པར APPENDIX. ADDITIONAL NOTES AND SONGS TO VOLUME I. THE CHARACTER OF A HAPPY LIFE. p. 29. Ben Jonson, we are told by Drummond, had these verses by heart. ["Sir Edward Wotton's verses of a Happie Lyfe, he hath by heart."] Conversations with Ben Jonson, 1619. Arch. Scot. iv. 89. TO CELIA. "The most common-place of his [Jonson's] repetition was his verses of drinking, Drink to me hot with thyne Eyes." DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN. Arch. Scot. iv. 82. WOMEN ARE BUT MEN'S SHADOWS. p. 35. "Pembrok and his Lady discoursing, the Earl said,-The Woemen were mens shadowes, and she maintained them. Both appealing to Johnson, he affirmed it true, for which my Lady gave a pennance to prove it in verse; hence his epigrame."-DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN. Arch. Scot. 1v. 95. GO LOVELY ROSE. p. 87. There is much similarity in some of the thoughts in this exquisite song, to Cowley's pretty verses in The Mistress,' entitled, Bathing in the River.' TO ALL YOU LADIES NOW AT LAND. p. 117. "1664-5. January 2d. To my Lord Brouncker's, by appointment, in the Piazza, in Covent Garden; where I occasioned much mirth with a ballet which I brought with me, made from the seamen at sea to their ladies in town; saying Sir W. Pen, Sir G. Ascue, and Sir J. Lawson, made them." PEPYS' DIARY, vol. 1. 4to. 324. TO A VERY YOUNG LADY. p. 122. Burns, who was an anxious enquirer after Songsters and Songs, in one of his early MS. volumes made the following memorandum, "Ah! Chloris! Sir Peter Halket of Pitferran, the author. Note. He married her-the heiress of Pitferran." WHEN THY BEAUTY APPEARS. There appears some reason to suppose that this song was written by Pope, not by Parnell," for it is mentioned as his by Lord Peter. borough, in a letter to Mrs. Howard. Suffolk Letters, vol. 1. p. 161. Mitford's Life of Parnell, p. 54. 'TWAS WHEN THE SEAS WERE ROARING. p. 163. "The ballad is a species of poetry, I believe, peculiar to this conn. try, equally adapted to the drollest and the most tragical subjects. Simplicity and ease are its proper characteristics. Our forefathers excelled in it; but we moderns have lost the art. It is observed, that we have few good English odes. But to make amends, we have many excellent ballads, not inferior perhaps, in true poetical merit, to some of the very best odes that the Greek or Latin languages have to boast of. It is a sort of composition I was fond of, and if grave matters had not called me another way, should have addicted myself to it more than to any other. What can be prettier than Gay's ballad, or rather Swift's, Arbuthnot's, Pope's, and Gay's, in the What do ye call it,'-' 'Twas when the Seas were roaring.' I have been well informed that they all contributed, and that the most celebrated association of clever fellows this country ever saw, did not think it beneath them to unite their strength and abilities in the composition of a song. The success, however, answered their wishes." COWPER. Letter to Unwin, Aug. 4, 1783. THE ROSE. p. 230. Cowper writing to his friend Unwin, Feb. 7, 1785, says, "I have sent two pieces more to the Gentieman's Magazine, a translation of the Poplar Field, and on a Rosebud, the neck of which I inadvertently broke." The history of this little song, Cowper tells us in another letter addressed to Lady Hesketh. "I could pity the poor woman, who has been weak enough to claim my song. Such pilferings are sure to be detected. I wrote it, I know not how long, but I suppose four years ago. The rose in question, was a rose given to Lady Austen by Mrs. Unwin, and the incident that suggested the subject, occurred in the room in which you slept at the vicarage. Some time since Mr. Bull going to London, I gave him a copy of it, which he undertook to convey to Mr. Nichols, the printer of the Gentleman's Magazine. He shewed it to a Mrs. C, who begged to copy it, and promised to send it to the printers by her servant. Three or four months afterwards, and when I had concluded it was lost, I saw it in the Gentleman's Magazine, with my signature, W. C. Poor simpleton she will now find perhaps, that the rose had a thorn, and that she has pricked her fingers with it." Letter, Jan. 8, 1787. BEGGING ANOTHER KISS. p. 295. These were among Jonson's favourite verses for reciting, Drummond tells us. |