divinest name,</p> +<p class='indent2'>To whom, prepared and bathed in heaven,</p> +<p class='indent2'>The cest of amplest power is given:</p> +<p class='indent2'>To few the godlike gift assigns, <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>To gird their blest prophetic loins,</p> +<p>And gaze her visions wild, and feel unmix’d her flame!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_32' name='page_32'></a>32</span></p> +<p>The band, as fairy legends say,</p> +<p>Was wove on that creating day,</p> +<p>When He, who call’d with thought to birth <span class="linenum">25</span></p> +<p>Yon tented sky, this laughing earth,</p> +<p>And dress’d with springs and forests tall,</p> +<p>And pour’d the main engirting all,</p> +<p>Long by the loved enthusiast woo’d,</p> +<p>Himself in some diviner mood, <span class="linenum">30</span></p> +<p>Retiring, sat with her alone,</p> +<p>And placed her on his sapphire throne;</p> +<p>The whiles, the vaulted shrine around,</p> +<p>Seraphic wires were heard to sound,</p> +<p>Now sublimest triumph swelling, <span class="linenum">35</span></p> +<p>Now on love and mercy dwelling;</p> +<p>And she, from out the veiling cloud,</p> +<p>Breathed her magic notes aloud:</p> +<p>And thou, thou rich-hair’d youth of morn,</p> +<p>And all thy subject life was born! <span class="linenum">40</span></p> +<p>The dangerous passions kept aloof,</p> +<p>Far from the sainted growing woof:</p> +<p>But near it sat ecstatic Wonder,</p> +<p>Listening the deep applauding thunder;</p> +<p>And Truth, in sunny vest array’d, <span class="linenum">45</span></p> +<p>By whose the tarsel’s eyes were made;</p> +<p>All the shadowy tribes of mind,</p> +<p>In braided dance, their murmurs join’d,</p> +<p>And all the bright uncounted powers</p> +<p>Who feed on heaven’s ambrosial flowers. <span class="linenum">50</span></p> +<p>––Where is the bard whose soul can now</p> +<p>Its high presuming hopes avow?</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_33' name='page_33'></a>33</span></p> +<p>Where he who thinks, with rapture blind,</p> +<p>This hallow’d work for him design’d?</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>High on some cliff, to heaven up-piled, <span class="linenum">55</span></p> +<p>Of rude access, of prospect wild,</p> +<p>Where, tangled round the jealous steep,</p> +<p>Strange shades o’erbrow the valleys deep,</p> +<p>And holy Genii guard the rock,</p> +<p>Its glooms embrown, its springs unlock, <span class="linenum">60</span></p> +<p>While on its rich ambitious head,</p> +<p>An Eden, like his own, lies spread:</p> +<p>I view that oak, the fancied glades among,</p> +<p>By which, as Milton lay, his evening ear,</p> +<p>From many a cloud that dropp’d ethereal dew, <span class="linenum">65</span></p> +<p>Nigh sphered in heaven, its native strains could hear;</p> +<p>On which that ancient trump he reach’d was hung:</p> +<p class='indent2'>Thither oft, his glory greeting,</p> +<p class='indent2'>From Waller’s myrtle shades retreating,</p> +<p>With many a vow from Hope’s aspiring tongue, <span class="linenum">70</span></p> +<p>My trembling feet his guiding steps pursue;</p> +<p class='indent2'>In vain––Such bliss to one alone,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Of all the sons of soul, was known;</p> +<p class='indent2'>And Heaven, and Fancy, kindred powers,</p> +<p>Have now o’erturn’d the inspiring bowers; <span class="linenum">75</span></p> +<p>Or curtain’d close such scene from every future view.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_34' name='page_34'></a>34</span> +<a name='ODE_WRITTEN_IN_THE_BEGINNING_OF_THE_YEAR_1746' id='ODE_WRITTEN_IN_THE_BEGINNING_OF_THE_YEAR_1746'></a> +<h3>ODE,</h3> +<h4>WRITTEN IN THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR 1746.</h4> +</div> +<table summary='' class='widthall'><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>How sleep the brave, who sink to rest,</p> +<p>By all their country’s wishes bless’d!</p> +<p>When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,</p> +<p>Returns to deck their hallow’d mould,</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>She then shall dress a sweeter sod</p> +</div> +<p>She there shall dress a sweeter sod <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p>Than Fancy’s feet have ever trod.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<div class='variation'> +<p>By hands unseen the knell is rung;</p> +</div> +<p>By fairy hands their knell is rung;</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>By fairy forms their dirge is sung;</p> +</div> +<p>By forms unseen their dirge is sung;</p> +<p>There Honour comes, a pilgrim-gray,</p> +<p>To bless the turf that wraps their clay; <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p>And Freedom shall awhile repair,</p> +<p>To dwell a weeping hermit there!</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_35' name='page_35'></a>35</span> +<a name='ODE_TO_MERCY' id='ODE_TO_MERCY'></a> +<h3>ODE TO MERCY.</h3> +</div> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'><span class='smcaplc'>STROPHE.</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>O Thou, who sitt’st a smiling bride</p> +<p class='indent2'>By Valour’s arm’d and awful side,</p> +<p>Gentlest of sky-born forms, and best adored;</p> +<p class='indent2'>Who oft with songs, divine to hear,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Winn’st from his fatal grasp the spear, <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p>And hidest in wreaths of flowers his bloodless sword!</p> +<p class='indent2'>Thou who, amidst the deathful field,</p> +<p class='indent2'>By godlike chiefs alone beheld,</p> +<p>Oft with thy bosom bare art found,</p> +<p>Pleading for him the youth who sinks to ground: <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>See, Mercy, see, with pure and loaded hands,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Before thy shrine my country’s genius stands,</p> +<p>And decks thy altar still, though pierced with many a wound.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'><span class='smcaplc'>ANTISTROPHE.</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>When he whom even our joys provoke,</p> +<p class='indent2'>The fiend of nature join’d his yoke, <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p>And rush’d in wrath to make our isle his prey;</p> +<p class='indent2'>Thy form, from out thy sweet abode,</p> +<p class='indent2'>O’ertook him on his blasted road,</p> +<p>And stopp’d his wheels, and look’d his rage away.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_36' name='page_36'></a>36</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>I see recoil his sable steeds, <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>That bore him swift to salvage deeds,</p> +<p>Thy tender melting eyes they own;</p> +<p>O maid, for all thy love to Britain shown,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Where Justice bars her iron tower,</p> +<p class='indent2'>To thee we build a roseate bower; <span class="linenum">25</span></p> +<p>Thou, thou shalt rule our queen, and share our monarch’s throne!</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_37' name='page_37'></a>37</span> +<a name='ODE_TO_LIBERTY' id='ODE_TO_LIBERTY'></a> +<h3>ODE TO LIBERTY.</h3> +</div> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'><span class='smcaplc'>STROPHE.</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>Who shall awake the Spartan fife,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And call in solemn sounds to life,</p> +<p>The youths, whose locks divinely spreading,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Like vernal hyacinths in sullen hue,</p> +<p>At once the breath of fear and virtue shedding, <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Applauding Freedom loved of old to view?</p> +<p>What new Alcæus,<a name='FNanchor_0021' id='FNanchor_0021'></a><a href='#Footnote_0021' class='fnanchor'>[21]</a> fancy-blest,</p> +<p>Shall sing the sword, in myrtles drest,</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_38' name='page_38'></a>38</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>At Wisdom’s shrine awhile its flame concealing,</p> +<p>(What place so fit to seal a deed renown’d?) <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Till she her brightest lightnings round revealing,</p> +<p>It leap’d in glory forth, and dealt her prompted wound!</p> +<p class='indent6'>O goddess, in that feeling hour,</p> +<p class='indent4'>When most its sounds would court thy ears,</p> +<p class='indent6'>Let not my shell’s misguided power<a name='FNanchor_0022' id='FNanchor_0022'></a><a href='#Footnote_0022' class='fnanchor'>[22]</a> <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p class='indent4'>E’er draw thy sad, thy mindful tears.</p> +<p>No, Freedom, no, I will not tell</p> +<p>How Rome, before thy weeping face,</p> +<p>With heaviest sound, a giant-statue, fell,</p> +<p>Push’d by a wild and artless race <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +<p>From off its wide ambitious base,</p> +<p>When Time his northern sons of spoil awoke,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And all the blended work of strength and grace,</p> +<p class='indent2'>With many a rude repeated stroke,</p> +<p>And many a barbarous yell, to thousand fragments broke. <span class="linenum">25</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'><span class='smcaplc'>EPODE.</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>Yet, even where’er the least appear’d,</p> +<p>The admiring world thy hand revered;</p> +<p>Still, ’midst the scatter’d states around,</p> +<p>Some remnants of her strength were found;</p> +<p>They saw, by what escaped the storm, <span class="linenum">30</span></p> +<p>How wondrous rose her perfect form;</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_39' name='page_39'></a>39</span></p> +<p>How in the great, the labour’d whole,</p> +<p>Each mighty master pour’d his soul!</p> +<p>For sunny Florence, seat of art,</p> +<p>Beneath her vines preserved a part, <span class="linenum">35</span></p> +<p>Till they,<a name='FNanchor_0023' id='FNanchor_0023'></a><a href='#Footnote_0023' class='fnanchor'>[23]</a> whom Science loved to name,</p> +<p>(O who could fear it?) quench’d her flame.</p> +<p>And lo, an humbler relic laid</p> +<p>In jealous Pisa’s olive shade!</p> +<p>See small Marino<a name='FNanchor_0024' id='FNanchor_0024'></a><a href='#Footnote_0024' class='fnanchor'>[24]</a> joins the theme, <span class="linenum">40</span></p> +<p>Though least, not last in thy esteem:</p> +<p>Strike, louder strike the ennobling strings</p> +<p>To those,<a name='FNanchor_0025' id='FNanchor_0025'></a><a href='#Footnote_0025' class='fnanchor'>[25]</a> whose merchant sons were kings;</p> +<p>To him,<a name='FNanchor_0026' id='FNanchor_0026'></a><a href='#Footnote_0026' class='fnanchor'>[26]</a> who, deck’d with pearly pride,</p> +<p>In Adria weds his green-hair’d bride; <span class="linenum">45</span></p> +<p>Hail, port of glory, wealth, and pleasure,</p> +<p>Ne’er let me change this Lydian measure:</p> +<p>Nor e’er her former pride relate,</p> +<p>To sad Liguria’s<a name='FNanchor_0027' id='FNanchor_0027'></a><a href='#Footnote_0027' class='fnanchor'>[27]</a> bleeding state.</p> +<p>Ah no! more pleased thy haunts I seek, <span class="linenum">50</span></p> +<p>On wild Helvetia’s<a name='FNanchor_0028' id='FNanchor_0028'></a><a href='#Footnote_0028' class='fnanchor'>[28]</a> mountains bleak:</p> +<p>(Where, when the favour’d of thy choice,</p> +<p>The daring archer heard thy voice;</p> +<p>Forth from his eyrie roused in dread,</p> +<p>The ravening eagle northward fled:) <span class="linenum">55</span></p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_40' name='page_40'></a>40</span></p> +<p>Or dwell in willow’d meads more near,</p> +<p>With those to whom thy stork<a name='FNanchor_0029' id='FNanchor_0029'></a><a href='#Footnote_0029' class='fnanchor'>[29]</a> is dear:</p> +<p>Those whom the rod of Alva bruised,</p> +<p>Whose crown a British queen<a name='FNanchor_0030' id='FNanchor_0030'></a><a href='#Footnote_0030' class='fnanchor'>[30]</a> refused!</p> +<p>The magic works, thou feel’st the strains, <span class="linenum">60</span></p> +<p>One holier name alone remains;</p> +<p>The perfect spell shall then avail,</p> +<p>Hail, nymph, adored by Britain, hail!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'><span class='smcaplc'>ANTISTROPHE.</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>Beyond the measure vast of thought,</p> +<p>The works the wizard time has wrought! <span class="linenum">65</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>The Gaul, ’tis held of antique story,</p> +<p>Saw Britain link’d to his now adverse strand,<a name='FNanchor_0031' id='FNanchor_0031'></a><a href='#Footnote_0031' class='fnanchor'>[31]</a></p> +<p class='indent2'>No sea between, nor cliff sublime and hoary,</p> +<p>He pass’d with unwet feet through all our land.</p> +<p class='indent2'>To the blown Baltic then, they say, <span class="linenum">70</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>The wild waves found another way,</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_41' name='page_41'></a>41</span></p> +<p>Where Orcas howls, his wolfish mountains rounding;</p> +<p class='indent2'>Till all the banded west at once ’gan rise,</p> +<p>A wide wild storm even nature’s self confounding,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Withering her giant sons with strange uncouth surprise. <span class="linenum">75</span></p> +<p class='indent4'>This pillar’d earth so firm and wide,</p> +<p class='indent6'>By winds and inward labours torn,</p> +<p class='indent4'>In thunders dread was push’d aside,</p> +<p class='indent6'>And down the shouldering billows borne.</p> +<p>And see, like gems, her laughing train, <span class="linenum">80</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>The little isles on every side,</p> +<p>Mona,<a name='FNanchor_0032' id='FNanchor_0032'></a><a href='#Footnote_0032' class='fnanchor'>[32]</a> once hid from those who search the main,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Where thousand elfin shapes abide,</p> +<p>And Wight who checks the westering tide,</p> +<p class='indent2'>For thee consenting heaven has each bestow’d, <span class="linenum">85</span></p> +<p>A fair attendant on her sovereign pride:</p> +<p class='indent2'>To thee this blest divorce she owed,</p> +<p>For thou hast made her vales thy loved, thy last abode!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_42' name='page_42'></a>42</span></p> +<p class='center'><span class='smcaplc'>SECOND EPODE.</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>Then too, ’tis said, an hoary pile,</p> +<p>’Midst the green navel of our isle, <span class="linenum">90</span></p> +<p>Thy shrine in some religious wood,</p> +<p>O soul-enforcing goddess, stood!</p> +<p>There oft the painted native’s feet</p> +<p>Were wont thy form celestial meet:</p> +<p>Though now with hopeless toil we trace <span class="linenum">95</span></p> +<p>Time’s backward rolls, to find its place;</p> +<p>Whether the fiery-tresséd Dane,</p> +<p>Or Roman’s self o’erturn’d the fane,</p> +<p>Or in what heaven-left age it fell,</p> +<p>’Twere hard for modern song to tell. <span class="linenum">100</span></p> +<p>Yet still, if Truth those beams infuse,</p> +<p>Which guide at once, and charm the Muse,</p> +<p>Beyond yon braided clouds that lie,</p> +<p>Paving the light embroider’d sky,</p> +<p>Amidst the bright pavilion’d plains, <span class="linenum">105</span></p> +<p>The beauteous model still remains.</p> +<p>There, happier than in islands blest,</p> +<p>Or bowers by spring or Hebe drest,</p> +<p>The chiefs who fill our Albion’s story,</p> +<p>In warlike weeds, retired in glory, <span class="linenum">110</span></p> +<p>Hear their consorted Druids sing</p> +<p>Their triumphs to the immortal string.</p> +<p class='indent2'>How may the poet now unfold</p> +<p>What never tongue or numbers told?</p> +<p>How learn delighted, and amazed, <span class="linenum">115</span></p> +<p>What hands unknown that fabric raised?</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_43' name='page_43'></a>43</span></p> +<p>Even now before his favour’d eyes,</p> +<p>In gothic pride, it seems to rise!</p> +<p>Yet Græcia’s graceful orders join,</p> +<p>Majestic through the mix’d design: <span class="linenum">120</span></p> +<p>The secret builder knew to choose</p> +<p>Each sphere-found gem of richest hues;</p> +<p>Whate’er heaven’s purer mould contains,</p> +<p>When nearer suns emblaze its veins;</p> +<p>There on the walls the patriot’s sight <span class="linenum">125</span></p> +<p>May ever hang with fresh delight,</p> +<p>And, graved with some prophetic rage,</p> +<p>Read Albion’s fame through every age.</p> +<p class='indent2'>Ye forms divine, ye laureat band,</p> +<p>That near her inmost altar stand! <span class="linenum">130</span></p> +<p>Now soothe her to her blissful train</p> +<p>Blithe Concord’s social form to gain;</p> +<p>Concord, whose myrtle wand can steep</p> +<p>Even Anger’s bloodshot eyes in sleep;</p> +<p>Before whose breathing bosom’s balm <span class="linenum">135</span></p> +<p>Rage drops his steel, and storms grow calm:</p> +<p>Her let our sires and matrons hoar</p> +<p>Welcome to Briton’s ravaged shore;</p> +<p>Our youths, enamour’d of the fair,</p> +<p>Play with the tangles of her hair, <span class="linenum">140</span></p> +<p>Till, in one loud applauding sound,</p> +<p>The nations shout to her around,</p> +<p>O how supremely art thou blest,</p> +<p>Thou, lady––thou shalt rule the west!</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_44' name='page_44'></a>44</span> +<a name='ODE_TO_A_LADY_ON_THE_DEATH_OF_COLONEL_ROSS_IN_THE_ACTION_OF_FONTENOY___WRITTEN_IN_MAY_1745' id='ODE_TO_A_LADY_ON_THE_DEATH_OF_COLONEL_ROSS_IN_THE_ACTION_OF_FONTENOY___WRITTEN_IN_MAY_1745'></a> +<h3>ODE TO A LADY,</h3> +<h4><span class='smcaplc'>ON THE DEATH OF COLONEL ROSS, IN THE ACTION OF FONTENOY.</span><br /><br />Written in May, 1745.</h4> +</div> +<table summary='' class='widthall'><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>While, lost to all his former mirth,</p> +<p>Britannia’s genius bends to earth,</p> +<p class='indent4'>And mourns the fatal day:</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>While sunk in grief he strives to tear</p> +</div> +<p>While stain’d with blood he strives to tear</p> +<p>Unseemly from his sea-green hair <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p class='indent4'>The wreaths of cheerful May:</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>The thoughts which musing Pity pays,</p> +<p>And fond Remembrance loves to raise,</p> +<p class='indent4'>Your faithful hours attend;</p> +<p>Still Fancy, to herself unkind, <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p>Awakes to grief the soften’d mind,</p> +<p class='indent4'>And points the bleeding friend.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>By rapid Scheld’s descending wave</p> +<p>His country’s vows shall bless the grave,</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_45' name='page_45'></a>45</span></p> +<p class='indent4'>Where’er the youth is laid: <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p>That sacred spot the village hind</p> +<p>With every sweetest turf shall bind,</p> +<p class='indent4'>And Peace protect the shade.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<div class='variation'> +<p>E’en now regardful of his doom</p> +<p>Applauding Honour haunts his tomb,</p> +<p class='indent4'>With shadowy trophies crown’d:</p> +<p>Whilst Freedom’s form beside her roves,</p> +<p>Majestic through the twilight groves,</p> +<p class='indent4'>And calls her heroes round.</p> +</div> +<div class='variation'> +<p><span class="smaller smcap"><i>2<sup>nd</sup> variation of Verse 19</i></span></p> +<p>O’er him, whose doom thy virtues grieve,</p> +<p>Aërial forms shall sit at eve,</p> +<p class='indent4'>And bend the pensive head;</p> +<p>And, fallen to save his injured land,</p> +<p>Imperial Honour’s awful hand</p> +<p class='indent4'>Shall point his lonely bed.</p> +</div> +<p>Blest youth, regardful of thy doom,</p> +<p>Aërial hands shall build thy tomb, <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +<p class='indent4'>With shadowy trophies crown’d;</p> +<p>Whilst Honour bathed in tears shall rove</p> +<p>To sigh thy name through every grove,</p> +<p class='indent4'>And call his heroes round.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>The warlike dead of every age, <span class="linenum">25</span></p> +<p>Who fill the fair recording page,</p> +<p class='indent4'>Shall leave their sainted rest;</p> +<p>And, half reclining on his spear,</p> +<p>Each wondering chief by turns appear,</p> +<p class='indent4'>To hail the blooming guest: <span class="linenum">30</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_46' name='page_46'></a>46</span></p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Old Edward’s sons, untaught to yield,</p> +</div> +<p>Old Edward’s sons, unknown to yield,</p> +<p>Shall crowd from Cressy’s laurel’d field,</p> +<p class='indent4'>And gaze with fix’d delight;</p> +<p>Again for Britain’s wrongs they feel,</p> +<p>Again they snatch the gleamy steel, <span class="linenum">35</span></p> +<p class='indent4'>And wish the avenging fight.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>But lo, where, sunk in deep despair,</p> +<p>Her garments torn, her bosom bare,</p> +<p class='indent4'>Impatient Freedom lies!</p> +<p>Her matted tresses madly spread, <span class="linenum">40</span></p> +<p>To every sod, which wraps the dead,</p> +<p class='indent4'>She turns her joyless eyes.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>Ne’er shall she leave that lowly ground</p> +<p>Till notes of triumph bursting round</p> +<p class='indent4'>Proclaim her reign restored: <span class="linenum">45</span></p> +<p>Till William seek the sad retreat,</p> +<p>And, bleeding at her sacred feet,</p> +<p class='indent4'>Present the sated sword.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<div class='variation'> +<p>If, drawn by all a lover’s art,</p> +</div> +<p>If, weak to soothe so soft a heart,</p> +<p>These pictured glories nought impart, <span class="linenum">50</span></p> +<p class='indent4'>To dry thy constant tear:</p> +<p>If, yet, in Sorrow’s distant eye,</p> +<p>Exposed and pale thou see’st him lie,</p> +<p class='indent4'>Wild War insulting near:</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_47' name='page_47'></a>47</span></p> +<p>Where’er from time thou court’st relief, <span class="linenum">55</span></p> +<p>The Muse shall still, with social grief,</p> +<p class='indent4'>Her gentlest promise keep;</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Even humble Harting’s cottaged vale</p> +</div> +<p>Even humbled Harting’s cottaged vale<a name='FNanchor_0033' id='FNanchor_0033'></a><a href='#Footnote_0033' class='fnanchor'>[33]</a></p> +<p>Shall learn the sad repeated tale,</p> +<p class='indent4'>And bid her shepherds weep. <span class="linenum">60</span></p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_48' name='page_48'></a>48</span> +<a name='ODE_TO_EVENING' id='ODE_TO_EVENING'></a> +<h3>ODE TO EVENING.</h3> +</div> +<table summary='' class='widthall'><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>If aught of oaten stop, or pastoral song,</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>May hope, O pensive Eve, to soothe thine ear,</p> +</div> +<p>May hope, chaste Eve, to soothe thy modest ear,</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p class='indent4'>Like thy own solemn springs,</p> +</div> +<p class='indent4'>Like thy own brawling springs,</p> +<p class='indent4'>Thy springs, and dying gales;</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>O Nymph reserved, while now the bright-hair’d sun <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p>Sits in yon western tent, whose cloudy skirts,</p> +<p class='indent4'>With brede ethereal wove,</p> +<p class='indent4'>O’erhang his wavy bed:</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<div class='variation'> +<p>While air is hush’d, save where the weak-eyed bat</p> +</div> +<p>Now air is hush’d, save where the weak-eyed bat</p> +<p>With short shrill shriek flits by on leathern wing; <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p class='indent4'>Or where the beetle winds</p> +<p class='indent4'>His small but sullen horn,</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_49' name='page_49'></a>49</span></p> +<p>As oft he rises ’midst the twilight path,</p> +<p>Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum:</p> +<p class='indent4'>Now teach me, maid composed, <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p class='indent4'>To breathe some soften’d strain,</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>Whose numbers, stealing through thy darkening vale,</p> +<p>May not unseemly with its stillness suit;</p> +<p class='indent4'>As, musing slow, I hail</p> +<p class='indent4'>Thy genial loved return! <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>For when thy folding-star arising shows</p> +<p>His paly circlet, at his warning lamp</p> +<p class='indent4'>The fragrant Hours, and Elves</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p class='indent4'>Who slept in flowers the day,</p> +</div> +<p class='indent4'>Who slept in buds the day,</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>And many a Nymph who wreathes her brows with sedge, <span class="linenum">25</span></p> +<p>And sheds the freshening dew, and, lovelier still,</p> +<p class='indent4'>The pensive Pleasures sweet,</p> +<p class='indent4'>Prepare thy shadowy car.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Then lead, calm vot’ress, where some sheety lake</p> +<p>Cheers the lone heath, or some time-hallow’d pile,</p> +</div> +<p>Then let me rove some wild and heathy scene;</p> +<p>Or find some ruin, ’midst its dreary dells, <span class="linenum">30</span></p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_50' name='page_50'></a>50</span></p> +<p class='indent4'>Whose walls more awful nod</p> +<p class='indent4'>By thy religious gleams.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<div class='variation'> +<p>But when chill blustering winds, or driving rain,</p> +<p>Forbid my willing feet, be mine the hut,</p> +</div> +<p>Or, if chill blustering winds, or driving rain,</p> +<p>Prevent my willing feet, be mine the hut,</p> +<p class='indent4'>That, from the mountain’s side, <span class="linenum">35</span></p> +<p class='indent4'>Views wilds, and swelling floods,</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>And hamlets brown, and dim-discover’d spires;</p> +<p>And hears their simple bell, and marks o’er all</p> +<p class='indent4'>Thy dewy fingers draw</p> +<p class='indent4'>The gradual dusky veil. <span class="linenum">40</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>While Spring shall pour his showers, as oft he wont,</p> +<p>And bathe thy breathing tresses, meekest Eve!</p> +<p class='indent4'>While Summer loves to sport</p> +<p class='indent4'>Beneath thy lingering light;</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>While sallow Autumn fills thy lap with leaves; <span class="linenum">45</span></p> +<p>Or Winter, yelling through the troublous air,</p> +<p class='indent4'>Affrights thy shrinking train,</p> +<p class='indent4'>And rudely rends thy robes;</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_51' name='page_51'></a>51</span></p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>So long, sure-found beneath the sylvan shed,</p> +<p>Shall Fancy, Friendship, Science, rose-lipp’d Health,</p> +<p class='indent4'>Thy gentlest influence own,</p> +<p class='indent4'>And hymn thy favourite name!</p> +</div> +<p>So long, regardful of thy quiet rule,</p> +<p>Shall Fancy, Friendship, Science, smiling Peace, <span class="linenum">50</span></p> +<p class='indent4'>Thy gentlest influence own,</p> +<p class='indent4'>And love thy favourite name!</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_52' name='page_52'></a>52</span> +<a name='ODE_TO_PEACE' id='ODE_TO_PEACE'></a> +<h3>ODE TO PEACE.</h3> +</div> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>O thou, who bad’st thy turtles bear</p> +<p>Swift from his grasp thy golden hair,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And sought’st thy native skies;</p> +<p>When War, by vultures drawn from far,</p> +<p>To Britain bent his iron car, <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>And bade his storms arise!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>Tired of his rude tyrannic sway,</p> +<p>Our youth shall fix some festive day,</p> +<p class='indent2'>His sullen shrines to burn:</p> +<p>But thou who hear’st the turning spheres, <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p>What sounds may charm thy partial ears,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And gain thy blest return!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>O Peace, thy injured robes up-bind!</p> +<p>O rise! and leave not one behind</p> +<p class='indent2'>Of all thy beamy train; <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p>The British Lion, goddess sweet,</p> +<p>Lies stretch’d on earth to kiss thy feet,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And own thy holier reign.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_53' name='page_53'></a>53</span></p> +<p>Let others court thy transient smile,</p> +<p>But come to grace thy western isle, <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>By warlike Honour led;</p> +<p>And, while around her ports rejoice,</p> +<p>While all her sons adore thy choice,</p> +<p class='indent2'>With him for ever wed!</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_54' name='page_54'></a>54</span> +<a name='THE_MANNERS_AN_ODE' id='THE_MANNERS_AN_ODE'></a> +<h3>THE MANNERS.</h3> +<h4>AN ODE.</h4> +</div> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>Farewell, for clearer ken design’d,</p> +<p>The dim-discover’d tracts of mind;</p> +<p>Truths which, from action’s paths retired,</p> +<p>My silent search in vain required!</p> +<p>No more my sail that deep explores; <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p>No more I search those magic shores;</p> +<p>What regions part the world of soul,</p> +<p>Or whence thy streams, Opinion, roll:</p> +<p>If e’er I round such fairy field,</p> +<p>Some power impart the spear and shield, <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p>At which the wizard Passions fly;</p> +<p>By which the giant Follies die!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>Farewell the porch whose roof is seen</p> +<p>Arch’d with the enlivening olive’s green:</p> +<p>Where Science, prank’d in tissued vest, <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p>By Reason, Pride, and Fancy drest,</p> +<p>Comes, like a bride, so trim array’d,</p> +<p>To wed with Doubt in Plato’s shade!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>Youth of the quick uncheated sight,</p> +<p>Thy walks, Observance, more invite! <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_55' name='page_55'></a>55</span></p> +<p>O thou who lovest that ampler range,</p> +<p>Where life’s wide prospects round thee change,</p> +<p>And, with her mingling sons allied,</p> +<p>Throw’st the prattling page aside,</p> +<p>To me, in converse sweet, impart <span class="linenum">25</span></p> +<p>To read in man the native heart;</p> +<p>To learn, where Science sure is found,</p> +<p>From Nature as she lives around;</p> +<p>And, gazing oft her mirror true,</p> +<p>By turns each shifting image view! <span class="linenum">30</span></p> +<p>Till meddling Art’s officious lore</p> +<p>Reverse the lessons taught before;</p> +<p>Alluring from a safer rule,</p> +<p>To dream in her enchanted school:</p> +<p>Thou, Heaven, whate’er of great we boast, <span class="linenum">35</span></p> +<p>Hast blest this social science most.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>Retiring hence to thoughtful cell,</p> +<p>As Fancy breathes her potent spell,</p> +<p>Not vain she finds the charmful task,</p> +<p>In pageant quaint, in motley mask; <span class="linenum">40</span></p> +<p>Behold, before her musing eyes,</p> +<p>The countless Manners round her rise;</p> +<p>While, ever varying as they pass,</p> +<p>To some Contempt applies her glass:</p> +<p>With these the white-robed maids combine; <span class="linenum">45</span></p> +<p>And those the laughing satyrs join!</p> +<p>But who is he whom now she views,</p> +<p>In robe of wild contending hues?</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_56' name='page_56'></a>56</span></p> +<p>Thou by the Passions nursed, I greet</p> +<p>The comic sock that binds thy feet! <span class="linenum">50</span></p> +<p>O Humour, thou whose name is known</p> +<p>To Britain’s favour’d isle alone:</p> +<p>Me too amidst thy band admit;</p> +<p>There where the young-eyed healthful Wit,</p> +<p>(Whose jewels in his crispéd hair <span class="linenum">55</span></p> +<p>Are placed each other’s beams to share;</p> +<p>Whom no delights from thee divide)</p> +<p>In laughter loosed, attends thy side.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>By old Miletus,<a name='FNanchor_0034' id='FNanchor_0034'></a><a href='#Footnote_0034' class='fnanchor'>[34]</a> who so long</p> +<p>Has ceased his love-inwoven song; <span class="linenum">60</span></p> +<p>By all you taught the Tuscan maids,</p> +<p>In changed Italia’s modern shades;</p> +<p>By him<a name='FNanchor_0035' id='FNanchor_0035'></a><a href='#Footnote_0035' class='fnanchor'>[35]</a> whose knight’s distinguish’d name</p> +<p>Refined a nation’s lust of fame;</p> +<p>Whose tales e’en now, with echoes sweet, <span class="linenum">65</span></p> +<p>Castilia’s Moorish hills repeat;</p> +<p>Or him<a name='FNanchor_0036' id='FNanchor_0036'></a><a href='#Footnote_0036' class='fnanchor'>[36]</a> whom Seine’s blue nymphs deplore,</p> +<p>In watchet weeds on Gallia’s shore;</p> +<p>Who drew the sad Sicilian maid,</p> +<p>By virtues in her sire betray’d. <span class="linenum">70</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_57' name='page_57'></a>57</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>O Nature boon, from whom proceed</p> +<p>Each forceful thought, each prompted deed;</p> +<p>If but from thee I hope to feel,</p> +<p>On all my heart imprint thy seal!</p> +<p>Let some retreating cynic find <span class="linenum">75</span></p> +<p>Those oft-turn’d scrolls I leave behind:</p> +<p>The Sports and I this hour agree,</p> +<p>To rove thy scene-full world with thee!</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_58' name='page_58'></a>58</span> +<a name='THE_PASSIONS_AN_ODE_FOR_MUSIC' id='THE_PASSIONS_AN_ODE_FOR_MUSIC'></a> +<h3>THE PASSIONS.</h3> +<h4>AN ODE FOR MUSIC.</h4> +</div> +<p class='center'>Performed at Oxford, with Hayes’s music, in 1750.</p> +<table summary='' class='widthall'><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>When Music, heavenly maid, was young,</p> +<p>While yet in early Greece she sung,</p> +<p>The Passions oft, to hear her shell,</p> +<p>Throng’d around her magic cell,</p> +<p>Exulting, trembling, raging, fainting, <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p>Possest beyond the Muse’s painting:</p> +<p>By turns they felt the glowing mind</p> +<p>Disturb’d, delighted, raised, refined;</p> +<p>Till once, ’tis said, when all were fired,</p> +<p>Fill’d with fury, rapt, inspired, <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p>From the supporting myrtles round</p> +<p>They snatch’d her instruments of sound;</p> +<p>And, as they oft had heard apart</p> +<p>Sweet lessons of her forceful art,</p> +<p>Each (for Madness ruled the hour) <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p>Would prove his own expressive power.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>First Fear his hand, its skill to try,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Amid the chords bewilder’d laid,</p> +<p>And back recoil’d, he knew not why,</p> +<p class='indent2'>E’en at the sound himself had made. <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_59' name='page_59'></a>59</span></p> +<p>Next Anger rush’d; his eyes on fire,</p> +<p class='indent2'>In lightnings own’d his secret stings:</p> +<p>In one rude clash he struck the lyre,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And swept with hurried hand the strings.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>With woful measures wan Despair <span class="linenum">25</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Low, sullen sounds his grief beguiled;</p> +<p>A solemn, strange, and mingled air;</p> +<p class='indent2'>’Twas sad by fits, by starts ’twas wild.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>But thou, O Hope, with eyes so fair,</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p class='indent2'>What was thy delightful measure?</p> +</div> +<p class='indent2'>What was thy delighted measure? <span class="linenum">30</span></p> +<p>Still it whisper’d promised pleasure,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail!</p> +<p>Still would her touch the strain prolong;</p> +<p class='indent2'>And from the rocks, the woods, the vale,</p> +<p>She call’d on Echo still, through all the song; <span class="linenum">35</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>And, where her sweetest theme she chose,</p> +<p class='indent2'>A soft responsive voice was heard at every close,</p> +<p>And Hope enchanted smiled, and waved her golden hair.</p> +<p>And longer had she sung;––but, with a frown,</p> +<p class='indent4'>Revenge impatient rose: <span class="linenum">40</span></p> +<p>He threw his blood-stain’d sword, in thunder, down;</p> +<p class='indent4'>And, with a withering look,</p> +<p class='indent2'>The war-denouncing trumpet took,</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_60' name='page_60'></a>60</span></p> +<p>And blew a blast so loud and dread,</p> +<p>Were ne’er prophetic sounds so full of woe! <span class="linenum">45</span></p> +<p class='indent4'>And, ever and anon, he beat</p> +<p class='indent4'>The doubling drum, with furious heat;</p> +<p>And though sometimes, each dreary pause between,</p> +<p class='indent4'>Dejected Pity, at his side,</p> +<p class='indent4'>Her soul-subduing voice applied, <span class="linenum">50</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Yet still he kept his wild unalter’d mein,</p> +<p>While each strain’d ball of sight seem’d bursting from his head.</p> +<p class='indent2'>Thy numbers, Jealousy, to nought were fix’d;</p> +<p class='indent4'>Sad proof of thy distressful state;</p> +<p class='indent2'>Of differing themes the veering song was mix’d; <span class="linenum">55</span></p> +<p class='indent4'>And now it courted Love, now raving call’d on Hate.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>With eyes upraised, as one inspired,</p> +<p>Pale Melancholy sate retired;</p> +<p>And, from her wild sequester’d seat,</p> +<p>In notes by distance made more sweet, <span class="linenum">60</span></p> +<p>Pour’d through the mellow horn her pensive soul:</p> +<p class='indent2'>And, dashing soft from rocks around,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Bubbling runnels join’d the sound;</p> +<p>Through glades and glooms the mingled measure stole,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Or, o’er some haunted stream, with fond delay, <span class="linenum">65</span></p> +<p class='indent4'>Round an holy calm diffusing,</p> +<p class='indent4'>Love of Peace, and lonely musing,</p> +<p class='indent2'>In hollow murmurs died away.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_61' name='page_61'></a>61</span></p> +<p>But O! how alter’d was its sprightlier tone,</p> +<p>When Cheerfulness, a nymph of healthiest hue, <span class="linenum">70</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Her bow across her shoulder flung,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Her buskins gemm’d with morning dew,</p> +<p>Blew an inspiring air, that dale and thicket rung,</p> +<p class='indent2'>The hunter’s call, to Faun and Dryad known!</p> +<p>The oak-crown’d Sisters, and their chaste-eyed Queen, <span class="linenum">75</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Satyrs and Sylvan Boys, were seen,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Peeping from forth their alleys green:</p> +<p>Brown Exercise rejoiced to hear;</p> +<p class='indent2'>And Sport leapt up, and seized his beechen spear.</p> +<p>Last came Joy’s ecstatic trial: <span class="linenum">80</span></p> +<p>He, with viny crown advancing,</p> +<p class='indent2'>First to the lively pipe his hand addrest;</p> +<p>But soon he saw the brisk awakening viol,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Whose sweet entrancing voice he loved the best;</p> +<p>They would have thought who heard the strain <span class="linenum">85</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>They saw, in Tempe’s vale, her native maids,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Amidst the festal sounding shades,</p> +<p>To some unwearied minstrel dancing,</p> +<p>While, as his flying fingers kiss’d the strings,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Love framed with Mirth a gay fantastic round: <span class="linenum">90</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Loose were her tresses seen, her zone unbound;</p> +<p class='indent2'>And he, amidst his frolic play,</p> +<p class='indent2'>As if he would the charming air repay,</p> +<p>Shook thousand odours from his dewy wings.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>O Music! sphere-descended maid, <span class="linenum">95</span></p> +<p>Friend of Pleasure, Wisdom’s aid!</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_62' name='page_62'></a>62</span></p> +<p>Why, goddess! why, to us denied,</p> +<p>Lay’st thou thy ancient lyre aside?</p> +<p>As, in that loved Athenian bower,</p> +<p>You learn’d an all commanding power, <span class="linenum">100</span></p> +<p>Thy mimic soul, O Nymph endear’d,</p> +<p>Can well recall what then it heard;</p> +<p>Where is thy native simple heart,</p> +<p>Devote to Virtue, Fancy, Art?</p> +<p>Arise, as in that elder time, <span class="linenum">105</span></p> +<p>Warm, energetic, chaste, sublime!</p> +<p>Thy wonders, in that godlike age,</p> +<p>Fill thy recording Sister’s page––</p> +<p>’Tis said, and I believe the tale,</p> +<p>Thy humblest reed could more prevail, <span class="linenum">110</span></p> +<p>Had more of strength, diviner rage,</p> +<p>Than all which charms this laggard age;</p> +<p>E’en all at once together found,</p> +<p>Cecilia’s mingled world of sound––</p> +<p>O bid our vain endeavours cease; <span class="linenum">115</span></p> +<p>Revive the just designs of Greece:</p> +<p>Return in all thy simple state!</p> +<p>Confirm the tales her sons relate!</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_63' name='page_63'></a>63</span> +<a name='ODE_ON_THE_DEATH_OF_THOMSON_THE_SCENE_IS_SUPPOSED_TO_LIE_ON_THE_THAMES_NEAR_RICHMOND' id='ODE_ON_THE_DEATH_OF_THOMSON_THE_SCENE_IS_SUPPOSED_TO_LIE_ON_THE_THAMES_NEAR_RICHMOND'></a> +<h3>ODE ON THE DEATH OF THOMSON.</h3> +<h4>THE SCENE IS SUPPOSED TO LIE ON THE THAMES NEAR RICHMOND.</h4> +</div> +<table summary='' class='widthall'><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>In yonder grave a Druid lies,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Where slowly winds the stealing wave;</p> +<p>The year’s best sweets shall duteous rise</p> +<p class='indent2'>To deck its poet’s sylvan grave.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>In yon deep bed of whispering reeds <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>His airy harp<a name='FNanchor_0037' id='FNanchor_0037'></a><a href='#Footnote_0037' class='fnanchor'>[37]</a> shall now be laid,</p> +<p>That he, whose heart in sorrow bleeds,</p> +<p class='indent2'>May love through life the soothing shade.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>Then maids and youths shall linger here,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And while its sounds at distance swell, <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p>Shall sadly seem in pity’s ear</p> +<p class='indent2'>To hear the woodland pilgrim’s knell.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_64' name='page_64'></a>64</span></p> +<p>Remembrance oft shall haunt the shore</p> +<p class='indent2'>When Thames in summer wreaths is drest,</p> +<p>And oft suspend the dashing oar, <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>To bid his gentle spirit rest!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>And oft, as ease and health retire</p> +<p class='indent2'>To breezy lawn, or forest deep,</p> +<p>The friend shall view yon whitening<a name='FNanchor_0038' id='FNanchor_0038'></a><a href='#Footnote_0038' class='fnanchor'>[38]</a> spire</p> +<p class='indent2'>And ’mid the varied landscape weep. <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<div class='variation'> +<p>But thou who own’st that earthly bed,</p> +</div> +<p>But thou, who own’st that earthy bed,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Ah! what will every dirge avail;</p> +<p>Or tears, which love and pity shed,</p> +<p class='indent2'>That mourn beneath the gliding sail?</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>Yet lives there one, whose heedless eye <span class="linenum">25</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Shall scorn thy pale shrine glimmering near?</p> +<p>With him, sweet bard, may fancy die,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And joy desert the blooming year.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>But thou, lorn stream, whose sullen tide</p> +<p class='indent2'>No sedge-crown’d sisters now attend, <span class="linenum">30</span></p> +<p>Now waft me from the green hill’s side,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Whose cold turf hides the buried friend!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_65' name='page_65'></a>65</span></p> +<p>And see, the fairy valleys fade;</p> +<p class='indent2'>Dun night has veil’d the solemn view!</p> +<p>Yet once again, dear parted shade, <span class="linenum">35</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Meek Nature’s Child, again adieu!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>The genial meads,<a name='FNanchor_0039' id='FNanchor_0039'></a><a href='#Footnote_0039' class='fnanchor'>[39]</a> assign’d to bless</p> +<p class='indent2'>Thy life, shall mourn thy early doom;</p> +<p>Their hinds and shepherd-girls shall dress,</p> +<p class='indent2'>With simple hands, thy rural tomb. <span class="linenum">40</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>Long, long, thy stone and pointed clay</p> +<p class='indent2'>Shall melt the musing Briton’s eyes:</p> +<p>O! vales and wild woods, shall he say,</p> +<p class='indent2'>In yonder grave your Druid lies!</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_66' name='page_66'></a>66</span> +<a name='ODE_ON_THE_POPULAR_SUPERSTITIONS_OF_THE_HIGHLANDS_OF_SCOTLAND_CONSIDERED_AS_THE_SUBJECT_OF_POETRY_INSCRIBED_TO_MR_JOHN_HOME' id='ODE_ON_THE_POPULAR_SUPERSTITIONS_OF_THE_HIGHLANDS_OF_SCOTLAND_CONSIDERED_AS_THE_SUBJECT_OF_POETRY_INSCRIBED_TO_MR_JOHN_HOME'></a> +<h3>ODE ON THE POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS OF THE HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND;</h3> +<h4>CONSIDERED AS THE SUBJECT OF POETRY; INSCRIBED TO MR. JOHN HOME.</h4> +</div> +<table summary='' class='widthall'><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'>I.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>Home, thou return’st from Thames, whose Naiads long</p> +<p class='indent2'>Have seen thee lingering with a fond delay,</p> +<p class='indent2'>’Mid those soft friends, whose hearts, some future day,</p> +<p>Shall melt, perhaps, to hear thy tragic song.<a name='FNanchor_0040' id='FNanchor_0040'></a><a href='#Footnote_0040' class='fnanchor'>[40]</a></p> +<p>Go, not unmindful of that cordial youth<a name='FNanchor_0041' id='FNanchor_0041'></a><a href='#Footnote_0041' class='fnanchor'>[41]</a> <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Whom, long endear’d, thou leavest by Levant’s side;</p> +<p>Together let us wish him lasting truth,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And joy untainted with his destined bride.</p> +<p>Go! nor regardless, while these numbers boast</p> +<p class='indent2'>My short-lived bliss, forget my social name; <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p>But think, far off, how, on the southern coast,</p> +<p class='indent2'>I met thy friendship with an equal flame!</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_67' name='page_67'></a>67</span></p> +<p>Fresh to that soil thou turn’st, where every vale</p> +<p class='indent2'>Shall prompt the poet, and his song demand:</p> +<p>To thee thy copious subjects ne’er shall fail; <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Thou need’st but take thy pencil to thy hand,</p> +<p>And paint what all believe, who own thy genial land.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'>II.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>There must thou wake perforce thy Doric quill;</p> +<p class='indent2'>’Tis Fancy’s land to which thou sett’st thy feet;</p> +<p class='indent2'>Where still, ’tis said, the fairy people meet, <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +<p>Beneath each birken shade, on mead or hill;</p> +<p>There, each trim lass, that skims the milky store,</p> +<p class='indent2'>To the swart tribes their creamy bowls allots;</p> +<p>By night they sip it round the cottage door,</p> +<p class='indent2'>While airy minstrels warble jocund notes. <span class="linenum">25</span></p> +<p>There, every herd, by sad experience, knows</p> +<p class='indent2'>How, wing’d with fate, their elf-shot arrows fly,</p> +<p>When the sick ewe her summer food foregoes,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Or, stretch’d on earth, the heart-smit heifers lie.</p> +<p>Such airy beings awe the untutor’d swain: <span class="linenum">30</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Nor thou, though learn’d, his homelier thoughts neglect;</p> +<p>Let thy sweet muse the rural faith sustain;</p> +<p class='indent2'>These are the themes of simple, sure effect,</p> +<p>That add new conquests to her boundless reign,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And fill, with double force, her heart-commanding strain. <span class="linenum">35</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_68' name='page_68'></a>68</span></p> +<p class='center'>III.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>E’en yet preserved, how often mayst thou hear,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Where to the pole the Boreal mountains run,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Taught by the father, to his listening son,</p> +<p>Strange lays, whose power had charm’d a Spenser’s ear.</p> +<p>At every pause, before thy mind possest, <span class="linenum">40</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Old Runic bards shall seem to rise around,</p> +<p>With uncouth lyres, in many-colour’d vest,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Their matted hair with boughs fantastic crown’d:</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Whether thou bidst the well taught hind relate</p> +</div> +<p>Whether thou bidst the well taught hind repeat</p> +<p class='indent2'>The choral dirge, that mourns some chieftain brave, <span class="linenum">45</span></p> +<p>When every shrieking maid her bosom beat,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And strew’d with choicest herbs his scented grave!</p> +<p>Or whether, sitting in the shepherd’s shiel,<a name='FNanchor_0042' id='FNanchor_0042'></a><a href='#Footnote_0042' class='fnanchor'>[42]</a></p> +<p class='indent2'>Thou hear’st some sounding tale of war’s alarms;</p> +<p>When at the bugle’s call, with fire and steel, <span class="linenum">50</span></p> +<div class='variation'> +<p class='indent2'>The sturdy clans pour’d forth their bony swarms,</p> +</div> +<p class='indent2'>The sturdy clans pour’d forth their brawny swarms,</p> +<p>And hostile brothers met, to prove each other’s arms.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_69' name='page_69'></a>69</span></p> +<p class='center'>IV.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>’Tis thine to sing, how, framing hideous spells,</p> +<p class='indent2'>In Sky’s lone isle, the gifted wizard seer,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Lodged in the wintry cave with Fate’s fell spear, <span class="linenum">55</span></p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Or in the gloom of Uist’s dark forest dwells:</p> +</div> +<p>Or in the depth of Uist’s dark forest dwells:</p> +<p class='indent2'>How they, whose sight such dreary dreams engross,</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>With their own visions oft afflicted droop,</p> +</div> +<p>With their own visions oft astonish’d droop,</p> +<p class='indent2'>When, o’er the watery strath, or quaggy moss,</p> +<p>They see the gliding ghosts unbodied troop. <span class="linenum">60</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Or, if in sports, or on the festive green,</p> +<p>Their destined glance some fated youth descry,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Who now, perhaps, in lusty vigour seen,</p> +<p>And rosy health, shall soon lamented die.</p> +<p class='indent2'>For them the viewless forms of air obey; <span class="linenum">65</span></p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Their bidding mark, and at their beck repair:</p> +</div> +<p>Their bidding heed, and at their beck repair:</p> +<p class='indent2'>They know what spirit brews the stormful day,</p> +<p>And heartless, oft like moody madness, stare</p> +<p>To see the phantom train their secret work prepare.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'>V.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>To monarchs dear, some hundred miles astray, <span class="linenum">70</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Oft have they seen Fate give the fatal blow!</p> +<p class='indent2'>The seer, in Sky, shriek’d as the blood did flow,</p> +<p>When headless Charles warm on the scaffold lay!</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_70' name='page_70'></a>70</span></p> +<p>As Boreas threw his young Aurora<a name='FNanchor_0043' id='FNanchor_0043'></a><a href='#Footnote_0043' class='fnanchor'>[43]</a> forth,</p> +<p class='indent2'>In the first year of the first George’s reign, <span class="linenum">75</span></p> +<p>And battles raged in welkin of the North,</p> +<p class='indent2'>They mourn’d in air, fell, fell Rebellion slain!</p> +<p>And as, of late, they joy’d in Preston’s fight,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Saw, at sad Falkirk, all their hopes near crown’d!</p> +<p>They raved! divining, through their second sight,<a name='FNanchor_0044' id='FNanchor_0044'></a><a href='#Footnote_0044' class='fnanchor'>[44]</a> <span class="linenum">80</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Pale, red Culloden, where these hopes were drown’d!</p> +<p>Illustrious William!<a name='FNanchor_0045' id='FNanchor_0045'></a><a href='#Footnote_0045' class='fnanchor'>[45]</a> Britain’s guardian name!</p> +<p class='indent2'>One William saved us from a tyrant’s stroke;</p> +<p>He, for a sceptre, gain’d heroic fame,</p> +<p class='indent2'>But thou, more glorious, Slavery’s chain hast broke, <span class="linenum">85</span></p> +<p>To reign a private man, and bow to Freedom’s yoke!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'>VI.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>These, too, thou’lt sing! for well thy magic muse</p> +<p class='indent2'>Can to the topmost heaven of grandeur soar;</p> +<p class='indent2'>Or stoop to wail the swain that is no more!</p> +<p>Ah, homely swains! your homeward steps ne’er lose; <span class="linenum">90</span></p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_71' name='page_71'></a>71</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Let not dank Will<a name='FNanchor_0046' id='FNanchor_0046'></a><a href='#Footnote_0046' class='fnanchor'>[46]</a> mislead you to the heath;</p> +<p>Dancing in mirky night, o’er fen and lake,</p> +<p class='indent2'>He glows, to draw you downward to your death,</p> +<p>In his bewitch’d, low, marshy, willow brake!</p> +<p>What though far off, from some dark dell espied, <span class="linenum">95</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>His glimmering mazes cheer the excursive sight,</p> +<p>Yet turn, ye wanderers, turn your steps aside,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Nor trust the guidance of that faithless light;</p> +<p>For watchful, lurking, ’mid the unrustling reed,</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p class='indent2'>At those sad hours the wily monster lies;</p> +</div> +<p class='indent2'>At those mirk hours the wily monster lies, <span class="linenum">100</span></p> +<p>And listens oft to hear the passing steed,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And frequent round him rolls his sullen eyes,</p> +<p>If chance his savage wrath may some weak wretch surprise.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'>VII.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>Ah, luckless swain, o’er all unblest, indeed!</p> +<p class='indent2'>Whom late bewilder’d in the dank, dark fen, <span class="linenum">105</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Far from his flocks, and smoking hamlet, then!</p> +<p>To that sad spot where hums the sedgy weed:</p> +<p class='indent2'>On him, enraged, the fiend, in angry mood,</p> +<p>Shall never look with pity’s kind concern,</p> +<p class='indent2'>But instant, furious, raise the whelming flood <span class="linenum">110</span></p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>O’er its drowned bank, forbidding all return!</p> +</div> +<p>O’er its drown’d banks, forbidding all return!</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_72' name='page_72'></a>72</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Or, if he meditate his wish’d escape,</p> +<p>To some dim hill, that seems uprising near,</p> +<p class='indent2'>To his faint eye the grim and grisly shape,</p> +<p>In all its terrors clad, shall wild appear. <span class="linenum">115</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Meantime the watery surge shall round him rise,</p> +<p>Pour’d sudden forth from every swelling source!</p> +<p class='indent2'>What now remains but tears and hopeless sighs?</p> +<p>His fear-shook limbs have lost their youthly force,</p> +<p>And down the waves he floats, a pale and breathless corse! <span class="linenum">120</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'>VIII.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>For him in vain his anxious wife shall wait,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Or wander forth to meet him on his way;</p> +<p>For him in vain at to-fall of the day,</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p class='indent2'>His babes shall linger at the cottage gate!</p> +</div> +<p class='indent2'>His babes shall linger at the unclosing gate!</p> +<p>Ah, ne’er shall he return! Alone, if night <span class="linenum">125</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Her travel’d limbs in broken slumbers steep,</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>With dropping willows drest, his mournful sprite</p> +</div> +<p>With drooping willows drest, his mournful sprite</p> +<p class='indent2'>Shall visit sad, perchance, her silent sleep:</p> +<p>Then he, perhaps, with moist and watery hand,</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p class='indent2'>Shall seem to press her cold and shuddering cheek,</p> +</div> +<p class='indent2'>Shall fondly seem to press her shuddering cheek, <span class="linenum">130</span></p> +<p>And with his blue swoln face before her stand,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And, shivering cold, these piteous accents speak:</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_73' name='page_73'></a>73</span></p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Proceed, dear wife, thy daily toils pursue,</p> +</div> +<p>“Pursue, dear wife, thy daily toils pursue,</p> +<p class='indent2'>At dawn or dusk, industrious as before;</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Nor e’er of me one hapless thought renew,</p> +</div> +<p>Nor e’er of me one helpless thought renew, <span class="linenum">135</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>While I lie weltering on the osier’d shore,</p> +<p>Drown’d by the Kelpie’s<a name='FNanchor_0047' id='FNanchor_0047'></a><a href='#Footnote_0047' class='fnanchor'>[47]</a> wrath, nor e’er shall aid thee more!”</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'>IX.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Unbounded is thy range; with varied stile</p> +</div> +<p>Unbounded is thy range; with varied skill</p> +<p class='indent2'>Thy muse may, like those feathery tribes which spring</p> +<p class='indent2'>From their rude rocks, extend her skirting wing <span class="linenum">140</span></p> +<p>Round the moist marge of each cold Hebrid isle,</p> +<p class='indent2'>To that hoar pile<a name='FNanchor_0048' id='FNanchor_0048'></a><a href='#Footnote_0048' class='fnanchor'>[48]</a> which still its ruins shows:</p> +<p>In whose small vaults a pigmy folk is found,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Whose bones the delver with his spade upthrows,</p> +<p>And culls them, wondering, from the hallow’d ground! <span class="linenum">145</span></p> +<p>Or thither,<a name='FNanchor_0049' id='FNanchor_0049'></a><a href='#Footnote_0049' class='fnanchor'>[49]</a> where, beneath the showery west,</p> +<p class='indent2'>The mighty kings of three fair realms are laid;</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_74' name='page_74'></a>74</span></p> +<p>Once foes, perhaps, together now they rest,</p> +<p class='indent2'>No slaves revere them, and no wars invade:</p> +<p>Yet frequent now, at midnight’s solemn hour, <span class="linenum">150</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>The rifted mounds their yawning cells unfold,</p> +<p>And forth the monarchs stalk with sovereign power,</p> +<p class='indent2'>In pageant robes, and wreath’d with sheeny gold,</p> +<p>And on their twilight tombs aërial council hold.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'>X.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>But, oh, o’er all, forget not Kilda’s race, <span class="linenum">155</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>On whose bleak rocks, which brave the wasting tides,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Fair Nature’s daughter, Virtue, yet abides.</p> +<p>Go! just, as they, their blameless manners trace!</p> +<p class='indent2'>Then to my ear transmit some gentle song,</p> +<p>Of those whose lives are yet sincere and plain, <span class="linenum">160</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Their bounded walks the rugged cliffs along,</p> +<p>And all their prospect but the wintry main.</p> +<p class='indent2'>With sparing temperance, at the needful time,</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>They drain the sainted spring; or, hunger-prest,</p> +</div> +<p>They drain the scented spring; or, hunger-prest,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Along the Atlantic rock, undreading climb, <span class="linenum">165</span></p> +<p>And of its eggs despoil the solan’s<a name='FNanchor_0050' id='FNanchor_0050'></a><a href='#Footnote_0050' class='fnanchor'>[50]</a> nest.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_75' name='page_75'></a>75</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Thus, blest in primal innocence, they live</p> +<p>Sufficed, and happy with that frugal fare</p> +<p class='indent2'>Which tasteful toil and hourly danger give.</p> +<p>Hard is their shallow soil, and bleak and bare; <span class="linenum">170</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Nor ever vernal bee was heard to murmur there!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'>XI.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>Nor need’st thou blush that such false themes engage</p> +<p class='indent2'>Thy gentle mind, of fairer stores possest;</p> +<p class='indent2'>For not alone they touch the village breast,</p> +<p>But fill’d, in elder time, the historic page. <span class="linenum">175</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>There, Shakespeare’s self, with every garland crown’d,</p> +<p>Flew to those fairy climes his fancy sheen,</p> +<p class='indent2'>In musing hour; his wayward sisters found,</p> +<p>And with their terrors drest the magic scene.</p> +<p class='indent2'>From them he sung, when, ’mid his bold design, <span class="linenum">180</span></p> +<p>Before the Scot, afflicted, and aghast!</p> +<p class='indent2'>The shadowy kings of Banquo’s fated line</p> +<p>Through the dark cave in gleamy pageant pass’d.</p> +<p class='indent2'>Proceed! nor quit the tales which, simply told,</p> +<p>Could once so well my answering bosom pierce; <span class="linenum">185</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Proceed, in forceful sounds, and colours bold,</p> +<p>The native legends of thy land rehearse;</p> +<p>To such adapt thy lyre, and suit thy powerful verse.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'>XII.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>In scenes like these, which, daring to depart</p> +<p class='indent2'>From sober truth, are still to nature true, <span class="linenum">190</span></p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_76' name='page_76'></a>76</span></p> +<p>And call forth fresh delight to Fancy’s view,</p> +<p>The heroic muse employ’d her Tasso’s art!</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p class='indent2'>How have I trembled, when, at Tancred’s side,</p> +<p>Like him I stalk’d, and all his passions felt;</p> +<p class='indent2'>When charm’d by Ismen, through the forest wide,</p> +<p>Bark’d in each plant a talking spirit dwelt!</p> +</div> +<p class='indent2'>How have I trembled, when, at Tancred’s stroke,</p> +<p>Its gushing blood the gaping cypress pour’d!</p> +<p class='indent2'>When each live plant with mortal accents spoke, <span class="linenum">195</span></p> +<p>And the wild blast upheaved the vanish’d sword!</p> +<p class='indent2'>How have I sat, when piped the pensive wind,</p> +<p>To hear his harp by British Fairfax strung!</p> +<p class='indent2'>Prevailing poet! whose undoubting mind</p> +<p>Believed the magic wonders which he sung! <span class="linenum">200</span></p> +<div class='variation'> +<p class='indent2'>Hence, sure to charm, his early numbers flow,</p> +<p>Though strong, yet sweet–––</p> +<p>Though faithful, sweet; though strong, of simple kind.</p> +<p class='indent2'>Hence, with each theme, he bids the bosom glow,</p> +<p>While his warm lays an easy passage find,</p> +<p>Pour’d through each inmost nerve, and lull the harmonious ear.</p> +</div> +<p class='indent2'>Hence, at each sound, imagination glows!</p> +<p>Hence, at each picture, vivid life starts here!</p> +<p class='indent2'>Hence his warm lay with softest sweetness flows!</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Melting it flows, pure, numerous, strong, and clear,</p> +</div> +<p>Melting it flows, pure, murmuring, strong, and clear,</p> +<p>And fills the impassion’d heart, and wins the harmonious ear! <span class="linenum">205</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_77' name='page_77'></a>77</span></p> +<p class='center'>XIII.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>All hail, ye scenes that o’er my soul prevail!</p> +<p>Ye splendid friths and lakes, which, far away,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Are by smooth Annan<a href='#Footnote_0051' class='fnanchor'>[51]</a> fill’d or pastoral Tay,<a href='#Footnote_0051' class='fnanchor'>[51]</a></p> +<p>Or Don’s<a name='FNanchor_0051' id='FNanchor_0051'></a><a href='#Footnote_0051' class='fnanchor'>[51]</a> romantic springs at distance hail!</p> +<p>The time shall come, when I, perhaps, may tread <span class="linenum">210</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Your lowly glens, o’erhung with spreading broom;</p> +<p>Or, o’er your stretching heaths, by Fancy led;</p> +<p class='indent2'>Or, o’er your mountains creep, in awful gloom!</p> +<p>Then will I dress once more the faded bower,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Where Jonson<a name='FNanchor_0052' id='FNanchor_0052'></a><a href='#Footnote_0052' class='fnanchor'>[52]</a> sat in Drummond’s classic shade; <span class="linenum">215</span></p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Or crop from Tiviot’s dale each––</p> +</div> +<p>Or crop, from Tiviotdale, each lyric flower,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And mourn, on Yarrow’s banks, where Willy’s laid!</p> +<p>Meantime, ye powers that on the plains which bore</p> +<p class='indent2'>The cordial youth, on Lothian’s plains,<a name='FNanchor_0053' id='FNanchor_0053'></a><a href='#Footnote_0053' class='fnanchor'>[53]</a> attend!––</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Where’er he dwell, on hill, or lowly muir,</p> +</div> +<p>Where’er Home dwells, on hill, or lowly moor, <span class="linenum">220</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>To him I lose, your kind protection lend,</p> +<p>And, touch’d with love like mine, preserve my absent friend!</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_78' name='page_78'></a>78</span> +<a name='AN_EPISTLE_ADDRESSED_TO_SIR_THOMAS_HANMER_ON_HIS_EDITION_OF_SHAKESPEARES_WORKS' id='AN_EPISTLE_ADDRESSED_TO_SIR_THOMAS_HANMER_ON_HIS_EDITION_OF_SHAKESPEARES_WORKS'></a> +<h3>AN EPISTLE,</h3> +<h4>ADDRESSED TO SIR THOMAS HANMER, ON HIS EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE’S WORKS.</h4> +</div> +<table summary='' class='widthall'><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'><span class='smcap'>Sir,</span></p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>While, own’d by you, with smiles the Muse surveys</p> +<p>The expected triumph of her sweetest lays:</p> +<p>While, stretch’d at ease, she boasts your guardian aid,</p> +<p>Secure, and happy in her sylvan shade:</p> +<p>Excuse her fears, who scarce a verse bestows,</p> +<p>In just remembrance of the debt she owes;</p> +<p>With conscious, &c.</p> +</div>While, born to bring the Muse’s happier days +<p>A patriot’s hand protects a poet’s lays,</p> +<p>While nursed by you she sees her myrtles bloom,</p> +<p>Green and unwither’d o’er his honour’d tomb;</p> +<p>Excuse her doubts, if yet she fears to tell <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p>What secret transports in her bosom swell:</p> +<p>With conscious awe she hears the critic’s fame,</p> +<p>And blushing hides her wreath at Shakespeare’s name.</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Long slighted Fancy with a mother’s care</p> +<p>Wept o’er his works, and felt the last despair:</p> +<p>Torn from her head, she saw the roses fall,</p> +<p>By all deserted, though admired by all:</p> +</div> +<p>Hard was the lot those injured strains endured,</p> +<p>Unown’d by Science, and by years obscured: <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_79' name='page_79'></a>79</span></p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>And “Oh!” she cried, “shall Science still resign</p> +<p>Whate’er is Nature’s, and whate’er is mine?</p> +<p>Shall Taste and Art but show a cold regard,</p> +<p>And scornful Pride reject the unletter’d bard?</p> +<p>Ye myrtled nymphs, who own my gentle reign,</p> +<p>Tune the sweet lyre, and grace my airy train,</p> +<p>If, where ye rove, your searching eyes have known</p> +<p>One perfect mind, which judgment calls its own;</p> +<p>There every breast its fondest hopes must bend,</p> +<p>And every Muse with tears await her friend.”</p> +<p>’Twas then fair Isis from her stream arose,</p> +<p>In kind compassion of her sister’s woes.</p> +<p>’Twas then she promised to the mourning maid</p> +<p>The immortal honours which thy hands have paid:</p> +<p>“My best loved son,” she said, “shall yet restore</p> +<p>Thy ruin’d sweets, and Fancy weep no more.”</p> +<p>Each rising art by slow gradation moves;</p> +<p>Toil builds, &c.</p> +</div> +<p>Fair Fancy wept; and echoing sighs confess’d</p> +<p>A fix’d despair in every tuneful breast.</p> +<p>Not with more grief the afflicted swains appear,</p> +<p>When wintry winds deform the plenteous year;</p> +<p>When lingering frosts the ruin’d seats invade <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p>Where Peace resorted, and the Graces play’d.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>Each rising art by just gradation moves,</p> +<p>Toil builds on toil, and age on age improves:</p> +<p>The Muse alone unequal dealt her rage,</p> +<p>And graced with noblest pomp her earliest stage. <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +<p>Preserved through time, the speaking scenes impart</p> +<p>Each changeful wish of Phædra’s tortured heart;</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_80' name='page_80'></a>80</span></p> +<p>Or paint the curse that mark’d the Theban’s<a name='FNanchor_0054' id='FNanchor_0054'></a><a href='#Footnote_0054' class='fnanchor'>[54]</a> reign,</p> +<p>A bed incestuous, and a father slain.</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Line after line our pitying eyes o’erflow,</p> +</div> +<p>With kind concern our pitying eyes o’erflow, <span class="linenum">25</span></p> +<p>Trace the sad tale, and own another’s woe.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<div class='variation'> +<p class='indent2'>To Rome removed, with equal power to please,</p> +</div> +<p class='indent2'>To Rome removed, with wit secure to please,</p> +<p>The comic Sisters kept their native ease:</p> +<p>With jealous fear, declining Greece beheld</p> +<p>Her own Menander’s art almost excell’d; <span class="linenum">30</span></p> +<p>But every Muse essay’d to raise in vain</p> +<p>Some labour’d rival of her tragic strain:</p> +<p>Ilissus’ laurels, though transferr’d with toil,</p> +<p>Droop’d their fair leaves, nor knew the unfriendly soil.</p> +<p class='indent2'>As Arts expired, resistless Dulness rose; <span class="linenum">35</span></p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>When Rome herself, her envied glories dead,</p> +<p>No more imperial, stoop’d her conquer’d head;</p> +<p>Luxuriant Florence chose a softer theme,</p> +<p>While all was peace, by Arno’s silver stream.</p> +<p>With sweeter notes the Etrurian vales complain’d,</p> +<p>And arts reviving told a Cosmo reign’d.</p> +<p>Their wanton lyres the bards of Provence strung,</p> +<p>Sweet flow’d the lays, but love was all they sung.</p> +<p>The gay, &c.</p> +</div> +<p>Goths, Priests, or Vandals,––all were Learning’s foes.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_81' name='page_81'></a>81</span></p> +<p>Till Julius<a name='FNanchor_0055' id='FNanchor_0055'></a><a href='#Footnote_0055' class='fnanchor'>[55]</a> first recall’d each exiled maid,</p> +<p>And Cosmo own’d them in the Etrurian shade:</p> +<p>Then, deeply skill’d in love’s engaging theme,</p> +<p>The soft Provençal pass’d to Arno’s stream: <span class="linenum">40</span></p> +<p>With graceful ease the wanton lyre he strung;</p> +<p>Sweet flow’d the lays––but love was all he sung.</p> +<p>The gay description could not fail to move,</p> +<p>For, led by nature, all are friends to love.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<div class='variation'> +<p class='indent2'>But Heaven, still rising in its works, decreed</p> +</div> +<p class='indent2'>But Heaven, still various in its works, decreed <span class="linenum">45</span></p> +<p>The perfect boast of time should last succeed.</p> +<p>The beauteous union must appear at length,</p> +<p>Of Tuscan fancy, and Athenian strength:</p> +<p>One greater Muse Eliza’s reign adorn,</p> +<p>And e’en a Shakespeare to her fame be born! <span class="linenum">50</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>Yet ah! so bright her morning’s opening ray,</p> +<p>In vain our Britain hoped an equal day!</p> +<p>No second growth the western isle could bear,</p> +<p>At once exhausted with too rich a year.</p> +<p>Too nicely Jonson knew the critic’s part; <span class="linenum">55</span></p> +<p>Nature in him was almost lost in art.</p> +<p>Of softer mould the gentle Fletcher came,</p> +<p>The next in order, as the next in name;</p> +<p>With pleased attention, ’midst his scenes we find</p> +<p>Each glowing thought that warms the female mind; <span class="linenum">60</span></p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_82' name='page_82'></a>82</span></p> +<p>Each melting sigh, and every tender tear;</p> +<p>The lover’s wishes, and the virgin’s fear.</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>His every strain the Loves and Graces own;</p> +</div> +<p>His every strain<a name='FNanchor_0056' id='FNanchor_0056'></a><a href='#Footnote_0056' class='fnanchor'>[56]</a> the Smiles and Graces own;</p> +<p>But stronger Shakespeare felt for man alone:</p> +<p>Drawn by his pen, our ruder passions stand <span class="linenum">65</span></p> +<p>The unrival’d picture of his early hand.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>With<a name='FNanchor_0057' id='FNanchor_0057'></a><a href='#Footnote_0057' class='fnanchor'>[57]</a> gradual steps and slow, exacter France</p> +<p>Saw Art’s fair empire o’er her shores advance:</p> +<p>By length of toil a bright perfection knew,</p> +<p>Correctly bold, and just in all she drew: <span class="linenum">70</span></p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Till late Corneille from epick Lucan brought</p> +<p>The full expression, and the Roman thought:</p> +</div> +<p>Till late Corneille, with Lucan’s<a name='FNanchor_0058' id='FNanchor_0058'></a><a href='#Footnote_0058' class='fnanchor'>[58]</a> spirit fired,</p> +<p>Breathed the free strain, as Rome and he inspired:</p> +<p>And classic judgment gain’d to sweet Racine</p> +<p>The temperate strength of Maro’s chaster line.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>But wilder far the British laurel spread, <span class="linenum">75</span></p> +<p>And wreaths less artful crown our poet’s head.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_83' name='page_83'></a>83</span></p> +<p>Yet he alone to every scene could give</p> +<p>The historian’s truth, and bid the manners live.</p> +<p>Waked at his call I view, with glad surprise,</p> +<p>Majestic forms of mighty monarchs rise. <span class="linenum">80</span></p> +<p>There Henry’s trumpets spread their loud alarms,</p> +<p>And laurel’d Conquest waits her hero’s arms.</p> +<p>Here gentler Edward claims a pitying sigh,</p> +<p>Scarce born to honours, and so soon to die!</p> +<p>Yet shall thy throne, unhappy infant, bring <span class="linenum">85</span></p> +<p>No beam of comfort to the guilty king:</p> +<p>The time<a name='FNanchor_0059' id='FNanchor_0059'></a><a href='#Footnote_0059' class='fnanchor'>[59]</a> shall come when Glo’ster’s heart shall bleed,</p> +<p>In life’s last hours, with horror of the deed;</p> +<p>When dreary visions shall at last present</p> +<p>Thy vengeful image in the midnight tent: <span class="linenum">90</span></p> +<p>Thy hand unseen the secret death shall bear,</p> +<p>Blunt the weak sword, and break the oppressive spear!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>Where’er we turn, by Fancy charm’d, we find</p> +<p>Some sweet illusion of the cheated mind.</p> +<p>Oft, wild of wing, she calls the soul to rove <span class="linenum">95</span></p> +<p>With humbler nature, in the rural grove;</p> +<p>Where swains contented own the quiet scene,</p> +<p>And twilight fairies tread the circled green:</p> +<p>Dress’d by her hand, the woods and valleys smile,</p> +<p>And Spring diffusive decks the enchanted isle. <span class="linenum">100</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_84' name='page_84'></a>84</span></p> +<div class='variation'> +<p class='indent2'>O, blest in all that genius gives to charm,</p> +<p>Whose morals mend us, and whose passions warm!</p> +<p>Oft let my youth attend thy various page,</p> +<p>Where rich invention rules the unbounded stage:</p> +<p>There every scene the poet’s warmth may raise,</p> +<p>And melting music find the softest lays:</p> +<p>O, might the Muse with equal ease persuade</p> +<p>Expressive Picture to adopt thine aid!</p> +<p>Some powerful Raphael should again appear,</p> +<p>And arts consenting fix their empire here.</p> +</div> +<p class='indent2'>O, more than all in powerful genius blest,</p> +<p>Come, take thine empire o’er the willing breast!</p> +<p>Whate’er the wounds this youthful heart shall feel,</p> +<p>Thy songs support me, and thy morals heal!</p> +<p>There every thought the poet’s warmth may raise, <span class="linenum">105</span></p> +<p>There native music dwells in all the lays.</p> +<p>O might some verse with happiest skill persuade</p> +<p>Expressive Picture to adopt thine aid!</p> +<p>What wondrous draughts might rise from every page!</p> +<p>What other Raphaels charm a distant age! <span class="linenum">110</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<div class='variation'> +<p class='indent2'>Methinks e’en now I view some fair design,</p> +<p>Where breathing Nature lives in every line;</p> +<p>Chaste and subdued, the modest colours lie,</p> +<p>In fair proportion to the approving eye:</p> +<p>And see where Anthony lamenting stands,</p> +<p>In fixt distress, and spreads his pleading hands:</p> +<p>O’er the pale corse the warrior seems to bend,</p> +</div> +<p class='indent2'>Methinks e’en now I view some free design,</p> +<p>Where breathing Nature lives in every line:</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_85' name='page_85'></a>85</span></p> +<p>Chaste and subdued the modest lights decay,</p> +<p>Steal into shades, and mildly melt away.</p> +<p>And see where Anthony,<a name='FNanchor_0060' id='FNanchor_0060'></a><a href='#Footnote_0060' class='fnanchor'>[60]</a> in tears approved, <span class="linenum">115</span></p> +<p>Guards the pale relics of the chief he loved:</p> +<p>O’er the cold corse the warrior seems to bend,</p> +<p>Deep sunk in grief, and mourns his murder’d friend!</p> +<p>Still as they press, he calls on all around,</p> +<p>Lifts the torn robe, and points the bleeding wound. <span class="linenum">120</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>But who<a name='FNanchor_0061' id='FNanchor_0061'></a><a href='#Footnote_0061' class='fnanchor'>[61]</a> is he, whose brows exalted bear</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>A rage impatient, and a fiercer air?</p> +<p>E’en now his thoughts with eager vengeance doom</p> +<p>The last sad ruin of ungrateful Rome.</p> +<p>Till, slow advancing o’er the tented plain,</p> +<p>In sable weeds, appear the kindred train:</p> +<p>The frantic mother leads their wild despair,</p> +<p>Beats her swoln breast, and rends her silver hair;</p> +<p>And see, he yields! the tears unbidden start,</p> +<p>And conscious nature claims the unwilling heart!</p> +<p>O’er all the man conflicting passions rise;</p> +</div> +<p>A wrath impatient, and a fiercer air?</p> +<p>Awake to all that injured worth can feel,</p> +<p>On his own Rome he turns the avenging steel;</p> +<p>Yet shall not war’s insatiate fury fall <span class="linenum">125</span></p> +<p>(So heaven ordains it) on the destined wall.</p> +<p>See the fond mother, ’midst the plaintive train,</p> +<p>Hung on his knees, and prostrate on the plain!</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_86' name='page_86'></a>86</span></p> +<p>Touch’d to the soul, in vain he strives to hide</p> +<p>The son’s affection, in the Roman’s pride: <span class="linenum">130</span></p> +<p>O’er all the man conflicting passions rise;</p> +<p>Rage grasps the sword, while Pity melts the eyes.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>Thus generous Critic, as thy Bard inspires,</p> +<p>The sister Arts shall nurse their drooping fires;</p> +<p>Each from his scenes her stores alternate bring, <span class="linenum">135</span></p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Spread the fair tints, or wake the vocal string:</p> +</div> +<p>Blend the fair tints, or wake the vocal string:</p> +<p>Those sibyl leaves, the sport of every wind,</p> +<p>(For poets ever were a careless kind,)</p> +<p>By thee disposed, no farther toil demand,</p> +<p>But, just to Nature, own thy forming hand. <span class="linenum">140</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>So spread o’er Greece, the harmonious whole unknown,</p> +<p>E’en Homer’s numbers charm’d by parts alone.</p> +<p>Their own Ulysses scarce had wander’d more,</p> +<p>By winds and waters cast on every shore:</p> +<p>When, raised by fate, some former Hanmer join’d <span class="linenum">145</span></p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Each beauteous image of the tuneful mind;</p> +</div> +<p>Each beauteous image of the boundless mind;</p> +<p>And bade, like thee, his Athens ever claim</p> +<p>A fond alliance with the Poet’s name.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p class='smaller lalign'><span class='indent2'> </span>Oxford, Dec. 3,<br /> +<span class='indent6'> </span>1743.</p> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_87' name='page_87'></a>87</span> +<a name='DIRGE_IN_CYMBELINE_SUNG_BY_GUIDERUS_AND_ARVIRAGUS_OVER_FIDELE_SUPPOSED_TO_BE_DEAD' id='DIRGE_IN_CYMBELINE_SUNG_BY_GUIDERUS_AND_ARVIRAGUS_OVER_FIDELE_SUPPOSED_TO_BE_DEAD'></a> +<h3>DIRGE IN CYMBELINE,</h3> +<h4>SUNG BY GUIDERUS AND ARVIRAGUS OVER FIDELE, SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD.</h4> +</div> +<table summary='' class='widthall'><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class='variation'> +<p>To fair Pastora’s grassy tomb</p> +</div> +<p>To fair Fidele’s grassy tomb</p> +<p class='indent2'>Soft maids and village hinds shall bring</p> +<p>Each opening sweet of earliest bloom,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And rifle all the breathing spring.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>No wailing ghost shall dare appear <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>To vex with shrieks this quiet grove;</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>But shepherd swains assemble here,</p> +</div> +<p>But shepherd lads assemble here,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And melting virgins own their love.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>No wither’d witch shall here be seen;</p> +<p class='indent2'>No goblins lead their nightly crew: <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>But female fays shall haunt the green,</p> +</div> +<p>The female fays shall haunt the green,</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p class='indent2'>And dress thy bed with pearly dew!</p> +</div> +<p class='indent2'>And dress thy grave with pearly dew!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_88' name='page_88'></a>88</span></p> +<p>The redbreast oft, at evening hours,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Shall kindly lend his little aid,</p> +<p>With hoary moss, and gather’d flowers, <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>To deck the ground where thou art laid.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<div class='variation'> +<p>When chiding winds, and beating rain,</p> +<p class='indent2'>In tempest shake the sylvan cell;</p> +<p>Or ’midst the flocks, on every plain,</p> +</div> +<p>When howling winds, and beating rain,</p> +<p class='indent2'>In tempests shake the sylvan cell;</p> +<p>Or ’midst the chase, on every plain,</p> +<p class='indent2'>The tender thought on thee shall dwell; <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Each lovely scene shall thee restore;</p> +</div> +<p>Each lonely scene shall thee restore;</p> +<p class='indent2'>For thee the tear be duly shed;</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p>Beloved till life could charm no more,</p> +</div> +<p>Beloved till life can charm no more,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And mourn’d till Pity’s self be dead.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_89' name='page_89'></a>89</span> +<a name='VERSES_WRITTEN_ON_A_PAPER_WHICH_CONTAINED_A_PIECE_OF_BRIDECAKE_GIVEN_TO_THE_AUTHOR_BY_A_LADY' id='VERSES_WRITTEN_ON_A_PAPER_WHICH_CONTAINED_A_PIECE_OF_BRIDECAKE_GIVEN_TO_THE_AUTHOR_BY_A_LADY'></a> +<h3>VERSES</h3> +<h4>WRITTEN ON A PAPER WHICH CONTAINED A PIECE OF BRIDE-CAKE, GIVEN TO THE AUTHOR BY A LADY.</h4> +</div> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>Ye curious hands, that, hid from vulgar eyes,</p> +<p class='indent2'>By search profane shall find this hallow’d cake,</p> +<p>With virtue’s awe forbear the sacred prize,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Nor dare a theft, for love and pity’s sake!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>This precious relic, form’d by magic power, <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Beneath her shepherd’s haunted pillow laid,</p> +<p>Was meant by love to charm the silent hour,</p> +<p class='indent2'>The secret present of a matchless maid.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>The Cyprian queen, at Hymen’s fond request,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Each nice ingredient chose with happiest art; <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p>Fears, sighs, and wishes of the enamour’d breast,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And pains that please, are mix’d in every part.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>With rosy hand the spicy fruit she brought,</p> +<p class='indent2'>From Paphian hills, and fair Cythera’s isle;</p> +<p>And temper’d sweet with these the melting thought, <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>The kiss ambrosial, and the yielding smile.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_90' name='page_90'></a>90</span></p> +<p>Ambiguous looks, that scorn and yet relent,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Denials mild, and firm unalter’d truth;</p> +<p>Reluctant pride, and amorous faint consent,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And meeting ardours, and exulting youth. <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>Sleep, wayward God! hath sworn, while these remain,</p> +<p class='indent2'>With flattering dreams to dry his nightly tear,</p> +<p>And cheerful Hope, so oft invoked in vain,</p> +<p class='indent2'>With fairy songs shall soothe his pensive ear.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>If, bound by vows to Friendship’s gentle side, <span class="linenum">25</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>And fond of soul, thou hop’st an equal grace,</p> +<p>If youth or maid thy joys and griefs divide,</p> +<p class='indent2'>O, much entreated, leave this fatal place!</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>Sweet Peace, who long hath shunn’d my plaintive day,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Consents at length to bring me short delight, <span class="linenum">30</span></p> +<p>Thy careless steps may scare her doves away,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And Grief with raven note usurp the night.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_91' name='page_91'></a>91</span> +<a name='TO_MISS_AURELIA_CR_ON_HER_WEEPING_AT_HER_SISTERS_WEDDING' id='TO_MISS_AURELIA_CR_ON_HER_WEEPING_AT_HER_SISTERS_WEDDING'></a> +<h3>TO MISS AURELIA C–––R,</h3> +<h4>ON HER WEEPING AT HER SISTER’S WEDDING.</h4> +</div> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>Cease, fair Aurelia, cease to mourn,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Lament not Hannah’s happy state;</p> +<p>You may be happy in your turn,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And seize the treasure you regret.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>With Love united Hymen stands, <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>And softly whispers to your charms,</p> +<p>“Meet but your lover in my bands,</p> +<p class='indent2'>You’ll find your sister in his arms.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<a name='SONNET' id='SONNET'></a> +<h3>SONNET.</h3> +</div> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>When Phœbe form’d a wanton smile,</p> +<p class='indent2'>My soul! it reach’d not here:</p> +<p>Strange, that thy peace, thou trembler, flies</p> +<p class='indent2'>Before a rising tear!</p> +<p>From ’midst the drops, my love is born, <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>That o’er those eyelids rove:</p> +<p>Thus issued from a teeming wave</p> +<p class='indent2'>The fabled queen of love.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_92' name='page_92'></a>92</span> +<a name='SONG_THE_SENTIMENTS_BORROWED_FROM_SHAKESPEARE' id='SONG_THE_SENTIMENTS_BORROWED_FROM_SHAKESPEARE'></a> +<h3>SONG.</h3> +<h4>THE SENTIMENTS BORROWED FROM SHAKESPEARE.<a name='FNanchor_0062' id='FNanchor_0062'></a><a href='#Footnote_0062' class='fnanchor'>[62]</a></h4> +</div> +<table summary='' class='widthall'><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>Young Damon of the vale is dead,</p> +<div class='variation'> +<p class='indent2'>Ye lowland hamlets, moan;</p> +</div> +<p class='indent2'>Ye lowly hamlets, moan;</p> +<p>A dewy turf lies o’er his head,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And at his feet a stone.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>His shroud, which Death’s cold damps destroy, <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Of snow-white threads was made:</p> +<p>All mourn’d to see so sweet a boy</p> +<p class='indent2'>In earth for ever laid.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>Pale pansies o’er his corpse were placed,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Which, pluck’d before their time, <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p>Bestrew’d the boy, like him to waste</p> +<p class='indent2'>And wither in their prime.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_93' name='page_93'></a>93</span></p> +<p>But will he ne’er return, whose tongue</p> +<p class='indent2'>Could tune the rural lay?</p> +<p>Ah, no! his bell of peace is rung, <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>His lips are cold as clay.</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>They bore him out at twilight hour,</p> +<p class='indent2'>The youth who loved so well:</p> +<p>Ah, me! how many a true love shower</p> +<p class='indent2'>Of kind remembrance fell! <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>Each maid was woe––but Lucy chief,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Her grief o’er all was tried;</p> +<p>Within his grave she dropp’d in grief,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And o’er her loved one died.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_94' name='page_94'></a>94</span> +<a name='ON_OUR_LATE_TASTE_IN_MUSIC' id='ON_OUR_LATE_TASTE_IN_MUSIC'></a> +<h3>ON OUR LATE TASTE IN MUSIC.<a name='FNanchor_0063' id='FNanchor_0063'></a><a href='#Footnote_0063' class='fnanchor'>[63]</a></h3> +</div> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>–––Quid vocis modulamen inane juvabat</p> +<p>Verborum sensusque vacans numerique loquacis? </p> +<p class='ralign'><span class='smcap'>Milton.</span></p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>Britons! away with the degenerate pack!</p> +<p>Waft, western winds! the foreign spoilers back!</p> +<p>Enough has been in wild amusements spent,</p> +<p>Let British verse and harmony content!</p> +<p>No music once could charm you like your own, <span class="linenum">5</span></p> +<p>Then tuneful Robinson,<a name='FNanchor_0064' id='FNanchor_0064'></a><a href='#Footnote_0064' class='fnanchor'>[64]</a> and Tofts were known;</p> +<p>Then Purcell touched the strings, while numbers hung</p> +<p>Attentive to the sounds––and blest the song!</p> +<p>E’en gentle Weldon taught us manly notes,</p> +<p>Beyond the enervate thrills of Roman throats! <span class="linenum">10</span></p> +<p>Notes, foreign luxury could ne’er inspire,</p> +<p>That animate the soul, and swell the lyre!</p> +<p>That mend, and not emasculate our hearts,</p> +<p>And teach the love of freedom and of arts.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_95' name='page_95'></a>95</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>Nor yet, while guardian Phœbus gilds our isle, <span class="linenum">15</span></p> +<p>Does heaven averse await the muses’ toil;</p> +<p>Cherish but once our worth of native race,</p> +<p>The sister-arts shall soon display their face!</p> +<p>Even half discouraged through the gloom they strive,</p> +<p>Smile at neglect, and o’er oblivion live. <span class="linenum">20</span></p> +<p>See Handel, careless of a foreign fame,</p> +<p>Fix on our shore, and boast a Briton’s name:</p> +<p>While, placed marmoric in the vocal grove,<a name='FNanchor_0065' id='FNanchor_0065'></a><a href='#Footnote_0065' class='fnanchor'>[65]</a></p> +<p>He guides the measures listening throngs approve.</p> +<p>Mark silence at the voice of Arne confess’d, <span class="linenum">25</span></p> +<p>Soft as the sweet enchantress rules the breast;</p> +<p>As when transported Venice lent an ear,</p> +<p>Camilla’s charms to view, and accents hear!<a name='FNanchor_0066' id='FNanchor_0066'></a><a href='#Footnote_0066' class='fnanchor'>[66]</a></p> +<p>So while she varies the impassion’d song,</p> +<p>Alternate motions on the bosom throng! <span class="linenum">30</span></p> +<p>As heavenly Milton<a name='FNanchor_0067' id='FNanchor_0067'></a><a href='#Footnote_0067' class='fnanchor'>[67]</a> guides her magic voice,</p> +<p>And virtue thus convey’d allures the choice.</p> +<p class='indent2'>Discard soft nonsense in a slavish tongue,</p> +<p>The strain insipid, and the thought unknown;</p> +<p>From truth and nature form the unerring test; <span class="linenum">35</span></p> +<p>Be what is manly, chaste, and good the best!</p> +<p>’Tis not to ape the songsters of the groves,</p> +<p>Through all the quiverings of their wanton loves;</p> +<p>’Tis not the enfeebled thrill, or warbled shake,</p> +<p>The heart can strengthen, or the soul awake! <span class="linenum">40</span></p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_96' name='page_96'></a>96</span></p> +<p>But where the force of energy is found</p> +<p>When the sense rises on the wings of sound;</p> +<p>When reason, with the charms of music twined,</p> +<p>Through the enraptured ear informs the mind;</p> +<p>Bids generous love or soft compassion glow, <span class="linenum">45</span></p> +<p>And forms a tuneful Paradise below!</p> +<p class='indent2'>Oh Britons! if the honour still you boast,</p> +<p>No longer purchase follies at such cost!</p> +<p>No longer let unmeaning sounds invite</p> +<p>To visionary scenes of false delight: <span class="linenum">50</span></p> +<p>When, shame to sense! we see the hero’s rage</p> +<p>Lisp’d on the tongue, and danced along the stage!</p> +<p>Or hear in eunuch sounds a hero squeak,</p> +<p>While kingdoms rise or fall upon a shake!</p> +<p>Let them at home to slavery’s painted train, <span class="linenum">55</span></p> +<p>With siren art, repeat the pleasing strain:</p> +<p>While we, like wise Ulysses, close our ear</p> +<p>To songs which liberty forbids to hear!</p> +<p>Keep, guardian gales, the infectious guests away,</p> +<p>To charm where priests direct, and slaves obey. <span class="linenum">60</span></p> +<p>Madrid, or wanton Rome, be their delight;</p> +<p>There they may warble as their poets write.</p> +<p>The temper of our isle, though cold, is clear;</p> +<p>And such our genius, noble though severe.</p> +<p>Our Shakespeare scorn’d the trifling rules of art, <span class="linenum">65</span></p> +<p>But knew to conquer and surprise the heart!</p> +<p>In magic chains the captive thought to bind,</p> +<p>And fathom all the depths of human kind!</p> +<p class='indent2'>Too long, our shame, the prostituted herd</p> +<p>Our sense have bubbled, and our wealth have shared. <span class="linenum">70</span></p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_97' name='page_97'></a>97</span></p> +<p>Too long the favourites of our vulgar great</p> +<p>Have bask’d in luxury, and lived in state!</p> +<p>In Tuscan wilds now let them villas rear<a name='FNanchor_0068' id='FNanchor_0068'></a><a href='#Footnote_0068' class='fnanchor'>[68]</a></p> +<p>Ennobled by the charity we spare.</p> +<p>There let them warble in the tainted breeze, <span class="linenum">75</span></p> +<p>Or sing like widow’d orphans to the trees:</p> +<p>There let them chant their incoherent dreams,</p> +<p>Where howls Charybdis, and where Scylla screams!</p> +<p>Or where Avernus, from his darksome round,</p> +<p>May echo to the winds the blasted sound! <span class="linenum">80</span></p> +<p class='indent2'>As fair Alcyone,<a name='FNanchor_0069' id='FNanchor_0069'></a><a href='#Footnote_0069' class='fnanchor'>[69]</a> with anguish press’d,</p> +<p>Broods o’er the British main with tuneful breast,</p> +<p>Beneath the white-brow’d cliff protected sings,</p> +<p>Or skims the azure plain with painted wings!</p> +<p>Grateful, like her, to nature, and as just, <span class="linenum">85</span></p> +<p>In our domestic blessings let us trust;</p> +<p>Keep for our sons fair learning’s honour’d prize,</p> +<p>Till the world own the worth they now despise!</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<a name='OBSERVATIONS_ON_THE_ORIENTAL_ECLOGUES_AND_ODES_BY_DR_LANGHORNE' id='OBSERVATIONS_ON_THE_ORIENTAL_ECLOGUES_AND_ODES_BY_DR_LANGHORNE'></a> +<h2>OBSERVATIONS ON THE ORIENTAL ECLOGUES AND ODES.</h2> +<h3>BY DR. LANGHORNE.</h3> +</div> +<div class='chsp' style='padding-top:0'> +<a name='OBSERVATIONS_ON_THE_ORIENTAL_ECLOGUES' id='OBSERVATIONS_ON_THE_ORIENTAL_ECLOGUES'></a> +<h2>OBSERVATIONS ON THE ORIENTAL ECLOGUES.</h2> +</div> +<p>The genius of the pastoral, as well as of every +other respectable species of poetry, had its origin +in the east, and from thence was transplanted by +the muses of Greece; but whether from the continent +of the Lesser Asia, or from Egypt, which, +about the era of the Grecian pastoral, was the +hospitable nurse of letters, it is not easy to determine. +From the subjects, and the manner of +Theocritus, one would incline to the latter opinion, +while the history of Bion is in favour of the +former.</p> +<p>However, though it should still remain a doubt +through what channel the pastoral traveled westward, +there is not the least shadow of uncertainty +concerning its oriental origin.</p> +<p>In those ages which, guided by sacred chronology, +from a comparative view of time, we call +the early ages, it appears, from the most authentic +historians, that the chiefs of the people employed +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_102' name='page_102'></a>102</span> +themselves in rural exercises, and that astronomers +and legislators were at the same time shepherds. +Thus Strabo informs us, that the history +of the creation was communicated to the Egyptians +by a Chaldean shepherd.</p> +<p>From these circumstances it is evident, not only +that such shepherds were capable of all the dignity +and elegance peculiar to poetry, but that +whatever poetry they attempted would be of the +pastoral kind; would take its subjects from those +scenes of rural simplicity in which they were conversant, +and, as it was the offspring of harmony +and nature, would employ the powers it derived +from the former, to celebrate the beauty and benevolence +of the latter.</p> +<p>Accordingly we find that the most ancient +poems treat of agriculture, astronomy, and other +objects within the rural and natural systems.</p> +<p>What constitutes the difference between the +georgic and the pastoral, is love and the colloquial +or dramatic form of composition peculiar to +the latter; this form of composition is sometimes +dispensed with, and love and rural imagery alone +are thought sufficient to distinguish the pastoral. +The tender passion, however, seems to be essential +to this species of poetry, and is hardly ever +excluded from those pieces that were intended to +come under this denomination: even in those +eclogues of the Amœbean kind, whose only purport +is a trial of skill between contending shepherds, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_103' name='page_103'></a>103</span> +love has its usual share, and the praises of +their respective mistresses are the general subjects +of the competitors.</p> +<p>It is to be lamented, that scarce any oriental +compositions of this kind have survived the ravages +of ignorance, tyranny, and time; we cannot +doubt that many such have been extant, possibly +as far down as that fatal period, never to be mentioned +in the world of letters without horror, +when the glorious monuments of human ingenuity +perished in the ashes of the Alexandrian +library.</p> +<p>Those ingenious Greeks, whom we call the +parents of pastoral poetry, were, probably, no +more than imitators, of imitators that derived +their harmony from higher and remoter sources, +and kindled their poetical fires at those then unextinguished +lamps which burned within the tombs +of oriental genius.</p> +<p>It is evident that Homer has availed himself of +those magnificent images and descriptions so frequently +to be met with in the books of the Old +Testament; and why may not Theocritus, Moschus, +and Bion have found their archetypes in +other eastern writers, whose names have perished +with their works? yet, though it may not be +illiberal to admit such a supposition, it would +certainly be invidious to conclude, what the malignity +of cavillers alone could suggest with regard +to Homer, that they destroyed the sources from +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_104' name='page_104'></a>104</span> +which they borrowed, and, as it is fabled of the +young of the pelican, drained their supporters to +death.</p> +<p>As the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament +was performed at the request, and under +the patronage, of Ptolemy Philadelphus, it were +not to be wondered if Theocritus, who was entertained +at that prince’s court, had borrowed some +part of his pastoral imagery from the poetical +passages of those books. I think it can hardly +be doubted that the Sicilian poet had in his eye +certain expressions of the prophet Isaiah, when +he wrote the following lines:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p><span lang="el" title="Nyn ia men phoreoite batoi, phoreoite d' akanthai.">Νυν ια μεν φορεοιτε βατοι, φορεοιτε δ’ ακανθαι.</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Ha de kala Narkissos ep' arkeuthoisi komasai;">Ἁ δε καλα Ναρκισσος επ’ αρκευθοισι κομασαι;</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Panta d' enalla genoito, kai ha pitus ochnas eneikai">Παντα δ’ εναλλα γενοιτο, και ἁ πιτυς οχνας ενεικαι</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="–––kai tôs kynas hôlaphos helkoi.">–––και τως κυνας ὡλαφος ἑλκοι.</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>Let vexing brambles the blue violet bear,</p> +<p>On the rude thorn Narcissus dress his hair,</p> +<p>All, all reversed––The pine with pears be crown’d,</p> +<p>And the bold deer shall drag the trembling hound.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>The cause, indeed, of these phenomena is very +different in the Greek from what it is in the Hebrew +poet; the former employing them on the +death, the latter on the birth, of an important +person: but the marks of imitation are nevertheless +obvious.</p> +<p>It might, however, be expected, that if Theocritus +had borrowed at all from the sacred writers, +the celebrated pastoral epithalamium of Solomon, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_105' name='page_105'></a>105</span> +so much within his own walk of poetry, would +not certainly have escaped his notice. His epithalamium +on the marriage of Helena, moreover, +gave him an open field for imitation; therefore, +if he has any obligations to the royal bard, we +may expect to find them there. The very opening +of the poem is in the spirit of the Hebrew +song:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p><span lang="el" title="Houtô dê prôiza katedrathes, ô phile gambre;">Ουτω δη πρωιζα κατεδραθες, ω φιλε γαμβρε;</span></p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>The colour of imitation is still stronger in the following +passage:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p><span lang="el" title="Aôs antelloisa kalon diephaine prosôpon,">Αως αντελλοισα καλον διεφαινε προσωπον,</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Potnia nyx hate, leukon ear cheimônos anentos?">Ποτνια νυξ ἁτε, λευκον εαρ χειμωνος ανεντος;</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Hôde kai ha chrysea Helena diephainet' en amin,">Hωδε και ἁ χρυσεα Ἑλενα διεφαινετ’ εν αμιν,</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Pieira megala hat' anedrame kosmos aroura.">Πιειρα μεγαλα ἁτ’ ανεδραμε κοσμος αρουρα.</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Hê kapô kyparissos, ê harmati Thessalos hippos.">Hη καπω κυπαρισσος, η ἁρματι Θεσσαλος ἱππος.</span></p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>This description of Helen is infinitely above the +style and figure of the Sicilian pastoral: “She is +like the rising of the golden morning, when the +night departeth, and when the winter is over and +gone. She resembleth the cypress in the garden, +the horse in the chariots of Thessaly.” These +figures plainly declare their origin; and others, +equally imitative, might be pointed out in the +same idyllium.</p> +<p>This beautiful and luxuriant marriage pastoral +of Solomon is the only perfect form of the oriental +eclogue that has survived the ruins of time; a +happiness for which it is, probably, more indebted +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_106' name='page_106'></a>106</span> +to its sacred character than to its intrinsic merit. +Not that it is by any means destitute of poetical +excellence: like all the eastern poetry, it is bold, +wild, and unconnected in its figures, allusions, +and parts, and has all that graceful and magnificent +daring which characterizes its metaphorical +and comparative imagery.</p> +<p>In consequence of these peculiarities, so ill +adapted to the frigid genius of the north, Mr. +Collins could make but little use of it as a precedent +for his Oriental Eclogues; and even in his +third eclogue, where the subject is of a similar +nature, he has chosen rather to follow the mode +of the Doric and the Latian pastoral.</p> +<p>The scenery and subjects then of the foregoing +eclogues alone are oriental; the style and colouring +are purely European; and, for this reason, +the author’s preface, in which he intimates that +he had the originals from a merchant who traded +to the east, is omitted, as being now altogether +superfluous.<a name='FNanchor_0070' id='FNanchor_0070'></a><a href='#Footnote_0070' class='fnanchor'>[70]</a></p> +<p>With regard to the merit of these eclogues, it +may justly be asserted, that in simplicity of description +and expression, in delicacy and softness +of numbers, and in natural and unaffected tenderness, +they are not to be equaled by any thing +of the pastoral kind in the English language.</p> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_107' name='page_107'></a>107</span> +<a name='ECLOGUE_I' id='ECLOGUE_I'></a> +<h3>ECLOGUE I.</h3> +</div> +<p>This eclogue, which is entitled Selim, or the +Shepherd’s Moral, as there is nothing dramatic in +the subject, may be thought the least entertaining +of the four: but it is by no means the least +valuable. The moral precepts which the intelligent +shepherd delivers to his fellow-swains, and +the virgins their companions, are such as would +infallibly promote the happiness of the pastoral +life.</p> +<p>In impersonating the private virtues, the poet +has observed great propriety, and has formed +their genealogy with the most perfect judgment, +when he represents them as the daughters of +truth and wisdom.</p> +<p>The characteristics of modesty and chastity are +extremely happy and <i>peinturesque</i>:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Come thou, whose thoughts as limpid springs are clear,</p> +<p>To lead the train, sweet Modesty, appear;</p> +<p>With thee be Chastity, of all afraid,</p> +<p>Distrusting all, a wise, suspicious maid;</p> +<p>Cold is her breast, like flowers that drink the dew;</p> +<p>A silken veil conceals her from the view.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_108' name='page_108'></a>108</span></div> +<p>The two similes borrowed from rural objects are +not only much in character, but perfectly natural +and expressive. There is, notwithstanding, this +defect in the former, that it wants a peculiar propriety; +for purity of thought may as well be +applied to chastity as to modesty; and from this +instance, as well as from a thousand more, we +may see the necessity of distinguishing, in characteristic +poetry, every object by marks and +attributes peculiarly its own.</p> +<p>It cannot be objected to this eclogue, that it +wants both those essential criteria of the pastoral, +love and the drama; for though it partakes not +of the latter, the former still retains an interest in +it, and that too very material, as it professedly +consults the virtue and happiness of the lover, +while it informs what are the qualities</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>–––that must lead to love.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_109' name='page_109'></a>109</span> +<a name='ECLOGUE_II' id='ECLOGUE_II'></a> +<h3>ECLOGUE II.</h3> +</div> +<p>All the advantages that any species of poetry +can derive from the novelty of the subject and +scenery, this eclogue possesses. The route of a +camel-driver is a scene that scarce could exist in +the imagination of a European, and of its attendant +distresses he could have no idea.––These +are very happily and minutely painted by our descriptive +poet. What sublime simplicity of expression! +what nervous plainness in the opening +of the poem!</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“In silent horror o’er the boundless waste</p> +<p>The driver Hassan with his camels past.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>The magic pencil of the poet brings the whole +scene before us at once, as it were by enchantment; +and in this single couplet we feel all the +effect that arises from the terrible wildness of a +region unenlivened by the habitations of men. +The verses that describe so minutely the camel-driver’s +little provisions have a touching influence +on the imagination, and prepare the reader to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_110' name='page_110'></a>110</span> +enter more feelingly into his future apprehensions +of distress:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Bethink thee, Hassan, where shall thirst assuage,</p> +<p>When fails this cruise, his unrelenting rage!”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>It is difficult to say whether his apostrophe to the +“mute companions of his toils” is more to be admired +for the elegance and beauty of the poetical +imagery, or for the tenderness and humanity of +the sentiment. He who can read it without being +affected, will do his heart no injustice if he concludes +it to be destitute of sensibility:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Ye mute companions of my toils, that bear</p> +<p>In all my griefs a more than equal share!</p> +<p>Here, where no springs in murmurs break away,</p> +<p>Or moss-crown’d fountains mitigate the day,</p> +<p>In vain ye hope the green delights to know,</p> +<p>Which plains more blest, or verdant vales, bestow:</p> +<p>Here rocks alone and tasteless sands are found,</p> +<p>And faint and sickly winds for ever howl around.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>Yet in these beautiful lines there is a slight error, +which writers of the greatest genius very frequently +fall into.––It will be needless to observe +to the accurate reader, that in the fifth and sixth +verses there is a verbal pleonasm where the poet +speaks of the <i>green</i> delights of <i>verdant</i> vales. +There is an oversight of the same kind in the +Manners, an Ode, where the poet says,</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“–––Seine’s blue nymphs deplore</p> +<p>In watchet weeds–––.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_111' name='page_111'></a>111</span></div> +<p>This fault is indeed a common one, but to a +reader of taste it is nevertheless disgustful; and +it is mentioned here, as the error of a man of +genius and judgment, that men of genius and +judgment may guard against it.</p> +<p>Mr. Collins speaks like a true poet, as well in +sentiment as expression, when, with regard to the +thirst of wealth, he says,</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Why heed we not, while mad we haste along,</p> +<p>The gentle voice of Peace, or Pleasure’s song?</p> +<p>Or wherefore think the flowery mountain’s side,</p> +<p>The fountain’s murmurs, and the valley’s pride,</p> +<p>Why think we these less pleasing to behold,</p> +<p>Than dreary deserts, if they lead to gold?”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>But however just these sentiments may appear +to those who have not revolted from nature and +simplicity, had the author proclaimed them in +Lombard Street, or Cheapside, he would not have +been complimented with the understanding of the +bellman.––A striking proof, that our own particular +ideas of happiness regulate our opinions +concerning the sense and wisdom of others!</p> +<p>It is impossible to take leave of this most beautiful +eclogue, without paying the tribute of admiration +so justly due to the following nervous +lines:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“What if the lion in his rage I meet!–––</p> +<p>Oft in the dust I view his printed feet:</p> +<p>And, fearful! oft, when day’s declining light</p> +<p>Yields her pale empire to the mourner night,</p> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_112' name='page_112'></a>112</span></p> +<p>By hunger roused, he scours the groaning plain,</p> +<p>Gaunt wolves and sullen tigers in his train:</p> +<p>Before them death with shrieks directs their way,</p> +<p>Fills the wild yell, and leads them to their prey.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>This, amongst many other passages to be met +with in the writings of Collins, shows that his +genius was perfectly capable of the grand and +magnificent in description, notwithstanding what +a learned writer has advanced to the contrary. +Nothing, certainly, could be more greatly conceived, +or more adequately expressed, than the +image in the last couplet.</p> +<p>The deception, sometimes used in rhetoric and +poetry, which presents us with an object or sentiment +contrary to what we expected, is here introduced +to the greatest advantage:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Farewell the youth, whom sighs could not detain,</p> +<p>Whom Zara’s breaking heart implored in vain!</p> +<p>Yet, as thou go’st, may every blast arise–––</p> +<p>Weak and unfelt as these rejected sighs!”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>But this, perhaps, is rather an artificial prettiness, +than a real or natural beauty.</p> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_113' name='page_113'></a>113</span> +<a name='ECLOGUE_III' id='ECLOGUE_III'></a> +<h3>ECLOGUE III.</h3> +</div> +<p>That innocence, and native simplicity of manners, +which, in the first eclogue, was allowed to +constitute the happiness of love, is here beautifully +described in its effects. The sultan of Persia +marries a Georgian shepherdess, and finds in her +embraces that genuine felicity which unperverted +nature alone can bestow. The most natural and +beautiful parts of this eclogue are those where +the fair sultana refers with so much pleasure to +her pastoral amusements, and those scenes of +happy innocence in which she had passed her +early years; particularly when, upon her first +departure,</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Oft as she went, she backward turned her view,</p> +<p>And bade that crook and bleating flock adieu.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>This picture of amiable simplicity reminds one of +that passage where Proserpine, when carried off +by Pluto, regrets the loss of the flowers she has +been gathering:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Collecti flores tunicis cecidere remissis:</p> +<p>Tantaque simplicitas puerilibus adfuit annis,</p> +<p>Hæc quoque virgineum movit jactura dolorem.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_114' name='page_114'></a>114</span> +<a name='ECLOGUE_IV' id='ECLOGUE_IV'></a> +<h3>ECLOGUE IV.</h3> +</div> +<p>The beautiful but unfortunate country where the +scene of this pathetic eclogue is laid, had been +recently torn in pieces by the depredations of its +savage neighbours, when Mr. Collins so affectingly +described its misfortunes. This ingenious +man had not only a pencil to portray, but a heart +to feel for the miseries of mankind; and it is +with the utmost tenderness and humanity he +enters into the narrative of Circassia’s ruin, while +he realizes the scene, and brings the present +drama before us. Of every circumstance that +could possibly contribute to the tender effect this +pastoral was designed to produce, the poet has +availed himself with the utmost art and address. +Thus he prepares the heart to pity the distresses +of Circassia, by representing it as the scene of +the happiest love:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“In fair Circassia, where, to love inclined,</p> +<p>Each swain was blest, for every maid was kind.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>To give the circumstance of the dialogue a more +affecting solemnity, he makes the time midnight, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_115' name='page_115'></a>115</span> +and describes the two shepherds in the very act +of flight from the destruction that swept over +their country:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Sad o’er the dews, two brother shepherds fled,</p> +<p>Where wildering fear and desperate sorrow led.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>There is a beauty and propriety in the epithet +wildering, which strikes us more forcibly, the +more we consider it.</p> +<p>The opening of the dialogue is equally happy, +natural, and unaffected; when one of the shepherds, +weary and overcome with the fatigue of +flight, calls upon his companion to review the +length of way they had passed. This is certainly +painting from nature, and the thoughts, however +obvious, or destitute of refinement, are perfectly +in character. But as the closest pursuit of nature +is the surest way to excellence in general, and to +sublimity in particular, in poetical description, so +we find that this simple suggestion of the shepherd +is not unattended with magnificence. There +is a grandeur and variety in the landscape he +describes:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“And first review that long extended plain,</p> +<p>And yon wide groves, already past with pain!</p> +<p>Yon ragged cliff, whose dangerous path we tried!</p> +<p>And, last, this lofty mountain’s weary side!”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>There is, in imitative harmony, an act of expressing +a slow and difficult movement by adding to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_116' name='page_116'></a>116</span> +the usual number of pauses in a verse. This is +observable in the line that describes the ascent +of the mountain:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>And last || this lofty mountain’s || weary side ||.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>Here we find the number of pauses, or musical +bars, which, in an heroic verse, is commonly two, +increased to three.</p> +<p>The liquid melody, and the numerous sweetness +of expression, in the following descriptive lines, is +almost inimitably beautiful:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Sweet to the sight is Zabran’s flowery plain,</p> +<p>And once by nymphs and shepherds loved in vain!</p> +<p>No more the virgins shall delight to rove</p> +<p>By Sargis’ banks, or Irwan’s shady grove;</p> +<p>On Tarkie’s mountain catch the cooling gale,</p> +<p>Or breathe the sweets of Aly’s flowery vale.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>Nevertheless, in this delightful landscape there is +an obvious fault; there is no distinction between +the plain of Zabran and the vale of Aly; they +are both flowery, and consequently undiversified. +This could not proceed from the poet’s want of +judgment, but from inattention: it had not occurred +to him that he had employed the epithet +flowery twice within so short a compass; an +oversight which those who are accustomed to +poetical, or, indeed, to any other species of composition, +know to be very possible.</p> +<p>Nothing can be more beautifully conceived, or +more pathetically expressed, than the shepherd’s +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_117' name='page_117'></a>117</span> +apprehensions for his fair countrywomen, exposed +to the ravages of the invaders:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“In vain Circassia boasts her spicy groves,</p> +<p>For ever famed for pure and happy loves:</p> +<p>In vain she boasts her fairest of the fair,</p> +<p>Their eyes’ blue languish, and their golden hair!</p> +<p>Those eyes in tears their fruitless grief shall send;</p> +<p>Those hairs the Tartar’s cruel hand shall rend.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>There is certainly some very powerful charm in +the liquid melody of sounds. The editor of these +poems could never read or hear the following +verse repeated, without a degree of pleasure otherwise +entirely unaccountable:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Their eyes’ blue languish, and their golden hair.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>Such are the Oriental Eclogues, which we leave +with the same kind of anxious pleasure we feel +upon a temporary parting with a beloved friend.</p> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_118' name='page_118'></a>118</span> +<a name='OBSERVATIONS_ON_THE_ODES_DESCRIPTIVE_AND_ALLEGORICAL' id='OBSERVATIONS_ON_THE_ODES_DESCRIPTIVE_AND_ALLEGORICAL'></a> +<h2>OBSERVATIONS</h2> +<h3>ON THE ODES, DESCRIPTIVE AND ALLEGORICAL.</h3> +</div> +<p>The genius of Collins was capable of every degree +of excellence in lyric poetry, and perfectly +qualified for that high province of the muse. +Possessed of a native ear for all the varieties of +harmony and modulation, susceptible of the finest +feelings of tenderness and humanity, but, above +all, carried away by that high enthusiasm which +gives to imagination its strongest colouring, he +was at once capable of soothing the ear with the +melody of his numbers, of influencing the passions +by the force of his pathos, and of gratifying the +fancy by the luxury of description.</p> +<p>In consequence of these powers, but, more +particularly, in consideration of the last, he chose +such subjects for his lyric essays as were most +favourable for the indulgence of description and +allegory; where he could exercise his powers in +moral and personal painting; where he could +exert his invention in conferring new attributes +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_119' name='page_119'></a>119</span> +on images or objects already known, and described +by a determinate number of characteristics; +where he might give an uncommon éclat to his +figures, by placing them in happier attitudes, or +in more advantageous lights, and introduce new +forms from the moral and intellectual world into +the society of impersonated beings.</p> +<p>Such, no doubt, were the privileges which the +poet expected, and such were the advantages he +derived from the descriptive and allegorical nature +of his themes.</p> +<p>It seems to have been the whole industry of +our author, (and it is, at the same time, almost +all the claim to moral excellence his writings can +boast,) to promote the influence of the social virtues, +by painting them in the fairest and happiest +lights.</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Melior fieri tuendo”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>would be no improper motto to his poems in +general; but of his lyric poems it seems to be +the whole moral tendency and effect. If, therefore, +it should appear to some readers, that he +has been more industrious to cultivate description +than sentiment, it may be observed, that his +descriptions themselves are sentimental, and answer +the whole end of that species of writing, by +embellishing every feature of virtue, and by conveying, +through the effects of the pencil, the +finest moral lessons to the mind.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_120' name='page_120'></a>120</span></div> +<p>Horace speaks of the fidelity of the ear in preference +to the uncertainty of the eye; but if the +mind receives conviction, it is certainly of very +little importance through what medium, or by +which of the senses it is conveyed. The impressions +left on the imagination may possibly be +thought less durable than the deposits of the +memory, but it may very well admit of a question, +whether a conclusion of reason, or an impression +of imagination, will soonest make it sway to the +heart. A moral precept, conveyed in words, is +only an account of truth in its effects; a moral +picture is truth exemplified; and which is most +likely to gain upon the affections, it may not be +difficult to determine.</p> +<p>This, however, must be allowed, that those +works approach the nearest to perfection which +unite these powers and advantages; which at +once influence the imagination, and engage the +memory; the former by the force of animated +and striking description, the latter by a brief, but +harmonious conveyance of precept: thus, while +the heart is influenced through the operation of +the passions or the fancy, the effect, which might +otherwise have been transient, is secured by the +coöperating power of the memory, which treasures +up in a short aphorism the moral of the +scene.</p> +<p>This is a good reason, and this, perhaps, is the +only reason that can be given, why our dramatic +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_121' name='page_121'></a>121</span> +performances should generally end with a chain +of couplets. In these the moral of the whole +piece is usually conveyed; and that assistance +which the memory borrows from rhyme, as it was +probably the original cause of it, gives it usefulness +and propriety even there.</p> +<p>After these apologies for the descriptive turn +of the following odes, something remains to be +said on the origin and use of allegory in poetical +composition.</p> +<p>By this we are not to understand the trope in +the schools, which is defined aliud verbis, aliud +sensu ostendere; and of which Quintilian says, +usus est, ut tristia dicamus melioribus verbis, +aut bonæ rei gratia quædam contrariis significemus, +&c. It is not the verbal, but the sentimental +allegory, not allegorical expression (which, +indeed, might come under the term of metaphor), +but allegorical imagery, that is here in question.</p> +<p>When we endeavour to trace this species of +figurative sentiment to its origin, we find it coeval +with literature itself. It is generally agreed, that +the most ancient productions are poetical; and +it is certain that the most ancient poems abound +with allegorical imagery.</p> +<p>If, then, it be allowed that the first literary +productions were poetical; we shall have little or +no difficulty in discovering the origin of allegory.</p> +<p>At the birth of letters, in the transition from +hieroglyphical to literal expression, it is not to be +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_122' name='page_122'></a>122</span> +wondered if the custom of expressing ideas by +personal images, which had so long prevailed, +should still retain its influence on the mind, +though the use of letters had rendered the practical +application of it superfluous. Those who +had been accustomed to express strength by the +image of an elephant, swiftness by that of a panther, +and courage by that of a lion, would make +no scruple of substituting, in letters, the symbols +for the ideas they had been used to represent.</p> +<p>Here we plainly see the origin of allegorical +expression, that it arose from the ashes of hieroglyphics; +and if to the same cause we should +refer that figurative boldness of style and imagery +which distinguish the oriental writings, we shall, +perhaps, conclude more justly, than if we should +impute it to the superior grandeur of eastern +genius.</p> +<p>From the same source with the verbal, we are +to derive the sentimental allegory, which is nothing +more than a continuation of the metaphorical +or symbolical expression of the several agents +in an action, or the different objects in a scene.</p> +<p>The latter most peculiarly comes under the +denomination of allegorical imagery; and in this +species of allegory, we include the impersonation +of passions, affections, virtues, and vices, &c. on +account of which, principally, the following odes +were properly termed, by their author, allegorical.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_123' name='page_123'></a>123</span></div> +<p>With respect to the utility of this figurative +writing, the same arguments that have been advanced +in favour of descriptive poetry will be of +weight likewise here. It is, indeed, from impersonation, +or, as it is commonly termed, personification, +that poetical description borrows its chief +powers and graces. Without the aid of this, +moral and intellectual painting would be flat and +unanimated, and even the scenery of material +objects would be dull, without the introduction +of fictitious life.</p> +<p>These observations will be most effectually +illustrated by the sublime and beautiful odes that +occasioned them; in those it will appear how +happily this allegorical painting may be executed +by the genuine powers of poetical genius, and +they will not fail to prove its force and utility by +passing through the imagination to the heart.</p> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_124' name='page_124'></a>124</span> +<a name='ODE_TO_PITY_1' id='ODE_TO_PITY_1'></a> +<h3>ODE TO PITY.</h3> +</div> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“By Pella’s bard, a magic name,</p> +<p>By all the griefs his thoughts could frame,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Receive my humble rite:</p> +<p>Long, Pity, let the nations view</p> +<p>Thy sky-worn robes of tenderest blue,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And eyes of dewy light!”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>The propriety of invoking Pity, through the +mediation of Euripides, is obvious.––That admirable +poet had the keys of all the tender passions, +and therefore could not but stand in the highest +esteem with a writer of Mr. Collins’s sensibility.––He +did, indeed, admire him as much as Milton +professedly did, and probably for the same reasons; +but we do not find that he has copied him +so closely as the last mentioned poet has sometimes +done, and particularly in the opening of +Samson Agonistes, which is an evident imitation +of the following passage in the Phœnissæ:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p><span lang="el" title="Hêgou paroithe, thygater, hôs typhlô podi">Hηγου παροιθε, θυγατερ, ὡς τυφλω ποδι</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Ophthalmos ei su, nautiloisin astron hôs?">Οφθαλμος ει συ, ναυτιλοισιν αστρον ὡς;</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Deur' eis to leuron pedon ichnos titheis' emon,">Δευρ’ εις το λευρον πεδον ιχνος τιθεις’ εμον,</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Probaine––––">Προβαινε––––</span></p> +<p class='ralign'>Act. III. Sc. I.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>The “eyes of dewy light” is one of the happiest +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_125' name='page_125'></a>125</span> +strokes of imagination, and may be ranked among +those expressions which</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“––give us back the image of the mind.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Wild Arun too has heard thy strains,</p> +<p>And Echo, ’midst my native plains,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Been soothed by Pity’s lute.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“There first the wren thy myrtles shed</p> +<p>On gentlest Otway’s infant head.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>Sussex, in which county the Arun is a small +river, had the honour of giving birth to Otway +as well as to Collins: both these poets, unhappily, +became the objects of that pity by which +their writings are distinguished. There was a +similitude in their genius and in their sufferings. +There was a resemblance in the misfortunes and +in the dissipation of their lives; and the circumstances +of their death cannot be remembered +without pain.</p> +<p>The thought of painting in the temple of Pity +the history of human misfortunes, and of drawing +the scenes from the tragic muse, is very happy, +and in every respect worthy the imagination of +Collins.</p> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_126' name='page_126'></a>126</span> +<a name='ODE_TO_FEAR_1' id='ODE_TO_FEAR_1'></a> +<h3>ODE TO FEAR.</h3> +</div> +<p>Mr. Collins, who had often determined to +apply himself to dramatic poetry, seems here, +with the same view, to have addressed one of the +principal powers of the drama, and to implore +that mighty influence she had given to the genius +of Shakespeare:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Hither again thy fury deal,</p> +<p>Teach me but once like him to feel:</p> +<p>His cypress wreath my meed decree,</p> +<p>And I, O Fear, will dwell with thee!”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>In the construction of this nervous ode, the +author has shown equal power of judgment and +imagination. Nothing can be more striking than +the violent and abrupt abbreviation of the measure +in the fifth and sixth verses, when he feels +the strong influence of the power he invokes:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Ah Fear! ah frantic Fear!</p> +<p>I see, I see thee near.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>The editor of these poems has met with nothing +in the same species of poetry, either in his own, +or in any other language, equal, in all respects, +to the following description of Danger: +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_127' name='page_127'></a>127</span></p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Danger whose limbs of giant mould</p> +<p>What mortal eye can fix’d behold?</p> +<p>Who stalks his round, an hideous form,</p> +<p>Howling amidst the midnight storm,</p> +<p>Or throws him on the ridgy steep</p> +<p>Of some loose hanging rock to sleep.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>It is impossible to contemplate the image conveyed +in the two last verses, without those emotions +of terror it was intended to excite. It has, +moreover, the entire advantage of novelty to +recommend it; for there is too much originality +in all the circumstances, to suppose that the +author had in his eye that description of the +penal situation of Catiline in the ninth Æneid:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“––––Te, Catilina, minaci</p> +<p>Pendentem scopulo.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>The archetype of the English poet’s idea was in +Nature, and, probably, to her alone he was indebted +for the thought. From her, likewise, he +derived that magnificence of conception, that +horrible grandeur of imagery, displayed in the +following lines:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“And those, the fiends, who, near allied,</p> +<p>O’er Nature’s wounds and wrecks preside;</p> +<p>While Vengeance in the lurid air</p> +<p>Lifts her red arm, exposed and bare:</p> +<p>On whom that ravening brood of fate,</p> +<p>Who lap the blood of sorrow, wait.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>That nutritive enthusiasm, which cherishes the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_128' name='page_128'></a>128</span> +seeds of poetry, and which is, indeed, the only +soil wherein they will grow to perfection, lays +open the mind to all the influences of fiction. A +passion for whatever is greatly wild or magnificent +in the works of nature seduces the imagination +to attend to all that is extravagant, however unnatural. +Milton was notoriously fond of high +romance and gothic diableries; and Collins, who +in genius and enthusiasm bore no very distant +resemblance to Milton, was wholly carried away +by the same attachments.</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Be mine to read the visions old,</p> +<p>Which thy awakening bards have told:</p> +<p>And, lest thou meet my blasted view,</p> +<p>Hold each strange tale devoutly true.”</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>“On that thrice hallow’d eve,” &c.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>There is an old traditionary superstition, that on +St. Mark’s eve, the forms of all such persons as +shall die within the ensuing year make their +solemn entry into the churches of their respective +parishes, as St. Patrick swam over the Channel, +without their heads.</p> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_129' name='page_129'></a>129</span> +<a name='ODE_TO_SIMPLICITY_1' id='ODE_TO_SIMPLICITY_1'></a> +<h3>ODE TO SIMPLICITY.</h3> +</div> +<p>The measure of the ancient ballad seems to have +been made choice of for this ode, on account of +the subject; and it has, indeed, an air of simplicity, +not altogether unaffecting:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>“By all the honey’d store</p> +<p class='indent2'>On Hybla’s thymy shore,</p> +<p>By all her blooms, and mingled murmurs dear,</p> +<p class='indent2'>By her whose lovelorn woe,</p> +<p class='indent2'>In evening musings slow,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Sooth’d sweetly sad Electra’s poet’s ear.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>This allegorical imagery of the honeyed store, the +blooms, and mingled murmurs of Hybla, alluding +to the sweetness and beauty of the Attic poetry, +has the finest and the happiest effect: yet, possibly, +it will bear a question, whether the ancient +Greek tragedians had a general claim to simplicity +in any thing more than the plans of their +drama. Their language, at least, was infinitely +metaphorical; yet it must be owned that they +justly copied nature and the passions, and so far, +certainly, they were entitled to the palm of true +simplicity; the following most beautiful speech +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_130' name='page_130'></a>130</span> +of Polynices will be a monument of this, so long +as poetry shall last:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p><span lang="el" title="––––––polydakrys d' aphikomên">––––––πολυδακρυς δ’ αφικομην</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Chronios idôn melathra, kai bômous theôn,">Χρονιος ιδων μελαθρα, και βωμους θεων,</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Gymnasia th' oisin enetraphên, Dirkês, th' hydôr,">Γυμνασια θ’ οισιν ενετραφην, Διρκης, θ’ ὑδωρ,</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Hôn ou dikaiôs apelatheis, xenên polin">Hων ου δικαιως απελαθεις, ξενην πολιν</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Naiô, di' ossôn nam echôn dakryrrhooun.">Ναιω, δι’ οσσων ναμ εχων δακρυρῥοουν.</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="All' ek gar algous algos au, se derkomai">Αλλ’ εκ γαρ αλγους αλγος αυ, σε δερκομαι</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Kara xyrêkes, kai peplous melanchimous">Καρα ξυρηκες, και πεπλους μελαγχιμους</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Echousan.">Εχουσαν.</span></p> +<p class='ralign'>Eurip. Phœniss. ver. 369.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>22 “But staid to sing alone</p> +<p>33 To one distinguish’d throne.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>The poet cuts off the prevalence of simplicity +among the Romans with the reign of Augustus; +and, indeed, it did not continue much longer, +most of the compositions, after that date, giving +into false and artificial ornament.</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>“No more, in hall or bower,</p> +<p class='indent2'>The passions own thy power,</p> +<p>Love, only love, her forceless numbers mean.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>In these lines the writings of the Provençal poets +are principally alluded to, in which simplicity is +generally sacrificed to the rhapsodies of romantic +love.</p> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_131' name='page_131'></a>131</span> +<a name='ODE_ON_THE_POETICAL_CHARACTER_1' id='ODE_ON_THE_POETICAL_CHARACTER_1'></a> +<h3>ODE ON THE POETICAL CHARACTER.</h3> +</div> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>Procul! O! procul este profani!</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>This ode is so infinitely abstracted and replete +with high enthusiasm, that it will find few readers +capable of entering into the spirit of it, or of +relishing its beauties. There is a style of sentiment +as utterly unintelligible to common capacities, +as if the subject were treated in an unknown +language; and it is on the same account that +abstracted poetry will never have many admirers.</p> +<p>The authors of such poems must be content +with the approbation of those heaven-favoured +geniuses, who, by a similarity of taste and sentiment, +are enabled to penetrate the high mysteries +of inspired fancy, and to pursue the loftiest flights +of enthusiastic imagination. Nevertheless, the +praise of the distinguished few is certainly preferable +to the applause of the undiscerning million; +for all praise is valuable in proportion to the +judgment of those who confer it.</p> +<p>As the subject of this ode is uncommon, so are +the style and expression highly metaphorical and +abstracted: thus the sun is called “the rich-hair’d +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_132' name='page_132'></a>132</span> +youth of morn,” the ideas are termed +“the shadowy tribes of mind,” &c. We are +struck with the propriety of this mode of expression +here, and it affords us new proofs of the +analogy that subsists between language and sentiment.</p> +<p>Nothing can be more loftily imagined than the +creation of the cestus of Fancy in this ode: the +allegorical imagery is rich and sublime: and the +observation, that the dangerous passions kept aloof +during the operation, is founded on the strictest +philosophical truth: for poetical fancy can exist +only in minds that are perfectly serene, and in +some measure abstracted from the influences of +sense.</p> +<p>The scene of Milton’s “inspiring hour” is perfectly +in character, and described with all those +wild-wood appearances of which the great poet +was so enthusiastically fond:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“I view that oak, the fancied glades among,</p> +<p>By which as Milton lay, his evening ear,</p> +<p>Nigh sphered in heaven, its native strains could hear.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_133' name='page_133'></a>133</span> +<a name='ODE_WRITTEN_IN_THE_YEAR_1746' id='ODE_WRITTEN_IN_THE_YEAR_1746'></a> +<h3>ODE,</h3> +<h4>WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1746.</h4> +</div> +<div class='chsp' style='padding-top:0'> +<a name='ODE_TO_MERCY_1' id='ODE_TO_MERCY_1'></a> +<h3>ODE TO MERCY.</h3> +</div> +<p>The Ode written in 1746, and the Ode to Mercy, +seem to have been written on the same occasion, +viz. the late rebellion; the former in memory of +those heroes who fell in defence of their country, +the latter to excite sentiments of compassion in +favour of those unhappy and deluded wretches +who became a sacrifice to public justice.</p> +<p>The language and imagery of both are very +beautiful; but the scene and figures described, +in the strophe of the Ode to Mercy, are exquisitely +striking, and would afford a painter one of +the finest subjects in the world.</p> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_134' name='page_134'></a>134</span> +<a name='ODE_TO_LIBERTY_1' id='ODE_TO_LIBERTY_1'></a> +<h3>ODE TO LIBERTY.</h3> +</div> +<p>The ancient states of Greece, perhaps the only +ones in which a perfect model of liberty ever +existed, are naturally brought to view in the +opening of the poem:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Who shall awake the Spartan fife,</p> +<p>And call in solemn sounds to life,</p> +<p>The youths, whose locks divinely spreading,</p> +<p>Like vernal hyacinths in sullen hue.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>There is something extremely bold in this imagery +of the locks of the Spartan youths, and greatly +superior to that description Jocasta gives us of +the hair of Polynices:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p><span lang="el" title="Bostrychôn te kyanochrôta chaitas">Βοστρυχων τε κυανοχρωτα χαιτας</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Plokamon––––">Πλοκαμον––––</span></p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“What new Alcæus, fancy-blest,</p> +<p>Shall sing the sword, in myrtles drest,” &c.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>This alludes to a fragment of Alcæus still remaining, +in which the poet celebrates Harmodius and +Aristogiton, who slew the tyrant Hipparchus, and +thereby restored the liberty of Athens.</p> +<p>The fall of Rome is here most nervously described +in one line</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“With heaviest sound, a giant statue, fell.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_135' name='page_135'></a>135</span></div> +<p>The thought seems altogether new, and the imitative +harmony in the structure of the verse is +admirable.</p> +<p>After bewailing the ruin of ancient liberty, the +poet considers the influence it has retained, or +still retains, among the moderns; and here the +free republics of Italy naturally engage his attention.––Florence, +indeed, only to be lamented on +account of losing its liberty under those patrons +of letters, the Medicean family; the jealous Pisa, +justly so called, in respect to its long impatience +and regret under the same yoke; and the small +Marino, which, however unrespectable with regard +to power or extent of territory, has, at least, this +distinction to boast, that it has preserved its +liberty longer than any other state, ancient or +modern, having, without any revolution, retained +its present mode of government near fourteen +hundred years. Moreover the patron saint who +founded it, and from whom it takes its name, +deserves this poetical record, as he is, perhaps, +the only saint that ever contributed to the establishment +of freedom.</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Nor e’er her former pride relate</p> +<p>To sad Liguria’s bleeding state.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>In these lines the poet alludes to those ravages +in the state of Genoa, occasioned by the unhappy +divisions of the Guelphs and Gibelines.</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“–––When the favour’d of thy choice,</p> +<p>The daring archer heard thy voice.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_136' name='page_136'></a>136</span></div> +<p>For an account of the celebrated event referred +to in these verses, see Voltaire’s Epistle to the +King of Prussia.</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Those whom the rod of Alva bruised,</p> +<p>Whose crown a British queen refused!”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>The Flemings were so dreadfully oppressed by +this sanguinary general of Philip the Second, that +they offered their sovereignty to Elizabeth; but, +happily for her subjects, she had policy and magnanimity +enough to refuse it. Desormeaux, in +his Abrégé Chronologique de l’Histoire d’Espagne, +thus describes the sufferings of the Flemings: +“Le duc d’Albe achevoit de réduire les Flamands +au désespoir. Après avoir inondé les échafauds +du sang le plus noble et le plus précieux, il faisoit +construire des citadelles en divers endroits, +et vouloit établir l’Alcavala, ce tribute onéreux +qui avoit été longtems en usage parmi les Espagnols.”––<i>Abrég. +Chron. tom. iv.</i></p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p class='center'>“––––Mona,</p> +<p>Where thousand elfin shapes abide.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>Mona is properly the Roman name of the Isle of +Anglesey, anciently so famous for its Druids; +but sometimes, as in this place, it is given to the +Isle of Man. Both these isles still retain much +of the genius of superstition, and are now the +only places where there is the least chance of +finding a fairy.</p> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_137' name='page_137'></a>137</span> +<a name='ODE_TO_A_LADY_ON_THE_DEATH_OF_COLONEL_ROSS_IN_THE_ACTION_OF_FONTENOY' id='ODE_TO_A_LADY_ON_THE_DEATH_OF_COLONEL_ROSS_IN_THE_ACTION_OF_FONTENOY'></a> +<h3>ODE TO A LADY,</h3> +<h4>ON THE DEATH OF COLONEL ROSS, IN THE ACTION OF FONTENOY.</h4> +</div> +<p>The iambic kind of numbers in which this ode +is conceived seems as well calculated for tender +and plaintive subjects, as for those where strength +or rapidity is required.––This, perhaps, is owing +to the repetition of the strain in the same stanza; +for sorrow rejects variety, and affects a uniformity +of complaint. It is needless to observe, +that this ode is replete with harmony, spirit, and +pathos; and there surely appears no reason why +the seventh and eighth stanzas should be omitted +in that copy printed in Dodsley’s Collection of +Poems.</p> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_138' name='page_138'></a>138</span> +<a name='ODE_TO_EVENING_1' id='ODE_TO_EVENING_1'></a> +<h3>ODE TO EVENING.</h3> +</div> +<p>The blank ode has for some time solicited admission +into the English poetry; but its efforts, +hitherto, seem to have been in vain, at least its +reception has been no more than partial. It +remains a question, then, whether there is not +something in the nature of blank verse less +adapted to the lyric than to the heroic measure, +since, though it has been generally received in +the latter, it is yet unadopted in the former. In +order to discover this, we are to consider the different +modes of these different species of poetry. +That of the heroic is uniform; that of the lyric is +various; and in these circumstances of uniformity +and variety probably lies the cause why blank +verse has been successful in the one, and unacceptable +in the other. While it presented itself +only in one form, it was familiarized to the ear +by custom; but where it was obliged to assume +the different shapes of the lyric muse, it seemed +still a stranger of uncouth figure, was received +rather with curiosity than pleasure, and entertained +without that ease or satisfaction which +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_139' name='page_139'></a>139</span> +acquaintance and familiarity produce.––Moreover, +the heroic blank verse obtained a sanction +of infinite importance to its general reception, +when it was adopted by one of the greatest poets +the world ever produced, and was made the +vehicle of the noblest poem that ever was written. +When this poem at length extorted that applause +which ignorance and prejudice had united to +withhold, the versification soon found its imitators, +and became more generally successful than +even in those countries from whence it was imported. +But lyric blank verse had met with no +such advantages; for Mr. Collins, whose genius +and judgment in harmony might have given it so +powerful an effect, has left us but one specimen +of it in the Ode to Evening.</p> +<p>In the choice of his measure he seems to have +had in his eye Horace’s Ode to Pyrrha; for this +ode bears the nearest resemblance to that mixed +kind of the asclepiad and pherecratic verse; and +that resemblance in some degree reconciles us to +the want of rhyme, while it reminds us of those +great masters of antiquity, whose works had no +need of this whimsical jingle of sounds.</p> +<p>From the following passage one might be induced +to think that the poet had it in view to +render his subject and his versification suitable to +each other on this occasion, and that, when he +addressed himself to the sober power of Evening, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_140' name='page_140'></a>140</span> +he had thought proper to lay aside the foppery +of rhyme:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>“Now teach me, maid composed,</p> +<p class='indent2'>To breathe some soften’d strain,</p> +<p>Whose numbers, stealing through thy darkening vale,</p> +<p>May not unseemly with its stillness suit,</p> +<p class='indent2'>As, musing slow, I hail</p> +<p class='indent2'>Thy genial loved return!”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>But whatever were the numbers or the versification +of this ode, the imagery and enthusiasm it +contains could not fail of rendering it delightful. +No other of Mr. Collins’s odes is more generally +characteristic of his genius. In one place we discover +his passion for visionary beings:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“For when thy folding-star arising shows</p> +<p>His paly circlet, at his warning lamp</p> +<p class='indent2'>The fragrant Hours, and Elves</p> +<p class='indent2'>Who slept in buds the day,</p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>And many a Nymph who wreathes her brows with sedge,</p> +<p>And sheds the freshening dew, and, lovelier still,</p> +<p class='indent2'>The pensive Pleasures sweet,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Prepare thy shadowy car.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>In another we behold his strong bias to melancholy:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Then let me rove some wild and heathy scene,</p> +<p>Or find some ruin ’midst its dreary dells,</p> +<p class='indent2'>Whose walls more awful nod</p> +<p class='indent2'>By thy religious gleams.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_141' name='page_141'></a>141</span></div> +<p>Then appears his taste for what is wildly grand +and magnificent in nature; when, prevented by +storms from enjoying his evening walk, he wishes +for a situation,</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“That from the mountain’s side</p> +<p>Views wilds and swelling floods;”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>And through the whole, his invariable attachment +to the expression of painting:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“–––and marks o’er all</p> +<p>Thy dewy fingers draw</p> +<p>The gradual dusky veil.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>It might be a sufficient encomium on this beautiful +ode to observe, that it has been particularly +admired by a lady to whom nature has given the +most perfect principles of taste. She has not +even complained of the want of rhyme in it; a +circumstance by no means unfavourable to the +cause of lyric blank verse; for surely, if a fair +reader can endure an ode without bells and +chimes, the masculine genius may dispense with +them.</p> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_142' name='page_142'></a>142</span> +<a name='THE_MANNERS_AN_ODE_1' id='THE_MANNERS_AN_ODE_1'></a> +<h3>THE MANNERS.</h3> +<h4>AN ODE.</h4> +</div> +<p>From the subject and sentiments of this ode, it +seems not improbable that the author wrote it +about the time when he left the university; when, +weary with the pursuit of academical studies, he +no longer confined himself to the search of theoretical +knowledge, but commenced the scholar of +humanity, to study nature in her works, and man +in society.</p> +<p>The following farewell to Science exhibits a +very just as well as striking picture: for however +exalted in theory the Platonic doctrines may appear, +it is certain that Platonism and Pyrrhonism +are nearly allied:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Farewell the porch, whose roof is seen,</p> +<p>Arch’d with the enlivening olive’s green:</p> +<p>Where Science, prank’d in tissued vest,</p> +<p>By Reason, Pride, and Fancy drest,</p> +<p>Comes like a bride, so trim array’d,</p> +<p>To wed with Doubt in Plato’s shade!”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_143' name='page_143'></a>143</span></div> +<p>When the mind goes in pursuit of visionary systems, +it is not far from the regions of doubt; and +the greater its capacity to think abstractedly, to +reason and refine, the more it will be exposed to, +and bewildered in, uncertainty.––From an enthusiastic +warmth of temper, indeed, we may for +a while be encouraged to persist in some favourite +doctrine, or to adhere to some adopted system; +but when that enthusiasm, which is founded on +the vivacity of the passions, gradually cools and +dies away with them, the opinions it supported +drop from us, and we are thrown upon the inhospitable +shore of doubt.––A striking proof of +the necessity of some moral rule of wisdom and +virtue, and some system of happiness established +by unerring knowledge, and unlimited power.</p> +<p>In the poet’s address to Humour in this ode +there is one image of singular beauty and propriety. +The ornaments in the hair of Wit are of +such a nature, and disposed in such a manner, as +to be perfectly symbolical and characteristic:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“Me too amidst thy band admit,</p> +<p>There where the young-eyed healthful Wit,</p> +<p>(Whose jewels in his crisped hair</p> +<p>Are placed each other’s beams to share,</p> +<p>Whom no delights from thee divide)</p> +<p>In laughter loosed, attends thy side.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>Nothing could be more expressive of wit, which +consists in a happy collision of comparative and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_144' name='page_144'></a>144</span> +relative images, than this reciprocal reflection of +light from the disposition of the jewels.</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“O Humour, thou whose name is known</p> +<p>To Britain’s favour’d isle alone.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>The author could only mean to apply this to the +time when he wrote, since other nations had produced +works of great humour, as he himself acknowledges +afterwards.</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“By old Miletus,” &c.</p> +<p>“By all you taught the Tuscan maids,” &c.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>The Milesian and Tuscan romances were by no +means distinguished for humour; but as they +were the models of that species of writing in +which humour was afterwards employed, they are, +probably for that reason only, mentioned here.</p> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_145' name='page_145'></a>145</span> +<a name='THE_PASSIONS_AN_ODE_FOR_MUSIC_1' id='THE_PASSIONS_AN_ODE_FOR_MUSIC_1'></a> +<h3>THE PASSIONS.</h3> +<h4>AN ODE FOR MUSIC.</h4> +</div> +<p>If the music which was composed for this ode +had equal merit with the ode itself, it must have +been the most excellent performance of the kind +in which poetry and music have, in modern +times, united. Other pieces of the same nature +have derived their greatest reputation from the +perfection of the music that accompanied them, +having in themselves little more merit than that +of an ordinary ballad: but in this we have the +whole soul and power of poetry––expression that, +even without the aid of music, strikes to the +heart; and imagery of power enough to transport +the attention, without the forceful alliance of corresponding +sounds! what, then, must have been +the effect of these united!</p> +<p>It is very observable, that though the measure +is the same, in which the musical efforts of Fear, +Anger, and Despair are described, yet, by the +variation of the cadence, the character and operation +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_146' name='page_146'></a>146</span> +of each is strongly expressed: thus particularly +of Despair:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“With woful measures wan Despair––</p> +<p class='indent2'>Low, sullen sounds his grief beguiled,</p> +<p>A solemn, strange, and mingled air,</p> +<p class='indent2'>’Twas sad by fits, by starts ’twas wild.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>He must be a very unskilful composer who could +not catch the power of imitative harmony from +these lines!</p> +<p>The picture of Hope that follows this is beautiful +almost beyond imitation. By the united +powers of imagery and harmony, that delightful +being is exhibited with all the charms and graces +that pleasure and fancy have appropriated to +her:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>Relegat, qui semel percurrit;</p> +<p>Qui nunquam legit, legat.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“But thou, O Hope, with eyes so fair,</p> +<p class='indent2'>What was thy delighted measure!</p> +<p>Still it whisper’d promised pleasure,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail!</p> +<p>Still would her touch the strain prolong,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And from the rocks, the woods, the vale,</p> +<p>She call’d on Echo still through all the song;</p> +<p class='indent2'>And where her sweetest theme she chose,</p> +<p class='indent2'>A soft responsive voice was heard at every close,</p> +<p>And Hope enchanted smiled, and waved her golden hair.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>In what an exalted light does the above stanza +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_147' name='page_147'></a>147</span> +place this great master of poetical imagery and +harmony! what varied sweetness of numbers! +what delicacy of judgment and expression! how +characteristically does Hope prolong her strain, +repeat her soothing closes, call upon her associate +Echo for the same purposes, and display every +pleasing grace peculiar to her!</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>“And Hope enchanted smiled, and waved her golden hair.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>Legat, qui nunquam legit;</p> +<p>Qui semel percurrit, relegat.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>The descriptions of Joy, Jealousy, and Revenge +are excellent, though not equally so. Those of +Melancholy and Cheerfulness are superior to +every thing of the kind; and, upon the whole, +there may be very little hazard in asserting, that +this is the finest ode in the English language.</p> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_148' name='page_148'></a>148</span> +<a name='AN_EPISTLE_TO_SIR_THOMAS_HANMER_ON_HIS_EDITION_OF_SHAKESPEARES_WORKS' id='AN_EPISTLE_TO_SIR_THOMAS_HANMER_ON_HIS_EDITION_OF_SHAKESPEARES_WORKS'></a> +<h3>AN EPISTLE</h3> +<h4>TO SIR THOMAS HANMER, ON HIS EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE’S WORKS.</h4> +</div> +<p>This poem was written by our author at the +university, about the time when Sir Thomas Hanmer’s +pompous edition of Shakespeare was printed +at Oxford. If it has not so much merit as the +rest of his poems, it has still more than the subject +deserves. The versification is easy and genteel, +and the allusions always poetical. The +character of the poet Fletcher in particular is +very justly drawn in this epistle.</p> +<hr class='toprule' /> +<div class='chsp'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_149' name='page_149'></a>149</span> +<a name='DIRGE_IN_CYMBELINE_ODE_ON_THE_DEATH_OF_THOMSON' id='DIRGE_IN_CYMBELINE_ODE_ON_THE_DEATH_OF_THOMSON'></a> +<h3>DIRGE IN CYMBELINE.</h3> +<h4>ODE ON THE DEATH OF THOMSON.</h4> +</div> +<p>Mr. Collins had skill to complain. Of that +mournful melody, and those tender images, which +are the distinguishing excellencies of such pieces +as bewail departed friendship, or beauty, he was +an almost unequaled master. He knew perfectly +to exhibit such circumstances, peculiar to +the objects, as awaken the influences of pity; +and while, from his own great sensibility, he felt +what he wrote, he naturally addressed himself to +the feelings of others.</p> +<p>To read such lines as the following, all-beautiful +and tender as they are, without corresponding +emotions of pity, is surely impossible:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p class='indent2'>“The tender thought on thee shall dwell;</p> +<p>Each lonely scene shall thee restore,</p> +<p class='indent2'>For thee the tear be duly shed;</p> +<p>Beloved till life can charm no more,</p> +<p class='indent2'>And mourn’d till Pity’s self be dead.”</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +<p>The Ode on the Death of Thomson seems to have +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_150' name='page_150'></a>150</span> +been written in an excursion to Richmond by +water. The rural scenery has a proper effect in +an ode to the memory of a poet, much of whose +merit lay in descriptions of the same kind; and +the appellations of “Druid,” and “meek Nature’s +child,” are happily characteristic. For the +better understanding of this ode, it is necessary +to remember, that Mr. Thomson lies buried in +the church of Richmond.</p> +<p class='center padtop'><b>THE END.</b></p> +<hr class='invis' /> +<hr class='fn' /> +<div class='chsp' style='padding-top:0'> +<a name='FOOTNOTES' id='FOOTNOTES'></a> +<h2>FOOTNOTES:</h2> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0001' id='Footnote_0001'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0001'><span class='label'>[1]</span></a> +<p>21st March, 1740.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0002' id='Footnote_0002'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0002'><span class='label'>[2]</span></a> +<p>Afterwards republished with the title of “Oriental Eclogues.”</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0003' id='Footnote_0003'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0003'><span class='label'>[3]</span></a> +<p>D’Israeli, in his “Calamities of Authors,” vol. ii. p. 201.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0004' id='Footnote_0004'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0004'><span class='label'>[4]</span></a> +<p>June 7th, 1746.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0005' id='Footnote_0005'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0005'><span class='label'>[5]</span></a> +<p>Mr. Joseph Warton, now Dr. Warton, head master of +Winton school, was at the same time second upon roll; and +Mr. Mulso, now [1781] prebendary of the church of Winton, +third upon roll.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0006' id='Footnote_0006'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0006'><span class='label'>[6]</span></a> +<p>Hampton, the translator of Polybius.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0007' id='Footnote_0007'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0007'><span class='label'>[7]</span></a> +<p>Dallaway’s Sussex, vol. i. p. 185––The arms of the family +of Collins are there said to have been, “Azure a griffin +segreant or;” but in Sir William Burrell’s MS. Collections +for a History of Sussex, in the British Museum, the field is +described as being vert. From those manuscripts which are +marked “Additional MSS.” Nos. 5697 to 5699, the following +notices of the Poet’s family have been extracted.</p> +<blockquote> +<p class='center'>REGISTER OF ST. ANDREW’S, CHICHESTER.</p> +<p class='center smcaplc'>BAPTISM.</p> +<p class='lalign'>Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. George Collins, 8th October, 1763.</p> +<p class='center smcaplc'>BURIALS.</p> +<p class='lalign'>Mrs. Elizabeth Collins [the poet’s mother], 6th July, 1744.<br /> +William Collins, Gent. [the Poet], 15th June, 1759.</p> +<p class='center'>REGISTER OF ST. PETER THE GREAT, +CHICHESTER.</p> +<p class='center smcaplc'>BAPTISMS.</p> +<p class='lalign'>Charles, son of Roger Collins, 8th February, 1645.<br /> +George, son of Mr. George Collins, 28th December, 1647.<br /> +Humphrey, son of Mr. Richard Collins, 20th Dec. 1648.<br /> +George, son of Mr. George Collins, 7th September, 1651.<br /> +Christian, daughter of Mr. Richard Collins, 1st Sept. 1652.<br /> +John, son of Mr. Richard Collins, senior, 13th Dec. 1652.<br /> +Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Richard Collins, sen. 16th May, 1656.<br /> +Joan, daughter of Mr. Richard Collins, jun. 12th Dec. 1656.<br /> +Judith, daughter of Mr. Collins, Vicar Choral, 17th April, 1667.<br /> +Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. William Collins, 6th March, 1704.</p> +<p class='center smcaplc'>MARRIAGES.</p> +<p class='lalign'>Mr. Charles Collins and Mrs. Elizabeth Cardiff, 14th April, 1696.</p> +<p class='center'>BURIALS.</p> +<p class='lalign'>––– wife of Mr. William Collins, 10th December, 1650.<br /> +Susan, wife of Mr. Richard Collins, 3rd December, 1657.<br /> +Mr. George Collins, 10th January, 1669.<br /> +Mrs. Collins of St. Olave’s Parish, 19th July, 1696.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>There are monumental inscriptions in St. Andrew’s Church, +Chichester, to the Poet’s father, mother, maternal uncle, +Colonel Martyn, and sister, Mrs. Durnford.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0008' id='Footnote_0008'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0008'><span class='label'>[8]</span></a> +<p>So much of the will of Colonel Edmund Martyn as relates +to the Poet and his sister has been already cited, but +the testator’s situation in life and the respectability of his +family are best shown by other parts of that document. He +describes himself as a lieutenant-colonel in his Majesty’s +service, lying sick in the city of Chichester. To his niece +Elizabeth, the wife of Thomas Napper, of Itchenor in Sussex, +he bequeathed 100<i>l.</i> His copyhold estates of the manors of +Selsey, and Somerly, in that county, to his nephew, Abraham +Martyn, the youngest son of his late only brother, Henry +Martyn, and to his servant, John Hipp, he gave his wearing +apparel and ten pounds.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0009' id='Footnote_0009'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0009'><span class='label'>[9]</span></a> +<p>Dyce’s edition of Collins, 1827, p. 39.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0010' id='Footnote_0010'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0010'><span class='label'>[10]</span></a> +<p>In the Persian tongue, Abbas signifieth “the father of +the people.”</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0011' id='Footnote_0011'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0011'><span class='label'>[11]</span></a> +<p>The gulf of that name, famous for the pearl fishery.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0012' id='Footnote_0012'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0012'><span class='label'>[12]</span></a> +<p>That these flowers are found in very great abundance in +some of the provinces of Persia, see the Modern History of +the ingenious Mr. Salmon. C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0013' id='Footnote_0013'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0013'><span class='label'>[13]</span></a> +<p>Euripides, of whom Aristotle pronounces, on a comparison +of him with Sophocles, that he was the greater master +of the tender passions, +<span lang="el" title="ên tragikôteros">ην τραγικωτερος</span>. C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0014' id='Footnote_0014'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0014'><span class='label'>[14]</span></a> +<p>The river Arun runs by the village of Trotton in Sussex, +where Otway had his birth.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0015' id='Footnote_0015'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0015'><span class='label'>[15]</span></a> +<p>Alluding to the +<span lang="el" title="Kynas aphyktous">Κυνας αφυκτους</span> +of Sophocles. See +the Electra. C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0016' id='Footnote_0016'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0016'><span class='label'>[16]</span></a> +<p>Æschylus. C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0017' id='Footnote_0017'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0017'><span class='label'>[17]</span></a> +<p>Jocasta. C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0018' id='Footnote_0018'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0018'><span class='label'>[18]</span></a> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p><span lang="el" title="–––oud' et' ôrôrei boê,">ουδ’ ετ’ ωρωρει βοη,</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Ên men siôpê; phthegma d' exaiphnês tinos">Ην μεν σιωπη; φθεγμα δ’ εξαιφνης τινος</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Thôuxen auton, hôste pantas orthias">Θωυξεν αυτον, ὡστε παντας ορθιας</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Stêsai phobô deisantas exaiphnês trichas.">Στησαι φοβω δεισαντας εξαιφνης τριχας.</span></p> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<p>See the Œdip. Colon. of Sophocles. C.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0019' id='Footnote_0019'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0019'><span class='label'>[19]</span></a> +<p>The +<span lang="el" title="aêdôn">αηδων</span>, +or nightingale, for which Sophocles seems +to have entertained a peculiar fondness. C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0020' id='Footnote_0020'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0020'><span class='label'>[20]</span></a> +<p>Florimel. See Spenser, Leg. 4th. C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0021' id='Footnote_0021'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0021'><span class='label'>[21]</span></a> +<p>Alluding to that beautiful fragment of Alcæus:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p><span lang="el" title="En myrtou kladi to xiphos phorêsô,">Εν μυρτου κλαδι το ξιφος φορησω,</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Hôsper Harmodios k' Aristogeitôn,">Hωσπερ Ἁρμοδιος κ’ Αριστογειτων,</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Hote ton tyrannon ktanetên.">Ὁτε τον τυραννον κτανετην.</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Isonomous t' Athênas epoiêsatên.">Ισονομους τ’ Αθηνας εποιησατην.</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Philtath' Harmodi' ou ti pou tethnêkas,">Φιλταθ’ Ἁρμοδι’ ου τι που τεθνηκας,</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Nêsois d' en makarôn se phasin einai,">Νησοις δ’ εν μακαρων σε φασιν ειναι,</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Hina per podôkês Achileus,">Ἱνα περ ποδωκης Αχιλευς,</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Tydeidên te phasin Diomêdea.">Τυδειδην τε φασιν Διομηδεα.</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="En myrtou kladi to xiphos phorêsô,">Εν μυρτου κλαδι το ξιφος φορησω,</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Ôsper Harmodios k' Aristogeitôn,">Ωσπερ Ἁρμοδιος κ’ Αριστογειτων,</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Hot' Athênaiês en Thysiais">Ὁτ’ Αθηναιης εν Θυσιαις</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Andra tyrannon Hipparchon ekainetên.">Ανδρα τυραννον Ἱππαρχον εκαινετην.</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Aei sphôn kleos essetai kat' aian,">Αει σφων κλεος εσσεται κατ’ αιαν,</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Philtath' Harmodie, k' Aristogeitôn,">Φιλταθ’ Ἁρμοδιε, κ’ Αριστογειτων,</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Hoti ton tyrannon ktaneton,">Ὁτι τον τυραννον κτανετον,</span></p> +<p><span lang="el" title="Isonomous t' Athênas epoiêsaton.">Ισονομους τ’ Αθηνας εποιησατον.</span></p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0022' id='Footnote_0022'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0022'><span class='label'>[22]</span></a> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p><span lang="el" title="Mê mê tauta legômes, ha dakryon êgage Dêoi.">Μη μη ταυτα λεγωμες, ἁ δακρυον ηγαγε Δηοι.</span></p> +<p class='ralign'>Callimach. <span lang="el" title="Hymnos eis Dêmêtra">Ὑμνος εις Δημητρα</span>. C.</p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0023' id='Footnote_0023'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0023'><span class='label'>[23]</span></a> +<p>The family of the Medici. C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0024' id='Footnote_0024'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0024'><span class='label'>[24]</span></a> +<p>The little republic of San Marino. C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0025' id='Footnote_0025'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0025'><span class='label'>[25]</span></a> +<p>The Venetians. C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0026' id='Footnote_0026'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0026'><span class='label'>[26]</span></a> +<p>The Doge of Venice. C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0027' id='Footnote_0027'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0027'><span class='label'>[27]</span></a> +<p>Genoa. C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0028' id='Footnote_0028'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0028'><span class='label'>[28]</span></a> +<p>Switzerland. C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0029' id='Footnote_0029'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0029'><span class='label'>[29]</span></a> +<p>The Dutch, amongst whom there are very severe penalties +for those who are convicted of killing this bird. They +are kept tame in almost all their towns, and particularly at +the Hague, of the arms of which they make a part. The +common people of Holland are said to entertain a superstitious +sentiment, that if the whole species of them should become +extinct, they should lose their liberties. C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0030' id='Footnote_0030'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0030'><span class='label'>[30]</span></a> +<p>Queen Elizabeth. C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0031' id='Footnote_0031'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0031'><span class='label'>[31]</span></a> +<p>This tradition is mentioned by several of our old historians. +Some naturalists too have endeavoured to support the +probability of the fact by arguments drawn from the correspondent +disposition of the two opposite coasts. I do not +remember that any poetical use has been hitherto made of it. +C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0032' id='Footnote_0032'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0032'><span class='label'>[32]</span></a> +<p>There is a tradition in the Isle of Man, that a mermaid +becoming enamoured of a young man of extraordinary beauty +took an opportunity of meeting him one day as he walked on +the shore, and opened her passion to him, but was received +with a coldness, occasioned by his horror and surprise at her +appearance. This, however, was so misconstrued by the sea +lady, that, in revenge for his treatment of her, she punished +the whole island by covering it with a mist: so that all who +attempted to carry on any commerce with it, either never +arrived at it, but wandered up and down the sea, or were on +a sudden wrecked upon its cliffs. C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0033' id='Footnote_0033'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0033'><span class='label'>[33]</span></a> +<p>Harting, a village adjoining the parish of Trotton, and +about two miles distant from it.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0034' id='Footnote_0034'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0034'><span class='label'>[34]</span></a> +<p>Alluding to the Milesian tales, some of the earliest romances. +C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0035' id='Footnote_0035'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0035'><span class='label'>[35]</span></a> +<p>Cervantes. C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0036' id='Footnote_0036'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0036'><span class='label'>[36]</span></a> +<p>Monsieur Le Sage, author of the incomparable Adventures +of Gil Blas de Santillane, who died in Paris in the +year 1745. C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0037' id='Footnote_0037'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0037'><span class='label'>[37]</span></a> +<p>The harp of Æolus, of which see a description in the +Castle of Indolence. C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0038' id='Footnote_0038'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0038'><span class='label'>[38]</span></a> +<p>Richmond Church, in which Thomson was buried. C.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0039' id='Footnote_0039'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0039'><span class='label'>[39]</span></a> +<p>Mr. Thomson resided in the neighbourhood of Richmond +some time before his death.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0040' id='Footnote_0040'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0040'><span class='label'>[40]</span></a> +<p>How truly did Collins predict Home’s tragic powers!</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0041' id='Footnote_0041'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0041'><span class='label'>[41]</span></a> +<p>A gentleman of the name of Barrow, who introduced +Home to Collins. Ed. 1788.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0042' id='Footnote_0042'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0042'><span class='label'>[42]</span></a> +<p>A summer hut, built in the high part of the mountains, +to tend their flocks in the warm season, when the pasture is +fine. Ed. 1788.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0043' id='Footnote_0043'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0043'><span class='label'>[43]</span></a> +<p>By young Aurora, Collins undoubtedly meant the first +appearance of the northern lights, which happened about the +year 1715; at least it is most highly probable, from this +peculiar circumstance, that no ancient writer whatever has +taken any notice of them, nor even any modern one, previous +to the above period. Ed. 1788.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0044' id='Footnote_0044'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0044'><span class='label'>[44]</span></a> +<p>Second sight is the term that is used for the divination +of the highlanders. Ed. 1788.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0045' id='Footnote_0045'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0045'><span class='label'>[45]</span></a> +<p>The late Duke of Cumberland, who defeated the Pretender +at the battle of Culloden. Ed. 1788.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0046' id='Footnote_0046'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0046'><span class='label'>[46]</span></a> +<p>A fiery meteor, called by various names, such as Will +with the Wisp, Jack with the Lantern, etc. It hovers in the +air over marshy and fenny places. Ed. 1788.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0047' id='Footnote_0047'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0047'><span class='label'>[47]</span></a> +<p>The water fiend.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0048' id='Footnote_0048'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0048'><span class='label'>[48]</span></a> +<p>One of the Hebrides is called the Isle of Pigmies; where +it is reported, that several miniature bones of the human +species have been dug up in the ruins of a chapel there.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0049' id='Footnote_0049'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0049'><span class='label'>[49]</span></a> +<p>Icolmkill, one of the Hebrides, where near sixty of the +ancient Scottish, Irish, and Norwegian kings are interred.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0050' id='Footnote_0050'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0050'><span class='label'>[50]</span></a> +<p>An aquatic bird like a goose, on the eggs of which the +inhabitants of St. Kilda, another of the Hebrides, chiefly +subsist. Ed. 1788.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0051' id='Footnote_0051'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0051'><span class='label'>[51]</span></a> +<p>Three rivers in Scotland. Ed. 1788.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0052' id='Footnote_0052'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0052'><span class='label'>[52]</span></a> +<p>Ben Jonson paid a visit on foot, in 1619, to the Scotch +poet Drummond, at his seat of Hawthornden, within four +miles of Edinburgh.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0053' id='Footnote_0053'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0053'><span class='label'>[53]</span></a> +<p>Barrow, it seems, was at the Edinburgh University, +which is in the county of Lothian. Ed. 1788.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0054' id='Footnote_0054'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0054'><span class='label'>[54]</span></a> +<p>The Œdipus of Sophocles.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0055' id='Footnote_0055'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0055'><span class='label'>[55]</span></a> +<p>Julius the Second, the immediate predecessor of Leo the +Tenth.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0056' id='Footnote_0056'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0056'><span class='label'>[56]</span></a> +<p>Their characters are thus distinguished by Mr. Dryden.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0057' id='Footnote_0057'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0057'><span class='label'>[57]</span></a> +<p>About the time of Shakespeare, the poet Hardy was in +great repute in France. He wrote, according to Fontenelle, +six hundred plays. The French poets after him applied +themselves in general to the correct improvement of the stage, +which was almost totally disregarded by those of our own +country, Jonson excepted.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0058' id='Footnote_0058'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0058'><span class='label'>[58]</span></a> +<p>The favourite author of the elder Corneille.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0059' id='Footnote_0059'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0059'><span class='label'>[59]</span></a> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<p>Turno tempus erit, magno cum optaverit emptum</p> +<p>Intactum Pallanta, etc.</p> +<p class='ralign'><span class='smcap'>Virg.</span></p> +</div></div> +</td></tr></table> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0060' id='Footnote_0060'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0060'><span class='label'>[60]</span></a> +<p>See the tragedy of Julius Cæsar.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0061' id='Footnote_0061'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0061'><span class='label'>[61]</span></a> +<p>Coriolanus. See Mr. Spence’s Dialogue on the Odyssey.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0062' id='Footnote_0062'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0062'><span class='label'>[62]</span></a> +<p>It is uncertain where this poem appeared. It was inserted +in the Edinburgh edition of the Poets, 1794. A +manuscript copy in the collection recently belonging to Mr. +Upcott, and now in the British Museum, is headed, “Written +by Collins when at Winchester School. From a Manuscript.”</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0063' id='Footnote_0063'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0063'><span class='label'>[63]</span></a> +<p>See Memoir, p. xxxviii.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0064' id='Footnote_0064'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0064'><span class='label'>[64]</span></a> +<p>Now Countess-dowager of Peterborough.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0065' id='Footnote_0065'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0065'><span class='label'>[65]</span></a> +<p>Vauxhall.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0066' id='Footnote_0066'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0066'><span class='label'>[66]</span></a> +<p>Vide the Spectator’s Letters from Camilla, vol. vi.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0067' id='Footnote_0067'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0067'><span class='label'>[67]</span></a> +<p>Milton’s Comus lately revived.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0068' id='Footnote_0068'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0068'><span class='label'>[68]</span></a> +<p>Senesino has built a palace near Sienna on an estate +which carries the title of a Marquisate, but purchased with +English gold.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0069' id='Footnote_0069'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0069'><span class='label'>[69]</span></a> +<p>The king-fisher.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0070' id='Footnote_0070'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0070'><span class='label'>[70]</span></a> +<p>In the present edition the preface is restored.</p> +</div> +<hr class='fn' /> +<div class="trnote"> +<p><b>Transcriber Notes</b></p> +<p>Archaic and variable spelling is preserved.</p> +<p>Author’s punctuation style is preserved. Quotes in the poetry are sometimes repeated on every line.</p> +<p>Poetry line numbers regularized.</p> +<p>Footnote 4’s location is approximated.</p> +<p>This book includes variations of some lines of poems. These are shown along the right side of the screen.</p> +<p>Sections in Greek will yield a transliteration when the pointer is moved over each line, e.g. <span lang="el" title="Pindar. Olymp. Th.">Πινδαρ. Ολυμπ. Θ.</span></p> +</div> + +<!-- generated by ppg.rb version: ppg0817 --> +<!-- timestamp: Sun Aug 30 18:35:00 -0400 2009 --> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Poetical Works of William Collins, by +William Collins + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POETICAL WORKS--WILLIAM COLLINS *** + +***** This file should be named 29879-h.htm or 29879-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/8/7/29879/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Katherine Ward, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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