Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

Queen of the Emperor Iehangire.

to the Umrah. "Cod fo reward you "as you fhew mercy unto her."

[ocr errors]

There is a moment when Pity will find its way into the moft flinty breaft. The Umrah now felt it. He ftaggered at the fcene before him-The husband pleading for his wife-It was too much. "Take "her, take her," faid he to the King. "Mercy, the fweet child of heaven, conquers every other confideration. I re"fore her to you. Moreover, the Em"peror of the faithful fhall never fue in "vain." With this he retired, and a pardon was proclaimed throughout the

army.

Noor-Iehan, reftored thus to the world, foon found that her fufferings had increafed the number of adherents to the royal caufe. The boundless joy of the multitude bespoke the fentiments of their fouls. Her name, and her virtues, refounded through the fkies. Noor-Iehan was, in every body's mouth.-Noor-Iehan! reecchoed the aged and infirm-Noor-lehan! even lifped the little babes. Difloyalty ftartled at the cnntagion as it Spread.

This favourable difpofition was most grateful to Noor-Iehan: nor was the fo forgetful of her own wrongs, or inattentive to the fafety of Iehangire, as to let it diffipate in murmurs and idle converfation. Every thing was ripe for a revolt, and nothing wanting but fpirit to to encourage the difcontents, and zeal to inflame the phrenzy of the populace, to an exemplary revenge of her manifold injuries. Emiffaries were now fecretly difpatched among the adherents of the Umrah. Pardon was anounced to all, on the most extenfive terms; and gratuitous rewards were promifed to thofe who would return to their loyalty, and who should be active in crushing the ufurpation. In fine, the managed matters with fuch fuperior ability, that in a very short fpace of time he brought about a total defection in the Umrah's army, and ultimately the destruction of the Umrah himfelf.

The confequence was, Iehangire, amidst the acclamations of his people, once

4

413

more afcended the throne of his ancef tors; but the joy which it occafioned was of fhort duration. A dangerous illnefs had long threatened the Emperor: it now broke out, and, in fpite of every effort of medicine, tore him from his earthly felicity in the twenty-fourth year of his reign.

With the death of the prince, all influ ence ceafes in the ladies of the haram. This was the cafe with Noor-lehan, Shaw-lehan, who fucceeded his father Jehangire, was the fon of a former marriage: he had likewife been in oppofition to Noor-Iehan for a confiderable time be fore his father's decease; a coalition was confequently not to be expected. He accordingly fignified to Noor-Iehan, by meffage, a defire that she would retire to her palace at Lahore. To Lahore fhe accordingly proceeded, as foon as the obfequies of her husband were performed; and there, with a royal income from the treafury, devoting herfelf to ftudy, privacy, and eafe, the, for eighteen years together, exhibited a moft extraordinary inftance of the little confequence that do minion is to the happiness of those, who' feemingly are the moft fond to enjoy an exalted state.

To fum up the character of this cele brated woman may be thought needlefs, after the traits I have already given of it. I fhall, therefore, conclude with fimply remarking, that her qualifications were of the moft brilliant kind; that, in profperity as well as in adverfity, the uni formly conducted herself with firmness and dignity; that from her childhood the had been the fport of the most capricious fortune; that her errors, and her prejudices, particularly thofe impofed upon her sex, by confinement, and the other reftraints of the haram, were fingularly few,when contrafted withthe bigotted opinions of her fect; that the dawn, and the morning, of her life were calamitous; but that the evening was tranquil and unruf led; and that the peaceably dropped into the grave, the ornament and the admira tion of a people, who ftill fpeak of her with rapture and delight.

POETRY.

4T4

7

ADDRESSED TO

POETRY.

IGNORANCE; Occafioned by a Gentleman's defiring the Author never to affume a Knowledge of the Ancients.

By ANN YEARSLEY, the Milkwoman of Briftol.

LEND me thy dark Veil.-Science darts

her strong ray;

In the orb of bright Learning fhe fits: Hafte! hafte! Cloth'd by thee, I can yet keep my way,

Still fecure from her Critics, or Wits.

All flight thee; no Beauty e'er boasts of thy pow'r;

No Beau on thy Influence depends; No Satefman fhall own thee; no Poet implore,

But Lactilla and thou must be friends.

Then come, gentle Goddess, sit full in my looks;

L

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

There's Virgil, the Courtier, with hose out at heel,

And Hefiod, quite fhoelefs his foot; Poor Ovid walks fhiv'ring, behind a cartwheel,

While Horace cries," Sweep for your foot."

Fair Julia fees Ovid, but paffes him near,

An old broom o'er her fhoulder is thrown; Penelope lends to five lovers an ear,

Walking on with one sleeve to her gown. But Helen, the Spartan, ftands near CharingCrofs,

Long laces and pins doom'd to cry; Democritus, Solon, bear baskets of mofs, While Pliny fells woodcocks hard by.

In Billingsgate Nell, Clytemnestra moves flow,

All her fifhes die quick in the air; Agamemnon peeps itern, thro' the eye of old Joe,

At Egyfthus, who, grinning, stands there.

Stout Ajax, the form of a butcher now takes,

But the laft he paft thro' was a calf; Yet no revolution his spirit awakes,

For no Troy is remember'd by Ralph.

In a Tyger, Achilles bounds o'er the wide More modern Voltaire joyless fits on yon plain;

As a Fox, fly Ulyffes is feen; Doubly ho.n'd, Menelausnow fcorns to complain,

But more bleft, in a Buck skips the green.

Fond Paris, three changes with fighs has gone through,

Firit a Goat, then a Monkey compleat; Enrag'd, to the river Salmacis he flew,

Wafh'd his face and forgot his fair mate.

But Zeno, Tibullus, and Socrates grave,
In bodies of wan Garreteers,

All tatter'd, cold, hungry, by turns figh and

rave

At their Publisher's bill of arrears. Diogenes lives in an ambling old Bcau;

Plato's fpirit is damp'd in yon fool;

bench,

Thin and meagre, bewailing the day When he gave up his Maker, to humour à wench,

And then left her in doubt and dismay. Wat Tyler, in Nicholson, dares a King's

life,

At St James's the blow was defign'd; But Jove lean'd from heaven, and wrested the knife,

Then in hafte lafh'd the wings of the wind.

Here's Trojan, Athenian, Greek, Frenchman and I,

Heav'n knows what I was long ago; No matter, thus fhielded, this age I defy, And the next cannot wound me, I know.

EPISTLE

[blocks in formation]

you revere,

Incline your attention, and lend me an ear. But first (which I hope you will do without prefling)

Accepts on your knees, Apoftolical Bleffing.

Time was when the rulers of nations

would come, With humble submission to crave 'em at Rome;

But now they are fent (at the matterIgrieve) To thofe who may deign fuch a boon to receive.

Time was, when, in flipper of adamant" fhod,

On Kings and on Princes we piously trod; Who kifs'd the rich flipper, as boys kifs a rod.

Time was (but alas! it will never be more) When we drain'd all the rich, little heeding the poor;

Made all whom we pleas'd bow the knee and adore us,

And carried the world with the Devil before us.

'Tis true, tho' of grievances fore I complain,

Of the harveft we reap'd a few gleanings

remain ;

But, as from deductions 'tis wofully clear, Where we once had a fheaf, we have hardly

[blocks in formation]

415

The Church is your Mother † and I am your Father:

And hence, without reafoning much, you

may gather,

That (ch! for perfuafion to strengthen my lay!).

Support us as you ought, now we come to decay.

How this fhould be done, I refer you to thofe,

Who guide the Lord's flock by the ears and

the nose.

[blocks in formation]

Yet, fear not a finge, nor the foot that is cloven,

You know I've the key and the care of the

oven;

And if to my wishes and will you incline, I'll grant you indulgences ninety and nine. So fhall you thro' purgative fagots be fped, Without ever finging a hair of your head. ·

You'll afk what douceur I may crave, in

return,

For infurance from fagots that fcorchingly burn?

'Tis this, that if convents must needs go

to pot,

You'd grant me a fhare of what falls to your lot.

*Non ficut erat in principio nunc nec femper, nec in fæcula fæculorum.

Tempora mutantur, et nos, &c.

Ultima Popei venit jam criminis ætas.

I know the old fellow loves Latin; part of the above is from his own Prayer-book. One must show one's larning now and then.

↑ What must the Emperor be in this cafe?

If

[blocks in formation]

If a fum, as per margin, you graciously give.

For money, yes money, (I' ftick to the next)

Is the falt of this world; and why talk of the text?

Entre nous, for itself let to-morrow pro-] vide,

Whilft ev'ry to-day may rejoice, as a bride,

And Claret and Burgundy swim far and **wide.

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

My bowels are mov'd-for the feminine gender.

Poor fouls! let 'em chant, like a bird in its cage,

The pangs of confinement, and spite to af fuage,

For, fhould they on feas of temptation be hurl'd,

They're loft to the Devil, tho' gain'd to the world.

You know I am fhod in a flipper that's golden,

Which, if you would kiss, to your nose
't fhall be holden;

That paft, other matters we'll fettle anon,
For the good of the Church,-not forget-

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

"Zounds," said the client, who was caft," pray, how

[ocr errors]

Can you be friends, that were fuch foes jnft now?"

"You fool," fays one, we Lawyers, tho fo keen,

Like' fheers, ne'er cut ourselves, but what's
between."

* A rhime for his Holinefs' fake I will tag,
He is out in his pig; keep the Cat in the bag.-

APPENDIX to VOL. VI.

OR,

HISTORICAL CHRONICLE,
FROM JULY to DECEMBER 1787.

JULY.

AUSTRIAN NETHERLANDS. Bruffels. A LL Europe has beheld with wonder the fuccefs with which the Emperor has hitherto carried his plans of reformation into execution throughout his dominions. A party, however, has been long forming, in the Low Countries, in concert with the Emiffaries of Rome, to counteract his views, and to oppofe every innovation. In this they have fo far fucceeded, as to oblige their Royal Highneles, the Archduchefs and Duke of Saxe Tefchen, Governors General of the Netherland, for the fake of appeasing a threatened tumult, moft folemnly to promife to maintain the people in the fame rights, privileges,and cuftoms,which they have enjoyed more than 200 years: that they will take the government into their own hands, and annul every thing that has been done to the contrary: remove every obnoxious perfon; and restore, in its vigour, the ancient form of government. Thefe declarations being made known to the people, and that, Compte Belgiofo had only acted by the exprefs orders of the Emperor, the multitude difperfed, and the greatest demonstrations of joy were manifefted.

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

tended, and without even the fhadow of any perfonal intereft, to the advantage of my faithful fubjects in the Low Countries; at the fame time, that I would not deprive the body of the nation of any of their ancient rights, privileges, and liberties enjoyed by them. Every ftep I have taken ought to convince you of the truth of this allertion, if you yet remain willing to render them the juf tice which is their due.

I occupied myfelf on fome reforms in the adminiftration of justice, only at the inftance of numerous and repeated requefts that were made me, praying to obtain a fhorter and lefs difficult mode of proceedings in law; and the Superintendants appointed in confequence had no other aim, than to fee that the laws were put in force, and that those who were amenable to them fhould pay them proper regard.

In regard to many ancient privileges, I only wish to reform, at the defire of thofe concerned, the abuses that were become hurtful, and which had crept in by the lapfe of time, contrary to the intent of their original purposes.

Far, then, from forefeeing any oppo• fition, and efpecially one fo criminal and bold, I expected that the States of my provinces in Flanders would have enter ed on the new regulations with as much alacrity as gratitude: and I ftill am willing, as a kind guardian, and as a man who knows how to commiferate the illadvifed, and who wishes to forgive, to attribute what has yet been done, and what you have dared to do, to a mifinterpretation of my intentions, made and fpread abroad by perfons more attached to their private intereft than to the general good, and who have no eftate to lote.

We the EMPEROR and KING: My Chancellor of State has prefented me your remonftrance, dated the 22d of June laft, and I wish, in answer to its contents, to acquaint you, by thefe prefents, that it never was my intention to overturn the conftitution of my provinces in Flanders, and that all the inftructions, with which I have charged my Government General, have invariably VOL. VI. No. 35. 3 F

Be it as it may, it is my pleafure that the execution of the new ordinances in queftion fhould remain, for the prefent, fufpended; and when their Royal Highnefles, my Lieutenants and Governors

General,

« AnteriorContinuar »