Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

AN ELEGY ON THE GLORY OF HER SEX, MRS. MARY BLAIZE.1

GOOD people all, with one accord,
Lament for madam Blaize,
Who never wanted a good word-
From those who spoke her praise.

The needy seldom pass'd her door,
And always found her kind;
She freely lent to all the poor-
Who left a pledge behind.

She strove the neighbourhood to please,
With manners wondrous winning;
And never follow'd wicked ways—
Unless when she was sinning.

At church, in silks and satins new,
With hoop of monstrous size;
She never slumber'd in her pew—
But when she shut her eyes.

Her love was sought, I do aver,
By twenty beaux and more;
The king himself has follow'd her-
When she has walk'd before.

1 See The Bee, p. 128.

But now her wealth and finery fled,

Her hangers-on cut short all;

The doctors found, when she was dead—
Her last disorder mortal.

Let us lament, in sorrow sore,

For Kent-street well may say,

That had she liv'd a twelvemonth more-
She had not died to-day.2

[ocr errors]

2 This poem is an imitation of the chanson, called Le fameux la Galisse, homme imaginaire,' in fifty stanzas, printed in the Menagiana, iv. 191.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

A SONNET.'

WEEPING, murmuring, complaining,
Lost to every gay delight;
Myra, too sincere for feigning,
Fears th' approaching bridal night.

Yet why impair thy bright perfection?
Or dim thy beauty with a tear?
Had Myra follow'd my direction,
She long had wanted cause of fear.

SONG.

FROM THE ORATORIO OF THE CAPTIVITY.

THE wretch, condemn'd with life to part,
Still, still on hope relies;

And every pang that rends the heart,
Bids expectation rise.

Hope, like the glimmering taper's light,
Adorns and cheers the way;
And still, as darker grows the night,
Emits a brighter ray.

1 See The Bee, p. 94.

SONG.

O MEMORY! thou fond deceiver,
Still importunate and vain,
To former joys, recurring ever,

And turning all the past to pain;

Thou, like the world, the opprest oppressing,
Thy smiles increase the wretch's woe!
And he who wants each other blessing,
In thee must ever find a foe.

A PROLOGUE WRITTEN AND SPOKEN BY

THE POET LABERIUS,

A ROMAN KNIGHT, WHOM CÆSAR FORCED UPON THE STAGE. PRESERVED BY MACROBIUS.1

WHAT! no way left to shun th' inglorious stage,
And save from infamy my sinking age!
Scarce half alive, oppress'd with many a year,
What in the name of dotage drives me here?
A time there was, when glory was my guide,
Nor force nor fraud could turn my steps aside;
Unaw'd by power, and unappal'd by fear,
With honest thrift I held my honour dear:
But this vile hour disperses all my store,
And all my hoard of honour is no more;
For ah! too partial to my life's decline,
Cæsar persuades, submission must be mine;
Him I obey, whom heaven itself obeys,
Hopeless of pleasing, yet inclin'd to please.
Here then at once I welcome every shame,
And cancel at threescore a life of fame;

[ocr errors]

This translation was first printed in one of our Author's earliest works, The Present State of Learning in Europe,' 12mo. 1759.

I

« AnteriorContinuar »