'Twas with that very ring of gold he pledged his | It was Marstetten then rose up, his falchion there bridal truth. XXXVI. he drew, He kneel'd before the Moringer, and down his weapon threw ; Then to the cupbearer he said, "Do me one kindly "My oath and knightly faith are broke," these were deed, And should my better days return, full rich shall be thy meed; Bear back the golden cup again to yonder bride so gay, the words he said, "Then take, my liege, thy vassal's sword, and take thy vassal's head." XLII. And crave her of her courtesy to pledge the palm- The noble Moringer he smiled, and then aloud did er gray." XXXVII. The cupbearer was courtly bred, nor was the boon denied, The golden cup he took again, and bore it to the bride; "Lady," he said, "your reverend guest sends this, and bids me pray, That, in thy noble courtesy, thou pledge the palmer gray." XXXVIII. say, "He gathers wisdom that hath roam'd seven twelvemonths and a day; My daughter now hath fifteen years, fame speaks her sweet and fair, I give her for the bride you lose, and name her for my heir. XLIII. "The young bridegroom hath youthful bride, the old bridegroom the old, Whose faith was kept till term and tide so puno tually were told; The ring hath caught the Lady's eye, she views it But blessings on the warder kind that oped my Then you might hear her shriek aloud, "The Mor- For had I come at morrow tide, I came a day too inger is here!" late." The Erl-Bing.' FROM THE GERMAN OF GOETHÉ. (The Erl-King is a goblin that haunts the Black Forest in Thuringia.-To be read by a candle particularly long in the snuff.) "Be still, my heart's darling-my child, be at ease; "O wilt thou go with me, thou loveliest boy? O, who rides by night thro' the woodland so wild? And press thee, and kiss thee, and sing to my child" It is the fond father embracing his child; And close the boy nestles within his loved arm, "O father, see yonder! see yonder !" he says; (The Erl-King speaks.) "O come and go with me, thou loveliest child; "O, father, my father, and did you not hear The Erl-King whisper so low in my ear?"— 1 1797. "To Miss Christian Rutherford.-I send a gob- ing a version of that ballad, as it has been translated by Lewis lin story. You see I have not altogether lost the faculty of W. S."-Life, vol. i. p 378. rhyming. I assure you there is no small impudence in attempt END OF BALLADS FROM THE GERMAN Lyrical and Miscellaneous Pieces, IN THE ORDER OF THEIR COMPOSITION OR PUBLICATION. Jubenile Lines. FROM VIRGIL. 1782.-ETAT. 11. "Scorr's autobiography tells us that his translations in verse from Horace and Virgil were often approved by Dr. Adams [Rector of the High School, Edinburgh]. One of these little pieces, written in a weak boyish scrawl, within pencilled marks still visible, had been carefully preserved by his mother; it was found folded up in a cover, inscribed by the old lady- My Walter's first lines, 1782." -LOCKHART, Life of Scott, vol. i. p. 129. In awful ruins Etna thunders nigh, And sends in pitchy whirlwinds to the sky At other times huge balls of fire are toss'd, On a Thunder Storm. 1783.-T. 12. "IN Scott's Introduction to the Lay, he alludes to an original effusion of these 'schoolboy days,' prompted by a thunder-storm, which he says, 'was much approved of, until a malevolent critic sprung "It must, I think, be allowed that these lines, though of the class to which the poet himself modestly ascribes them. and not to be compared with the efforts of Pope, still The Violet. 1797. Ir appears from the Life of Scott, vol. i. p. 333, that these lines, first published in the English less of Cowley at the same period, show, nevertheless, praiseworthy dexterity for a boy of twelve."—Life of Scott, vol. i. p. 131. |