Note 3. Stanza xxxviii.
Nor canvass what "so eminent a hand" meant.
somewhat surfeited with a similar display from foreign parts, did rather indecorously break through the apJacob Tonson, according to Mr. Pope, was accustomed plauses of an intelligent audience-intelligent, I mean, to call his writers "able pens "_" 'persons of honour," as to music,-for the words, besides being in recondite and especially "eminent hands." Vide correspond-languages (it was some years before the peace, ere al
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the world had travelled, and while I was a collegian)were sorely disguised by the performers;-this mayoress, I say, broke out with, "Rot your Italianos! for my part, I loves a simple ballat !" Rossini will go a good way to bring most people to the same opinion some day. Who would imagine that he was to be the successor of Mozart? However, I state this with diffidence, as a liege and loyal admirer of Italian music in general, and of much of Rossini's: but we may say, as the connoisseur did of painting, in the Vicar of Wakefield, "that the picture would be better painted if the painter
While great Lucullus' robe triomphale muffles-
(There's fame)—young partridge fillets, deck'd with truffles.
A dish "à la Lucullus." This hero, who conquered
the East, has left his more extended celebrity to the
transplantation of cherries (which he first brought into
Europe) and the nomenclature of some very good dishes;
-and I am not sure that (barring indigestion) he has
not done more service to mankind by his cookery than
by his conquests. A cherry-tree may weigh against a
bloody laurel; besides, he has contrived to earn celeb-had taken more pains."
rity from both.
But even sans "confitures," it no less true is, There's pretty picking in those "petits puits." "Petits puits d'amour garnis de confitures," a classical and well-known dish for part of the flank of a second
For that with me 's a "sine qua.''
Subauditur "Non," omitted for the sake of euphony.
In short, upon that subject I've some qualms very Like those of the Philosopher of Malmsbury. Hobbes; who, doubting of his own soul, paid that compliment to the souls of other people as to decline their visits, of which he had some apprehension.
Note 1. Stanxa x.
If from a shell-fish or from cochineal.
The composition of the old Tyrian purple, whether from a shell-fish, or from cochineal, or from kermes, is still an article of dispute; and even its colour-some say purple, others scarlet: I say nothing.
Note 2. Stanza xliii.
For a spoil'd carpet-but the "Attic Bee"
Was much consoled by his own repartee.
For Gothic daring shown in English money. "Ausu Romano, ære Veneto" is the inscription (and well inscribed in this instance) on the sea walls between the Adriatic and Venice. The walls were a republican work of the Venetians; the inscription, I believe, imperial, and inscribed by Napoleon.
"Untying" squires "to fight against the churches." "Though ye untie the winds, and bid them fight Against the churches."-Macbeth.
They err-'t is merely what is call'd mobility. In French "mobilité." I am not sure that mobility is English; but it is expressive of a quality which rather belongs to other climates, though it is sometimes seen to a great extent in our own. It may be defined as an excessive susceptibility of immediate impressions-at the same time without losing the past; and is, though sometimes apparently useful to the possessor, a most painful and unhappy attribute.
Draperied her form with curious felicity. "Curiosa felicitas."-PETRONIUS ARBITER,
A noise like to wet fingers drawn on glass. I think that it was a carpet on which Diogenes trod, See the account of the ghost of the uncle of Prince with "Thus I trample on the pride of Plato!"-"With Charles of Saxony, raised by Schroepfer-“Karl--Karl greater pride," as the other replied. But as carpets-was-walt wolt mich ?" are meant to be trodden upon, my memory probably misgives me, and it might be a robe, or tapestry, or a table-cloth, or some other expensive and uncynical piece of furniture.
Note 3. Stanza xlv.
With "Tu mi chamases" from Portingale,
To soothe our ears, lest Italy should fail.
I remember that the mayoress of a provincial town,
How odd, a single hobgoblin's nonentity
Should cause more fear than a whole host's identity!
"Shadows to-night
Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard
Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers," etc., etc.
See Richard III.
[The following productions of Lord Byron's pen were not published during his life; and, with the exception of two or three of them which were attributed to him upon uncertain grounds, they have made their appearance, for the first time, in Mr. Murray's recent and authoritative edition of the Life and Writings of Byron. From that work they have been carefully selected, and added to the present volume, with a view of rendering it in every respect a complete edition of Byron's Poetical Works.]
BEING AN ALLUSION IN ENGLISH VERSE TO THE EPISTLE "AD PISONES, DE ARTE POETICA," AND INTENDED AS A SEQUEL TO "ENGLISH BARDS AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS."
"Ergo fungar vice cotis, acutum
Reddere quæ ferrum valet, exsors ipsa secandi."
HOR. De Arte Poet. 304, 305.
"Rhymes are difficult things--they are stubborn things, sir."
FIELDING'S Amelia, Vol. iii. Book 5. Chap. 5.
Athens. Capuchin Convent, March 12th, 1811.
WHO would not laugh, if Lawrence, hired to grace
His costly canvas with each flatter'd face,
Abused his art, till Nature, with a blush,
Saw cits grow centaurs underneath his brush?
Or, should some limner join, for show or sale,
A maid of honour to a mermaid's tail?
Or low* Dubost (as once the world has seen)
Degrade God's creatures in his graphic spleen?
Not all that forced politeness, which defends
Fools in their faults, could gag his grinning friends.
Believe me, Moschus, like that picture seems
The book which, sillier than a sick man's dreams,
Displays a crowd of figures incomplete,
Poetic nightmares, without head or feet.
Poets and painters, as all artists know,
May shoot a little with a lengthen'd bow;
We claim this mutual mercy for our task,
And grant in turn the pardon which we ask;
But make not monsters spring from gentle dams-
Birds breed not vipers, tigers nurse not lambs.
A labour'd, long exordium, sometimes tends
(Like patriot speeches) but to paltry ends:
And nonsense in a lofty note goes down,
As pertness passes with a legal gown:
Thus many a bard describes in pompous strain
The clear brook babbling through the goodly plain;
Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam
Jungere si velit, et varias inducere plumas,
Undique collatis membris, ut turpiter atrum
Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne;
Spectatum admissi risum teneatis, amici?
Credite, Pisones, iste tabulæ fore librum
Persimilem, cujus, velut ægri somnia, vane
Fingentur species, ut nec pes, nec caput uni
Reddatur formæ. Pictoribus atque poetis
Quidlibet audendi semper fuit æqua potestas.
Scimus, et hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicis.
sim:
Sed non ut placidis coëant immitia; non ut
Serpentes avibus geminentur, tigribus agni.
Incœptis gravibus plerumque et magna professi
Purpureus, late qui splendeat, unus et alter
In an English newspaper, which finds its way abroad wherever flere are Englishmen, I read an account of this dirty dauber's caricature of Mr. H, and the consequent action, &c. The circumstance is probably too well known to require further comment.
The groves of Granta, and her gothic halls,
King's Coll., Cam's stream, stain'd windows, and ola
walls:
Or, in advent'rous numbers, neatly aims
To paint a rainbow, or the river Thames.t
You sketch a tree, and so perhaps may shine-
But daub a shipwreck like an alehouse sign;
You plan a vase-it dwindles to a pot;
Then glide down Grub-street-fasting and forgot;
Laugh'd into Lethe by some quaint review,
Whose wit is never troublesome till-true.
In fine, to whatsoever you aspire,
Let it at least be simple and entire.
The greater portion of the rhyming tribe
(Give ear, my friend, for thou hast been a scribe)
Are led astray by some peculiar lure.
I labour to be brief-become obscure;
One falls while following elegance too fast;
Another soars, inflated with bombast;
Too low a third crawls on, afraid to fly,
He spins his subject to satiety;
Absurdly varying, he at last engraves
Fish in the woods, and boars beneath the waves!
Unless your care's exact, your judgment nice,
The flight from folly leads but into vice;
None are complete, all wanting in some part,
Like certain tailors, limited in art.
Assuiter pannus; cum lucus et ara Dianæ,
Et properantis aquæ per amonos ambitus agros,
Aut flumen Rhenum, aut pluvius describitur arcus
Sed nunc non erat his locus; et fortasse cupressum
Scis simulare: quid hoc, si fractis enatat exspes
Navibus, ære dato qui pingitur? ampora cœpit
Institui: currente rotâ cur urceus exit?
Denique sit quod vis, simplex duntaxat et unum.
Maxima pars vatum, pater, et juvenes patre digni
Decipimur specie recti. Brevis esse laboro,
Obscurus fio: sectantem levia, nervi
Deficiunt animique: professus grandia, turget:
Serpit humi, tutus nimium, timidusque procellæ 1
Qui variare cupit rem prodigialiter unam,
Delphinum sylvis appingit fluctibus aprum.
In vitium ducit culpæ fuga, si caret arte.
Æmilium circa ludum faber unus et ungues
Exprimet, et molles imitabitus are capillos,
↑ "Where pure description held the place of sepse •
For galligaskins Slowshears is your man,
But coats must claim another artisan.*
Now this to me, I own, seems much the same
As Vulcan's feet to bear Apollo's frame;
Or, with a fair complexion, to expose
Black eyes, black ringlets, but a bottle nose!
Dear authors! suit your topics to your strength,
And ponder well your subject, and its length;
Nor lift your load, before you're quite aware
What weight your shoulders will, or will not, bear.
But lucid Order, and Wit's siren voice,
Await the poet, skilful in his choice;
With native eloquence he soars along,
Grace in his thoughts, and music in his song.
Let judgment teach him wisely to combine
With future parts the now omitted line;
This shall the author choose, or that reject,
Precise in style, and cautious to select.
Nor slight applause will candid pens afford
To him who furnishes a wanting word.
Then fear not if 't is needful to produce
Some term unknown, or obsolete in use,
(As †Pitt has furnish'd us a word or two,
Which lexicographers declined to do;)
So you indeed, with care,-(but be content
To take this license rarely)-may invent.
New words find credit in these latter days,
If neatly grafted on a Gallic phrase.
What Chaucer, Spenser did, we scarce refuse
To Dryden's or to Pope's maturer muse.
If you can add a little, say why not,
As well as William Pitt and Walter Scott?
Since they, by force of rhyme and force of lungs,
Enrich'd our Island's ill-united tongues;
"Tis then-and shall be-lawful to present
Reform in writing, as in parliament.
As forests shed their foliage by degrees,
So fade expressions which in season please.
Infelix operis summa, quia ponere totum
Nesciet. Hunc ego me, si quid componere curem.
Non magis esse velim, quam pravo vivere naso,
Spectandum nigris oculis nigroque capillo.
Sumite materiem vestris, qui scribitis, equam
Viribus; et versate diu quid ferre recusent
Quid valeant humeri. Cui lecta potentererit res,
Nec facundia deseret hunc nec lucidus ordo.
Ordinis hæc virtus erit et venus, aut ego fallor, Ut jam nunc dicat, jam nunc debentia dici Pleraque differat, et præsens in tempus omittat; Hoc amet, hoc spernat promissi carminis auctor. In verbis etiam tenuis cautusque serendis: Dixeris egregie, notum si callida verbum Reddiderit junctura novum. Si forte necesse est Indiciis monstrare recentibus abdita rerum, Fingere cinctutis non exaudita Cethegis Continget; dabiturque licentia sumpta pudenter; Et nova factaque nuper habebunt verba fidem, si Græco fonte cadant, parce detorta. Quid autem Cæcilio Plautoque dabit Romanus, ademptum Virgilio Varioque? ego cur, acquirere pauca Si possum, invideor; cum lingua Catonis et Enni Sermonein patrium ditaverit, et nova rerum Nomina protulerit? Licuit, semperque licebit, Signatum præsente nota producere nomen.
Ut silvæ foliis pronos mutantur in annos; Prima cadunt: ita verborum vetus interit ætas, Et juvenum ritu florent modo nata, vigentque. Debemur morti nos nostraque: sive receptus
Mere common mortals were commonly content with one tailor and with one bill, but the more particular gentlemen found it impossible to confide their lower garments to the makers of their body clothes, I speak of the beginning of 1809: what reform may have since taken place I neither know or desire to know.
Mr. Pitt was liberal in his additions to our parliamentary tongue, as may be seen in many publications, particularly the Edinburgh Review.
And we and ours, alas! are due to fate,
And works and words but dwindle to a date.
Though as a monarch nods, and commerce calls,
Impetuous rivers stagnate in canals;
Though swamps subdued, and marshes drain'd, sustain
The heavy ploughshare and the yellow grain,
And rising ports along the busy shore
Protect the vessel from old ocean's roar,
All, all must perish; but, surviving last,
The love of letters half preserves the past.
True, some decay, yet not a few revive;
Though those shall sink, which now appear to thrive
As custom arbitrates, whose shifting sway
Our life and language must alike obey.
The immortal wars which gods and angels wage.
Are they not shown in Milton's sacred page?
His strain will teach what numbers best belong
To themes celestial told in epic song.
The slow, sad stanza will correctly paint
The lover's anguish or the friend's complaint.
But which deserves the laurel, rhyme or blank?
Which holds on Helicon the higher rank?
Let squabbling critics by themselves dispute
This point, as puzzling as a Chancery suit.
Satiric rhyme first sprang from selfish spleen.
You doubt-see Dryden, Pope, St. Patrick's dean.§
Blank verse is now, with one consent, allied
To Tragedy, and rarely quits her side.
Though mad Almanzor rhymed in Dryden's days,
No sing-song hero rants in modern plays;
While modest Comedy her verse foregoes
For jest and pun in very middling prose.
Not that our Bens or Beaumonts show the worse,
Or lose one point, because they wrote in verse.
But so Thalia pleases to appear,
Poor virgin! damn'd some twenty times a year!
Whate'er the scene, let this advice have weight-
Adapt your language to your hero's state.
Terra Neptunus classes aquilonibus arcet,
Regis opus; sterilisve diu palus, aptaque remis
Vicinas urbes alit, et grave sentit aratrum:
Seu cursum mutavit iniquum frugibus amnis,
Doctus iter melius; mortalia facta peribunt:
Nedum sermonum stet honos, et gratia vivax.
Multa renascentur, quæ jam cecidere; cadentque,
Quæ nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si volet usus;
Quem penes arbitrium est, et jus, et norma loquendi
Res gestæ regumque ducumque et tristia bella,
Quo scribi possent numero monstravit Homerus.
Versibus impariter junctis querimonia primum;
Post etiam inclusa est voti sententia compos.
Quis tamen exiguos elegos emiserit auctor,
Grammatici certant, et adhuc sub judice lis est.
Archilocum proprio rabies armavit iambo;
Hunc socci cepere pedem grandesque cothurni,
Alternis aptum sermonibus, et populares
Vincentem strepitus, et natum rebus agendis.
Musa dedit fidibus divos, puerosque deorum
Et pugilem victorem, et equum certamine primum,
Et juvenum curas et libera vina referre.
Descriptas servare vices operumque colores,
Cur ego, si nequeo ignoroque, poeta salutor?
Cur nescire pudens prave, quam discere malo?
Versibus exponi tragicis res comica non vult
Indignatur item privatis, ac prope socco
Old ballads, old plays, and old women's stories, are at present in as much request as old wine or new speeches. In fact, this is the millennium of black-letter: thanks to our Hebers, Webers, and Scotts!
§ Mac Fleenoe, the Dunciad, and all Swift's lampooning ballads. West ever their other works may be, these originated in personal feelings, and angry retort on unworthy rivals; and though the ability of these satires els vates the poetical, their poignancy detracts from the personal character of the writers.
With all the vulgar applause and critical abhorrence on print, they have Aristotle on their side, who permits them to orators, and gives them conse quence by a grave disquisition.
At times Melpomene forgets to groan,
And brisk Thalia takes a serious tone;
Nor unregarded will the act pass by
Where angry Townly lifts his voice on high.
Again, our Shakspeare limits verse to kings,
When common prose will serve for common things;
And lively Hal resigns heroic ire,
To hollowing Hotspur"* and the sceptred sire.
"Tis not enough, ye bards, with all your art,
To polish poems; they must touch the heart:
Where'er the scene be laid, whate'er the song,
Still let it bear the hearer's soul along;
Command your audience or to smile or weep,
Whiche'er may please you-anything but sleep,
The poet claims our tears; but, by his leave,
Before I shed them, let me see him grieve.
If banish'd Romeo feign'd nor sigh nor tear,
Lull'd by his languor, I should sleep or sneer.
Sad words, no doubt, become a serious face,
And men look angry in the proper place.
At double meanings folks seem wondrous sly,
And sentiment prescribes a pensive eye;
For nature form'd at first the inward man,
And actors copy nature-when they can.
She bids the beating heart with rapture bound,
Raised to the stars, or levell'd with the ground;
And for expression's aid, 't is said or sung,
She gave our mind's interpreter-the tongue,
Who, worn with use, of late would fain dispense
At least in theatres) with common sense;
O'erwhelm with sound the boxes, gallery, pit,
And raise a laugh with anything but wit.
Dignis carminibus narrari cœna Thyestæ.
Singula quæque locum teneant sortita decenter.
Interdum tamen et vocem comedia tollit,
Iratusque Chremes tumido delitigat ore:
Et tragicus plerumque dolet sermone pedestri.
Telephus et Peleus, cum pauper et exul, uterque
Projicit ampullas, et sesquipedalia verba;
Si curat cor spectantis tetigisse querela.
Non satis est pulchra esse poemata; dulcia sunto,
Et quocunque volent, animum auditoris agunto.
Ut ridentibus arrident, ita flentibus adflent
Humani vultus; si vis me flere dolendum est
Primum ipsi tibi; tunc tua me infortunia lædent.
Telephe, vel Peleu, male si mandata loquêris,
Aut dormitabo, aut ridebo: tristia mostum
Vultum verba decent; iratum, plena minarum;
Ludentem, lasciva; severum, seria dictu.
Format-enim natura prius non intus ad omnem
Fortunarum habitum; juvat, aut impellit ad iram!
Aut ad humum moerore gravi deducit, et angit;
Post effert animi motus interprete lingua.
Si dicentis erunt fortunis absona dicta,
Romani tollent equites, peditesque cachinnum.
Intererit multum, Davusne loquatur an heros;
Maturusne senex, an adhuc florente juventa
Fervidus; an matrona potens, and sedula nutrix;
Mercatorne vagus, cultorne virentis agelli;
Colchus an Assyrius; Thebis nutritus, an Argis.
Aut famam cequere, aut sibi convenientia finge.
Scriptor honoratum si forte reponis Achillem;
Impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer,
Jura neget sibi nata, nihil non arroget armis.
Sit Medea ferox invictaque, flebilis Ino;
Perfidus Ixion; Io vaga; tristis Orestes;
Si quid inexpertum scenæ committis, et audes
Personam formare novam; servetur ad imum
Qualis ab incepto processerit, et sibi constet.
Difficile est proprie communia dicere; tuque
Rectius Iliacum carmen deducis in actus,
Quam si proferres ignota indictaque primus.
Publica materies privati juris erit, si
Nec circa vilem patulumque moraberis orbem;
Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere fidus
Interpres, nec desilies imitator in arctum
"And in his ear I'll hollow, Mortimer -1 Henry IV.
To skilful writers it will much import,
Whence spring their scenes, from common life or court;
Whether they seek applause by smile or tear,
To draw d Lying Valet," or a "Lear,"
A sage, or rakish youngster wild from school,
A wandering "Peregrine," or plain "John Bull;"
All persons please, when nature's voice prevails,
Scottish or Irish, born in Wilts or Wales.
Or follow common fame, or forge a plot.
Who cares if mimic heroes lived or not?
One precept serves to regulate the scene:
Make it appear as if it might have been.
If some Drawcansir you aspire to draw,
Present him raving, and above all law:
If female furies in your scheme are plann'd,
Macbeth's fierce dame is ready to your hand;
For tears and treachery, for good or evil,
Constance, King Richard, Hamlet, and the Devil!
But if a new design you dare essay,
And freely wander from the beaten way,
True to your characters, till all be past,
Preserve consistency from first to last.
'Tis hard to venture where our betters fail,
Or lend fresh interest to a twice-told tale;
And yet, perchance, 't is wiser to prefer
A hackney'd plot, than choose a new, and err.
Yet copy not too closely, but record,
More justly, thought for thought than word for word;
Nor trace your prototype through narrow ways,
But only follow where he merits praise.
For you, young bard! whom lackless fate may lead
To tremble on the nod of all who read,
Ere your first score of cantos time unrolls,
Beware-for God's sake don't begin like Bowles !f
"Awake a louder and a loftier strain,"
And pray, what follows from this boiling brain?—
He sinks to Southey's level in a trice,
Whose epic mountains never fail .n mice!
Unde pedem proferre pudor vetet, aut operis lex.
Nec sic incipies, us scriptor Cyclicus olim:
"Fortunam Priami cantabo, et nobile bellum."
Quid diguum tanto feret hic promissor hiatu
Parturiunt montes: nascetur ridiculus mus.
Quanto rectius hic, qui nil molitur inepte!
"Dic mihi, Musa, virum captæ post tempora Troja
Qui mores hominum multorum vidit, et urbes."
Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lucem
Cogitat, ut speciosa dehinc miracula promat,
Antiphaten, Scyllamque, et cum Cyclope Charybdim.
Nec reditum Diomedis ab interitu Meleagri,
Nec gemino bellum Trojanum orditur ab ovo.
↑ About two years ago a young man, named Townsend, was announced by Mr. Cumberland (in a review since deceased) as being engaged in an epic poem to be entitled "Arinageddon." The plan and specimen promise much; but I hope neither to offend Mr. Townsend nor his friends, by recommending to his attention the lines of Horace to which these rhymes allude. If Mr. Townsend succeeds in his undertaking, as there is reason to hope, how much will the world be indebted to Mr. Cumberland for bringing him before the public! But till that eventful day arrives, it may be doubted whether the premature display of his plan (sublime as the ideas confessedly are) has not, by raising expectation too high, or diminishing curiosity, by de veloping his argument, rather incurred the hazard of injuring Mr. Town send's future prospects. Mr. Cumberland (whose talents I shall not depre. ciate by the humble tribute of my praise) and Mr. Townsend must not suppose nic actuated by unworthy motives in this suggestion. I wish the author all the success he can wish himself, and shall be truly happy to see epic po etry weighed up from the bathos where it lies sunken with Southey, Cottle, Cowley (Mrs. or Abraham), Ogilvy, Wilkie, Pye, and all the "dull of past and present days." Even if he is not a Milton, he may be better than Blackmore; if not a Homer, an Antimachus. I should deem myself presumpta. ous, as a young man, in offering advice, were it not addressed to one still younger. Mr. Townsend has the greatest difficulties to encounter: but in conquering them be will find employment; in having conquered them, his reward. I know too well "the scribbler's scoff, the critic's contumely," and I am afraid time will teach Mr. Townsend to knew them better. Those who succeed, and those who do not, must bear this alike, and it is hard to say which have most of it. I trust that Mr. Townsend's share will be from enry:-he will soon know mankind well enough not to attribute this ex pressior to malice.
The above note was written before the author was apprized of Ma berland's death.
Not so of yore awoke your mighty sire
The temper'd warblings of his master lyre;
Soft as the gentler breathing of the lute,
"Of man's first disobedience and the fruit"
He speaks, but as his subject swells along,
Earth, heaven, and hades echo with the song.
Still to the midst of things he hastens on,
As if we witness'd all already done;
Leaves on his path whatever seems too mean
To raise the subject, or adorn the scene;
Gives, as each page improves upon the sight,
Not smoke from brightness, but from darkness-light;
And truth and fiction with such art compounds,
We know not where to fix their several bounds.
If you would please the public, deign to hear
What soothes the many-aeaded monster's ear;
If your heart triumph when the hands of all
Applaud in thunder at the curtain's fall,
Deserve those plaudits-study nature's page,
And sketch the striking traits of every age;
While varying man and varying years unfold
Life's little tale, so oft, so vainly told.
Observe his simple childhood's dawning days,
His pranks, his prate, his playmates, and his plays;
Till time at length the mannish tyro weans,
And prurient vice outstrips his tardy teens!
Behold him freshman! forced no more to groan
O'er *Virgil's devilish verses and his own,
Prayers are too tedious, lectures too abstruse,
He flies from T-v-I's frown to "Fordham's Mews:"
(Unlucky T-v-l! doom'd to daily cares
By pugilistic pupils and by bearst.)
Fines, tutors, tasks, conventions, threat in vain,
Before hounds, hunters, and Newmarket plain.
Rough with his elders, with his equals rash,
Civil to sharpers, prodigal of cash;
Constant to naught-save hazard and a whore,
Yet cursing both-for both have made him sore;
Unread (unless, since books beguile disease,
The p-x becomes his passage to degrees);
Fool'd, pillaged, dunn'd, he wastes his term away,
And, unexpell'd perhaps, retires M. A.
Master of arts! as hells and clubs proclaim,
Where scarce a blackleg bears a brighter name!
Launch'd into life, extinct his early fire,
He apes the selfish prudence of his sire;
Marries for money, chooses friends for rank,
Buys land, and shrewdly trusts not to the Bank;
Semper ad eventum festinat; et in medias res
Non secus ac notas, auditorem rapit, et quæ
Desperat tractata nitescere posse, relinquit:
Atque ita mentitur, sic veris falsa remiscet,
Primo ne medium, medio ne discrepet imum.
Tu, quid ego et populus mecum desideret, audi.
Si plausoris eges aulæa manentis, et usque
Sessuri, donec cantor, Vos plaudite, dicat;
Etatis cujusque notandi sunt tibi mores,
Mobilibusque decor naturis dandus et annis.
Reddere qui voces jam scit puer, et pede certo
Signat humum; gestit paribus colludere, et iram
Colligit ac ponit temere, et mutatur in horas.
Imberbis juvenis, tandem custode remoto,
Harvey, the circulator of the circulation of the blood, used to fling away Virgil in his ecstacy of admiration, and say, " the book had a devil." Now, such a character as I am copying would probably fling it away also, tut rather wish that the devil had the book; not from any dislike to the poet, but a well-founded horror of hexameters. Indeed the public school penance of "long and short" is enough to beget an antipathy to pretry for the residue of a man's life, and. perhaps, so far may be an advantage.
"Infandum, regina, jubes renovare dolorem." I dare say Mr. T-v-1 (to w now I mean no affront) will understand me; and it is no matter whether any one else does or no.-To the above events, "quæque ipse miserrima vidi et quorum pars magna fui," all times and terms bear testimony.
"Hell," a gaming house so called, where you risk little, and are cheated a good dra.." Club," a pleasant purgatory, where you lose more, and are not supposed to be cheated at all
Sits in the senate; gets a son and heir;
Sends him to Harrow, for himself was there
Mute, though he votes, unless when call'd to cheer
His son's so sharp-he'll see the dog a peer!
Manhood declines-age palsies every limb;
He quits the scene-or else the scene quits him;
Scrapes wealth, o'er each departing peuny grieves
And avarice seizes all ambition leaves;
Counts cent. per cent., and smiles, or vainly frets,
O'er hoards diminish'd by young Hopeful's debts;
Weighs well and wisely what to sell or buy.
Complete in all life's lessons-but to die;
Peevish and spiteful, doting, bard to please,
Commending every time, save times like these;
Crazed, querulous, forsaken, half forgot,
Expires unwept-is buried-let him rot!
But from the drama let me not digress,
Nor spare my precepts, though they please you lesa
Though women weep, and hardest hearts are stirr'd,
When what is done is rather seen than heard,
Yet many deeds preserved in history's page
Are better told than acted on the stage;
The ear sustains what shocks the timid eye,
And horror thus subsides to sympathy.
True Briton all beside, I here am French-
Bloodshed 't is surely better to retrench;
The gladiatorial gore we teach to flow
In tragic scene disgusts, though but in, show;
We hate the carnage while we see the trick,
And find small sympathy in being sick.
Not on the stage the regicide Macbeth
Appals an audience with a monarch's death;
To gaze when sable Hubert threats to sear
Young Arthur's eyes, can ours, or nature bear?
A § halter'd heroine Johnson sought to slay-
We saved Irene, but half damn'd the play.
And (Heaven be praised!) our tolerating times
Stint metamorphoses to pantomimes,
And Lewis' self, with all his sprites, would quake
To change Earl Osmond's negro to a snake!
Because, in scenes exciting joy or grief,
We loathe the action which exceeds belief:
And yet, God knows! what may not authors do,
Whose postscripts prate of dyeing "heroines blue?*
Above all things, Dan Poet, if you can,
Eke out your acts, I pray, with mortal man;
Nor call a ghost, unless some cursed scrape
Must open ten trap-doors for your escape.
Gaudet equis canibusque, et aprici gramine campi;
Cereus in vitium flecti, monitoribus asper,
Utilium tardus provisor, prodigus æris,
Sublimis, cupidusque, et amata relinquere pernix
Conversis studiis, ætas animusque virilis
Quærit opes, et amicitias, inservit honori;
Commisisse cavet quod mox mutare laboret.
Multa senem conveniunt incommoda; vel quod
Quærit, et inventis miser abstinet, ac timet uti;
Vel quod res omnes timide gelideque ministrat,
Dilator, spe longus, iners, avidusque futuri;
Difficilis, quærulus, laudator temporis acti
Se puero, castigator censorque minorum.
Multa ferunt anni venientes commoda secum,
Multa recedentes adimunt. Ne forte seniles
Mandentur juveni partes, pueroque viriles,
Semper in adjunctis, ævoque morabimur aptis.
Aut agitur res in scenis, aut acta refertur,
§ "Irene had to speak two lines with the bowstring round her neck; but the audience cried out Murder! and she was obliged to be carried off the stage."-Boswell's Life of Johnson.
In the postscript to the "Castle Spectre" Mr. Lewis tells us, that though blacks were unknown in England at the period of his action, yet be has made the anachronian to set off the scene and if he could have produces the effect "by making his heroine blue"-I quote him-"blue he would have
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