Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

EDWARD MOORE. 1712-1757.

Can't I another's face commend,

And to her virtues be a friend,

But instantly your forehead lowers,

As if her merit lessened yours?

The Farmer, the Spaniel, and the Cat. Fable ix.

The maid who modestly conceals

Her beauties, while she hides, reveals;
Give but a glimpse, and fancy draws

Whate'er the Grecian Venus was.

The Spider and the Bee. Fable x.

But from the hoop's bewitching round,

Her very shoe has power to wound.

Ibid.

Time still, as he flies, brings increase to her truth,
And gives to her mind what he steals from her youth.
The Happy Marriage.

I am rich beyond the dreams of avarice.1

The Gamester. Act ii. Sc. 2.

'Tis now the summer of your youth: time has not cropt the roses from your cheek, though sorrow long has washed them.

Act iii. Sc. 4.

MRS. GREVILLE.2

Nor peace nor ease the heart can know,
Which, like the needle true,
Turns at the touch of joy or woe,
But, turning, trembles too.

1 Compare Johnson. Page 318.

A Prayer for Indifference.

2 The pretty Fanny Macartney. - Walpole's Memoirs.

324

SHENSTONE. - HOWARD.

WILLIAM SHENSTONE. 1714-1763.

Whoe'er has travelled life's dull round,
Where'er his stages may have been,
May sigh to think he still has found
The warmest welcome at an inn.1

Written on a Window of an Inn.

So sweetly she bade me adieu,
I thought that she bade me return.

I have found out a gift for my fair ;

A Pastoral. Part i.

I have found where the wood-pigeons breed.

For seldom shall she hear a tale
So sad, so tender, and so true.

Part ii. Hope.

Jemmy Dawson.

Her cap, far whiter than the driven snow,
Emblems right meet of decency does yield.
The Schoolmistress.

Stanza 6. Stanza 11.

Pun-provoking thyme.

A little bench of heedless bishops here,
And there a chancellor in embryo.

Stanza 28.

DR. SAMUEL HOWARD.

--1782.

Gentle shepherd, tell me where.

Song.

1 There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn. -Johnson, Boswell's Life, 1766.

Archbishop Leighton often said, that, if he were to choose a place to die in, it should be an inn. -Works, Vol. i. p. 76.

THOMAS GRAY. 1716-1771.

Ye distant spires, ye antique towers.

On a Distant Prospect of Eton College. Stanza 1.

Ah, happy hills! ah, pleasing shade!

Ah, fields beloved in vain!

Where once my careless childhood strayed,
A stranger yet to pain!

I feel the gales that from ye blow
A momentary bliss bestow.

They hear a voice in every wind,

And snatch a fearful joy.

Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed,
Less pleasing when possest;
The tear forgot as soon as shed,
The sunshine of the breast.

Alas! regardless of their doom,

Stanza 2.

Stanza 4.

Stanza 5.

[blocks in formation]

Yet, ah! why should they know their fate,
Since sorrow never comes too late,

Stanza 6.

Ibid.

Stanza 8.

And happiness too swiftly flies? Thought would destroy their paradise. No more; - where ignorance is bliss,

[ocr errors]

'Tis folly to be wise.1

On a Distant Prospect of Eton College. Stanza 10.

Daughter of Jove, relentless power,

Thou tamer of the human breast,

Whose iron scourge and torturing hour

The bad affright, afflict the best!

Hymn to Adversity.

From Helicon's harmonious springs
A thousand rills their mazy progress take.

The Progress of Poesy. I. 1, Line 3.

Glance their many-twinkling feet.

I. 3, Line 11.

O'er her warm cheek, and rising bosom, move

The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love.

Her track, where'er the goddess roves,
Glory pursue, and generous shame,

Line 16.

The unconquerable mind, and freedom's holy flame.

Ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears.

II. 2, Line 10.

III. 1, Line 12.

He passed the flaming bounds of place and time:
The living throne, the sapphire blaze,

Where angels tremble while they gaze,

He saw; but, blasted with excess of light,
Closed his eyes in endless night.

Bright-eyed Fancy, hovering o'er,
Scatters from her pictured urn

III. 2, Line 4.

Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.3

III. 3, Line 2.

1 Compare Prior, To the Hon. Charles Montague. Page 241. He that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. - Eccl. i. 18. 2 Unconquerable mind.- Wordsworth, To Toussaint L'Ouverture. 8 Compare Cowley, The Prophet. Page 174.

Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate,

[ocr errors]

Beneath the Good how far, - but far above the Great. The Progress of Poesy. III. 3, Line 16.

Ruin seize thee, ruthless King!

Confusion on thy banners wait!

Though fanned by Conquest's crimson wing,
They mock the air with idle state.

The Bard. I. 1, Line 1.

Loose his beard, and hoary hair
Streamed, like a meteor, to the troubled air.1 I. 2, Line 5.

To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay.

Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes;
Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart.2

Weave the warp, and weave the woof,
The winding-sheet of Edward's race.
Give ample room, and verge enough
The characters of hell to trace.

3

Line 14.

I. 3, Line 12.

II. 1, Line 1.

Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows,
While proudly riding o'er the azure realm

In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes;

Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm;
Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway,
That, hushed in grim repose, expects his evening prey.

Ye towers of Julius, London's lasting shame,
With many a foul and midnight murder fed.

1 Compare Cowley, Davideis. Page 174.
The imperial ensign, which, full high advanced,
Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind.

II. 2, Line 9.

Line 11.

Milton, Paradise Lost, Book i. Line 536. 2 Compare Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar, Act ii. Sc. 1. Page 85.

Also Otway, Venice Preserved, Act v. Sc. 1. Page 237.

3 Compare Dryden, Don Sebastian, Act i. Sc. 1. Page 231.

« PoprzedniaDalej »