Illustrious chiefs ! can I your haunts pass by, for them I ask pot, hostile to thy sway, | Who calmly on a brother's vitals prey; PRISONS. 1 When seen the dank, dark regions of a jail; Here for poor rice, for dark ambition there, When found alike in chains and night enclos'd, She scatter'd poison thro' the social air. The thief detected, and the thief suppos'd ! Sure, the fair light and the salubrious air Each yet-suspected prisoner might share. 1 ---To lie, to languish in some dreary cell, Some loathed hold, where guilt and horrourdwell, Ere yet the truth of seeining facts be tried, Ere yet their country's sacred voice decide Britain, bebold thy citizens expos'd, And blush to think the Gothic age unclos'd! FILIATION. Oh, more than Goths, who yet decline to raze That pest of James's puritanic days, The savage law 'that barb'rously ordains For female virtue lost a felon's pains ! | Dooms the poor maiden, as her fate severe, Oh, patriots, ever patriots out of place, To toil and chains a long-enduring year. 1 Th' unnatural monarch, to the sex unkind, | An owl obscene, in learning's sunshine blind! Councils of pathics, cabinets of tools, Benches of knaves, and parliaments of fools, | Fanatic fools, that, in those twilight times, With.wild religion cloak'd the worst of crimes! dead, Hope we from such a crew, in such a reign, For equal laws, or policy humane? Here, then, Justice! thy own power forbear; True to his cause, and dines with Humphrey The sole protector of th' unpitied fair. Tho' long entreat the ruthless overseer; Tho' the loud vestry tease thy tortur'd ear; Tho' all to acts, to precedents appeal, Mute be thy pen, and vacant rest thy seal. Yet shalt thou know, nor is the diff'rence nice, | The casual fall, from impudence of vice. Abandon'd guilt by active laws restrain, But pause ..... if virtue's slightest spark re- main. Wrapt in kind darkness, you no spleen betray, Left to the shameless lash, the hardning jail, The fairest thoughts of modesty would fail. The down-cast eye, the tear that flows amain, As if to ask her innocence again ; The plaintive babe, that slumb'ring seem'd to lie On her soft breast, and wakes at the heav'd sigh ; Are these moek-rains that invade my view ? The cheek that wears the beauteous robe of These are the entrails of the poor Gentoo. shame; That column's trophied base his bones supply; How loth they leave a gentle breast to blame! That lake the tears that swell'd his sable eye! I Here, then, O Justice! thy own power for- bear; - Oh, Merey I thron'd on His eternal breast, THE ORIGIN OF THE VEIL. Warm from this heart while flows the faithful line. By each warm tear that melted o'er thine eye, The meanest friend of beauty shall be mine, When on his works was written “ These must die;' What Love, or Fame, or Furtune could bestow, The charm of praise, the ease of life, I owe To beauty present, or to beauty fled, To Hertford living, or Caernarvon dead, 17 Jac, c. 4. the jo To Tweedale's taste, to Edgecumbe's sense | Ere half her sons, o'er Asia's trembling coast serene, Arm'd to revenge one woman's virtue lost; And (Envy spare this boast) to Britain's queen; Ere he, whom Circe sought to charm in vain, Kind to the lay that all unlabour'd fow'd, Follow'd wild fortune o'er the various main, What Fancy caught, where Nature's pencil | In youth's gay bloom he plied th' exulting oar, glow'd', From Ithaca's white rocks to Sparta's shore : She saw the path to new, tho' humble fame, Free to Nerician gales - the vessel glides, Gave me her praise, and left me fools to blame. And wild Eurotas smoothes his warrior tides : Strong in their weakness are each woman's For am'rous Greece, when Love conducts the way, charms, Beholds her waters, and her winds obey. Dread that endears, and softness that disarms. No object hers but Love's impression knows, The tim'rous eye retiring from applause, No wave that wanders, and no breeze that blows, And the mild air that fearfully withdraws, Her gioves, her mountains have his power conMarks of our power these humble graces prove, fest, And, dash'd with pride, we deeper drink of love. And Zephyr sigb'd not but for Flora's breast. Chief of those charms that hold the heart in 'Twas when his sighs in sweetest whispers At thy fair shrine, O Modesty, we fall. [thrall, stray'd Not Cyn bia rising o'er the wat'ry way, Far o'er Laconia's plains from Eva's ' shade! When on the dion wave falls her friendly ray; When soft-ey'd Spring resum'd his mantle gay, Not the pure ether of Æolian skies, And lean'd luxurious on the breast of May, That drinks the day's first glories as they rise ; Love's genial banners young Ulysses bore Not all the tints from evening-clouds that break, From Ithaca's white rocks to Sparta's shore. Burn in the beauties of the virgin's cheek ; With all that soothes the heart, that wins, or When o'er that cheek, undisciplin'd by art, warms, The sweet suffusion rushes from the heart. All princely virtues, and all manly charms, Yet the soft blush, untutor'd to control, All love can urge, or eloquence persuade, The glow that speaks the susceptible soul, The future hero woo'd bis Spartan maid. Led by nice honour, and hy decent pride, Yet long he woo'd-in Sparta, slow to yield, The voice of ancient virtue taught to hide; Beauty, like valour, long maintain'd the field. Taught beauty's bloom the searching eye to shun, “No bloom so fair Messene's banks disclose, As early flowers blow fearful of the Sun. No breath so pure o'er Tempe's bosom blows ; Far as the long records of time we trace • No smile so radiant throws the genial ray Still flow'd the veil o'er modiesty's fair face : Thro' the fair eye-lids of the op'ning day; The guard of beauty, in whose friendly shade, But deaf to vows with fondest passion prest, Safe froin each eye the featur'd sonl is laid, - Cold as the wave of Hebrus' wintry breast, The pensive thought that paler looks betray, Penelope regards her lover's pain, The tender grief that steals in tears away, And owns Ulysses eloquent in vain. The hopeless wish that prompts the frequent sigh " To vows that vainly waste their warmth is Bleeds in the blush, or melts upon the eye. air, The man of faith thro' Gerar doom'J to stray, Insidious hopes that lead but to despair, A nation waiting his eventful way, Affections lost, desires the heart must rue, His fortune's fair companion at his side, And love, and Sparta's joyless plains, adieu ! 'The world his promise, Providence his guide ; I “ Yet sull this bosom shall one passion share, Once, more than virtue dar'd to value life, | Still shall my country find a father there. And call'd a sister whom he own'd a wife. Ev'n now the children of my little reign Mistaken fatber of the faithful race, Demand that father of the faithless main, Thy fears alone could purchase thy disgrace. Ev'n now, their prince solicitous to save, “Go” to the fair, when conscious of the tale, Climb the tall cliff, and watch the changeful Said Gerar's prince, “thy husband is tby veil 2." | wave. O ancient faith ! O virtue mourn'd in vain ! “But not for him their hopes or fears alone! When Hymen's aitar never held a stain; They seek the promis'd partner of his throne; When his pure torch shed undiminish'd rays, For her their incense breathes, their altars blaze, And fires unholy died beneath the blaze! For her to Heaven the suppliant eye they raise. For fajih like this fair Greece was early known, | Ab! shall they kpow their prince implord in And claim'd the veil's first honours as her own. vain? Can my heart live beneath a nation's pain?” · The Fables of Flora. There spoke the virtue that her soul admir'd, 2 Plato mentions two provinces in Persia, one | The Spartan soul, with patriot ardour fir'd. of which was called the Queen's Girdle, the olher “Enough!" she cried " Be mine to boast a the Queen's Veil, the revenues of which, 00 part doubt, were employed in purchasing those parts | Io him, who holds his country to bis heart, of her majesty's dress. It was about the middle Worth, hononr, faith, tbat fair affection gives, of the third century, that the eastern women, on And with that virtue, ev'ry virtue lives. 8)) taking the vow of virginity, assuined that reil which had before been worn by the Pagan 4 From the mountain Neritos in Ithaca, now priestesses, and which is used by the religious called Nericia. ainong the Romanists vow. s The Spartan river, 3 “ He is the veil of tbine eyes to all that are 6 E merite d'Alberghe amore. -Tasso. with thee, and to all others."'-Gen. xx. 16. Vet. ? A mountain in Peloponnesus. Trans. & Omnes omnium caritates, &c.-Cic. Pleas'd that the nobler principles could move And taught the maids of Greece this sovereign His daughter's heart, and soften it to love, lawIcarius own'd the auspices divine, She most shall conquer, who shall most withWove the fair crown', and bless'd the holy draw. shrine. But ah ! the dreaded parting hour to brave ! Then strong affection griev'd for what it gave. VERSES IN MEMORY OF A LADY. Should he the comfort of his life's decline, His life's last charm to Ithaca resign? WRITTEN AT SANDGATE Castle, 1768. Or, wand’ring with her to a distant shore, Behold Eurotas' long-lov'd banks no more? Nec tantum ingenio, quantum servire dolori. Expose his grey hairs to an alien sky, PROPERT. Nor on his country's parent bosom die 10? “No, prince,” he cried ; “ for Sparta's hap- 1 his han. Let others boast the base and faithless pride, pier plain No nuptial charm to known, or known, to bide, . Leave the lov'd honours of thy little reign. With vain disguise from Nature's dictates part, The grateful change shall equal honours bring. For the poor triumph of a vacant heart; -Lord of himself, a Spartan is a king.” My verse the god of tender vows inspires, When thus the prince, with obvious grief Dwells on my soul, and wakens all her fires, opprest, Dear, silent partner of those happier hours, “ Canst thou not force the father from thy breast? That pass'd in Hackthorn's vales, in Blagdon's Not without pain benold one child depart, bowers ! Yet bid me tear a nation from my heart? If yet thy gentle spirit wanders here, - Not for all Sparta's, all Euboea's plains" | Borne by its virtues to no nobler sphere; He said, and to his coursers gave the reins. If yet that pity which, of life possest, Still the fond sire pursues with suppliant voice; Fill’d thy fair eye, and lighten'd thro' thy breast; 'Till, mov'd, the monarch yields her to her If yet that teniler thought, that gen'rous care, choice. The gloomy power of endless night may spare ; “ Tho' mine by vows, by fair affection mine, | Oh! while my soul for thee, for thee complains, And holy trath, and auspices divine, | Catch her warm sighs, and kiss her bleeding This suit let fair Penelope decide, strains. [breath, Reniain the daughter, or proceed the bride.". Wild, wretched wish! Can pray'r with feeble O'er the quick blush her friendly mantle fell, | Pierce the pale ear, the statu'd ear of death? And told him all that modesty could tell. Let patience pray, let hope aspire to prayer ! No longer now the father's fondness strove And leave me the strong language of despair ! With patriot virtue or acknowledg'd love, Hence, ye vain painters of ingenious woe, But on the scene that parting sighs endear'd, Ye Lytteltons, ye shining Petrarchs, go! Fair Modesty's" first honour'd fane he rear'd. I hate the languor of your lenient strain, The daughter's form the pictur'd goddess | Your flow'ry grief, your impotence of pain. wore, Oh ! had ye known what I have knowa, to The daughter's veil 12 before her blushes bore, prove The searching flame, the agonies of lore! 9 The women of ancient Greece, at the mar Oh! bad ye known how souls to souls impart riage ceremony, wore garlands of Aowers, pro Their fire, or mix the life-props of the heart ! bably as emblems of purity, fertility, and beauty. Not like the streams that down the mountain Thus Euripides, side - al' ónas Tunefully mourn, and sparkle as thy glide; £or xaritsevat' ónywis hucu, ás cyanovusrnuo Iru. Not like the breeze, that sighs at ev'oing-bour, On the soft bosom of some folding flower ; The modern Greek ladies wear these garlands in Your stronger grief, in stronger accents borne, various forms, whenever they appear dressed; Had sooth'd the breast with burning anguish and frequently adorn themselves thus for their own amusement, and when they do not expect to The voice of seas, the winds that rouse the deep, be seen by any but their domestics. Far-sounding floods that tear the mountain's Voyage Litteraire de la Grece. steep; 10 The ancients esteemed this one of the Each wild and melancholy blast that raves greatest misfortunes that could befall them. The Round these dim towers, and smites the beating Trojans thought it the most lamentable circum waves [breath, stance attending the loss of their pilot Palinurus, This soothes my soul-Tis Nature's mournful that his body should lie in a foreign country, 'Tis Nature struggling in the arms of death! - Ignotâ, Palinure, jacebis arena. See, the last aid of her expiring state, di Pausanias, who has recorded the story on See Lóve, e'en Love, has lent his darts to fate!' which this little poem is founded, tells us that this was the first temple erected to Modesty in Greece. Iphig. in Taur. Act. iv., and Colut. Rapt. Helen. 12 See the Veil of Modesty in the Musum lib. i. v. 381, where Hermione tears ber goldCapitolinum, vol. i.; and for further proofs embroidered veil on the disappearance of Helen : of its high antiquity, see Hom. Odyss. lib. vi. - Aureum quoque rupit capitis tegmen, Claud. Epithal. Honor. where he says, "The lady died in child-bed. Et crimes festina ligat, peplumque fuentem Allevat Ob! when beneath bis golden shafts I bled, Yet not within the hospitable hall TO A REDBREAST. | LITTLE bird, with bosom red, There each fair hope, each tenderness of life, Each nameless charm of soft obliging strife, Welcome to my humble shed ! Delight, love, fancy, pleasure, genius fled, Courtly domes of high degree Have no room for thee and me; and the best passions of my soul lie dead; Pride and pleasure's fickle throng All, all is there in cold oblivion laid, Nothing mind an idle song. Daily near my table steal, While I pick my scanty meal. Doubt not, little though there be, But I'll cast a crumb to thee ; Well rewarded, if I spý Pleasure in thy glaucing eye ; See thee, when thou'st eat thy fill, Plume thy breast, and wipe thy bill. Come, iny feather'd friend, again, Well thou know'st the broken pane. Ask of me thy daily store ; Go not bear Avaro's door; And wear with you th' uncolour'd hours away, Once within bis iron hall, Oh! lead me to your cells, your lonely ailes, Woeful end shall thee befall, Where resignation folds ber arms and smiles : Savage!-He would soon divest Where holy faith unwearied vigils keeps, wards the urn where fair Constantia' sleeps: Of its rosy plumes thy breast; Then, with solitary joy, Eat thee, bones and all, my boy! A CONTEMPLATION. Duteous I bend before thy holy shrine; thine. And if wild Genius, in his devious way, Would sometimes deigu to be my ev'ning guest, Or near my lone shade not unkindly stray: I ask no more! for happier gists than these, The suffrer, man, was never born to prore; But may my soul eternal slumbers seize, If lost to Genius, Fancy, and to Lore! MONODY. Ah! wbere is now the hope of all my lay? dead! MENALCAS. A PASTORAL. your lays, MENALCAS. See Spectator, No. 164. rose, are le day, INSCRIPTIONS...MONODY...IMITATION OF WALLER. 459 The various wreathes in rain ; explores the | Ah me! my friend ! in happier hours I spread, shade Like thee, the wild walk o'er the varied plain; Each bolder shrub that grac'd her genial bed, Like thee, irispir'd by love-'twas Delia's charras! wave, fold, INSCRIPTIONS ON A BEECH TREE, Ye waving groves, your plaintive sighs forbear, IN THE ISLAND OF sicily. Breathe all your fragrance to the am'rous air, Ye smiling shrubs whose heads are cloth'd with Sweet land of Muses! o'er whose favour'd gold! plains She comes, by truth, by fair affection led, The long lov'd mistress of my faithful heart ! And all my hopes and all my vows are sped. Ere twice the spring had wak'd the genial hour, Dancd on the green lawn many a summer's The lovely parent bore one beauteous flower, And droop'd her gentle head, From whuse fond breast a lovely parent torn, Bedew'd thy pale cheek with a tear so late Oh ! let us mindful of the short, short date, That bears the spoil of human hopes away, Indulge sweet mem'ry of each happier day! (tell; Of cold oblivion on that dreary cell, The sounds that deign'd of Love's sweet power to Where the pale shades of past enjoyments dwell, And, as they told, would point his golden And, pointing to their bleeding bosoms, say, “ On life's disastrous hour what varied woes Fix'd was the god : nor power had he to part, await !" Awake to fancy's soothing call, And milder ou the pensive inind, What time the shepherd'scry Leads from the pastur'd hills his flocks away, Attentive to the tender lay That steals from Philomela's breast, Let us in musing silence stray, Where Lee bebolds in mazes slow His uncomplaining waters flow, And all his whisp'ring shores invite the charms of rest. IMITATION OF WALLER. WALLER TO ST. EVREMOND. Yet if the genius of your conscious groves Let him with pride her cruel power unfold; dart. |