ADVERTISEMENT.

THE following poem is grounded on a circumstance mentioned in Gibbon's " Antiquities of the House of Brunswick." I am aware, that in modern times the delicacy or fastidiousness of the reader may deem such subjects unfit for the purposes of poetry. The Greek dramatists, and some of the best of our old English writers, were of a different opinion: as Alfieri and Schiller have also been, more recently, upon the Continent. The following extract will explain the facts on which the story is founded. The name of Azo is substituted for Nicholas, as more metrical.

"Under the reign of Nicholas III. Ferra a was polluted with a domestic tragedy. By the testimony of an attendant, and his own observation, the Marquis of Este discovered the incestuous loves of his wife Parisina, and Hugo his bastard son, a beautiful and valiant youth. They were beheaded in the castle by the sentence of a father and husband, who published his shame, and survived their execution. He was unfortunate, if they were guilty if they were innocent, he was still more unfortunate; nor is there any possible situation in which I can sincerely approve the last act of justice of a parent." - GIBBON'S Miscellaneous Works,

vol. iii. p. 470, new edition.

PARISINA.

I.

It is the hour when from the boughs
The nightingale's high note is heard;
It is the hour when lovers' vows

Seem sweet in every whisper'd word;
And gentle winds, and waters near,
Make music to the lonely ear.
Each flower the dews have lightly wet,
And in the sky the stars are met,
And on the wave is deeper blue,

And on the leaf a browner hue,
And in the heaven that clear obscure,
So softly dark, and darkly pure,
Which follows the decline of day,

As twilight melts beneath the moon away. (1)

II.

But it is not to list to the waterfall

That Parisina leaves her hall,

And it is not to gaze on the heavenly light
That the lady walks in the shadow of night;
And if she sits in Este's bower,

'T is not for the sake of its full-blown flower

She listens but not for the nightingale

Though her ear expects as soft a tale.

There glides a step through the foliage thick,

And her cheek grows pale - and her heart beats quick.
There whispers a voice through the rustling leaves,

And her blush returns, and her bosom heaves :

A moment more and they shall meet

'T is past her lover 's at her feet.

(1) The lines contained in this section were printed as set to music some time since ; but belonged to the poem where they now appear; the greater part of which was composed prior to "Lara," and other compositions since published.