For he erewhile, most lovely of thy train,
Wont the entangled wood to trace,
Would hear the jocund horn, and join the chase:
Till thou relinquish'dst him to grief and pain,
E'en in the bloom of flourishing age;
And Death, grim tyrant, from his plague-drawn car
Espied the horrid Fury's ruthless rage,
Then wing'd his ebon shaft, and stopp'd the ling'ring war.
Yet cease to weep, ye swains; for if no cloud
Of thwarting influence mar my keener sight,
I mark'd a stranger-star, serenely bright,
Burst from the dim inclosure of a shrowd.
'T was Corydon! a radiant circlet bound
His brow of meekness; and the silver sound,
Shook from his lyre, of gratulations loud,
Smooth'd the unruffled raven-plume of Night.—
Thus chanted the rude youth his past'ral strain,
While the cold earth his playmate's bosom press'd.
And now the sun, slow westing to the main,
Panted to give his wearied coursers rest;
The azure curtains took a crimson strain,
And Thetis shone, in golden garment drest.
The shepherd-minstrel bent his homeward way,
And brush'd the dew-drops from the glitt'ring spray,
UFFD with false hopes of fame and honour,
My muse (the Philistines upon her!),
Stiff in her own bold ipse Dixit,
Erst sent me out a true Don Quixote;
Despising wealth, content, and pleasure,
For authorship's enchanted treasure:
Nor could the great Eliza's† kindness
Purge from my eye poetic blindness.
At last, well vers'd in cares and trouble,
I see my former folly double
(As Edipus, with haggard eyes,
Saw double suns and worlds arise;"
*Facit indignatio versum." HOR.
So Virgil, prince of epic fellows,
Is pleas'd in his ninth book to tell us);
And, startled at my faults and foibles,
Firm as if sworn on fifty Bibles,
Declare eternal hate, and lasting,
To lagging rhymes and paper-wasting.
Not Brutus did so much determine
To hunt from Rome the royal vermin.
Thus then, in a most furious fashion,
I write (not read) my recantation.
Imprimis (pray your godship, mind me),
Phoebus, I cast thee far behind me ;
And all thy books, facete or tragic,
I look upon as spells or magic.
In second place, I do combine
Body and blood against the Nine:
Ill-natur'd ballad-chanting slatterns;
That spoil'd my luck, and lost my patrons.
Lastly, cum vi, et corum rege,
I do, my reverend sir, engage ye,
To view a quill from goose or sparrow
As if it was a Parthian arrow,
Or William Tell's unerring dart,
Directly bouncing to my heart.
Neither shall ink or black or pallid,
(I swear, to make your trust more valid,)
For me in cup or bottle teem,
No more than Pluto's Stygian stream.
For ink's, I find by disquisition,
The very essence of perdition;
The gall was made for man's undoing,
And signs the bond 'twixt him and ruin.
And if, some time hence, sorely smit
By flashes of electric wit,
I should, in deep-designing malice,
Deal with the volume-vending tories*,
May Scandal plant his blackest gallows,
And hang me in his attic stories;
Where the grim-phyz'd Reviews exhibit
(Fell vaticides!) their ruthless gibbet.
Tories' is here used merely as a term of reproach, in which sense it was first given to the political party now bearing this appellation. In its origin it is appropriate to robbers or freebooters; being derived from the native Irish toree, or give me.'
Moreover, may the prince of printing
(You well may guess him by my hinting)
Roll up each page in sulphur-pills;
When from his stately chariot's wheels,
In doctor's semblance, he bestows
Disease and death where'er he goes.
Now, having made this adjuration,
I find there is some slight occasion
To seek some other method (knowing
The mouth must still be kept a-going)
By which, in lieu of rhymes unpleasant,
I may carouse with Port and pheasant :
While at my door, with hat in hand,
Vile bards (once brothers) shivering stand
And, cursing me (a proud Egyptian),
Request his honour's least subscription.
O friend, whose goodness plac'd me once
Above the sneer of every dunce,
Above the scorn of fools well-drest, '
In Hastings' generous bounty blest!
Once more her pitying heart assail
With youthful indiscretion's tale;
And bid above the viler throng,
A princely patron grace my song.
So ends recant by marv'lous care, I've clench'd it with a poet's pray'r; A kind of anti-scribling matin
To scare the fiends of Greek and Latin:—
From notes unpaid, that make us mourn;
From Marshalsea's close-grated bourn,
From whence no debtor can return;
From teasing countesses with letters,
And rash intrusion on our betters;
From Cambrian booksellers, who scrape or
Conceal all profits with a caper;
From shillings scant, that often send us
To tasteless lords;-good Lord, defend us!
But if it be thy will immortal,
Let Moira-house extend its portal;
Forgiving the ill-fated sinner,
And welcome Dermody to dinner;
And may he live at ease again,
Its bard for ever and-Amen.
VERSES written by MRS. HUTCHINSON.
[In the small Book containing her own Life, and most probably composed by her during her Husband's retirement from public business to his seat at Owthorpe, about the year 1659.]
LL sorts of men through various labours presse
To the same end, contented quietnesse;
Great princes vex their labouring thoughts to be
Possest of an unbounded soveraignetie;
The hardie souldier doth all toyles susteine
That he may conquer first, and after raigne ;
Th' industrious merchant ploughs the angrie seas
That he may bring home wealth, and live at ease,
Which none of them attaine; for sweete repose
But seldome to the splendid pallace goes;
A troope of restlesse passions wander there,
And private lives are only free from care.
Sleep to the cottage bringeth happie nights,
But to the court, hung round with flaring lights,
Which th' office of the vanisht day supplie,
His image only comes to close the eie,
But gives the troubled mind no ease of care;
While countrie slumbers undisturbed are;
Where, if the active fancie dreames present,
They bring no horrors to the innocent.
Ambition doth incessantly aspire,
And each advance leads on to new desire;
Nor yet can riches avʼrice satisfie,
For want and wealth together multiplie:
Nor can voluptuous men more fullnesse find,
For enioy'd pleasures leave their stings behind.
He's only rich who knows no want; he raignes
Whose will no severe tiranny constreins;
And he alone possesseth true delight
Whose spotlesse soule no guiltie feares affright.
This freedome in the countrie life is found,
Where innocence and safe delights abound:
Here man's a prince; his subiects ne'er repine
When on his back their wealthy fleeces shine:
If for his appetite the fattest die,
Those who survive will rayse ne mutinie:
His table is with home-gott dainties crown'd,
With friends, not flatterers, encompast round;
No spies nor traitors on his trencher waite,
Nor is his mirth confin'd to rules of state;
An armed guard he neither hath nor needs,
Nor fears a poyson'd morsell when he feels;
Bright cor stellations hang above his head,
Beneath his feete are fourie carpetts spred;
The merrie birds delight him with their songs,
And healthfull ayre his happie life prolongs.
Att harvest merrily his flocks he sheares,
And in cold weather their warme fleeces weares;
Unto his ease he fashions all his clothes;
His cup with uninfected liquor flows:
The vulgar breath doth not his thoughts elate,
Nor can he be o'erwhelmed by their hate;
Yet, if ambitiously he seeks for fame,
One village feast shall gaine a greater name
Then his who weares th' imperiall diadem,
Whom the rude multitude doe still condemne.
Sweete peace and ioy his blest companions are;
Feare, sorrow, envie, lust, revenge, and care,
And all that troope which breed the world's offence,
With pomp and maiestie, are banisht thence.
What court then can such libertie afford?
Or where is man soe uncontroul'd a lord?
[From Mr. SCOTT'S BALLADS and LYRICAL PIECES.]
Yet his plate jack* was braced, and his helmet was laced,
And his vaunt-brace of proof he wore ;
At his saddle-gerthe was a good steel sperthe,
Full ten pound weight and more.
The Baron returned in three days space,
And his looks were sad and sour;
And weary was his courser's pace,
As he reached his rocky tower.
*The plate-jack is coat armour; the vaunt-brace, or wam-brace, armour for the body; the sperthe, a battle-axe.
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