Author Archives: admin

Mary Leapor, “The Genius in Disguise”

[Anne Ingram, Viscountess Irwin], “An Epistle to Mr. POPE. By a Lady. Occasioned by his Characters of Women”

[ANNE INGRAM, VISCOUNTESS IRWIN]

“An Epistle to Mr POPE. By a Lady. Occasioned by his Characters of Women.”

Nec rude quid profit video ingenium.

By custom doom’d to folly, sloth and ease,
No wonder, Pope such female triflers sees:
But would the satyrist confess the truth,
Nothing so like as male and female youth;
Nothing so like as man and woman old; 5
Their joys, their loves, their hates, if truly told:
Tho’ different acts seem different sex’s growth,
‘Tis the same principle impels them both.
View daring man stung with ambition’s fire,
The conquering hero, or the youthful ‘squire, 10
By diff’rent deeds aspire to deathless fame,
One murthers man, the other murthers game:
View a fair nymph blest with superior charms,
Whose tempting form the coldest bosom warms,
No eastern monarch more despotick reigns, 15
Than this fair tyrant of the Cyprian plains.
Whether a crown or bawble we desire,
Whether to learning or to dress aspire;
Whether we wait with joy the trumpet’s call,
Or wish to shine the fairest at a ball: 20
In either sex the appetite’s the same,
For love of power is still the love of fame.
Women must in a narrow orbit move,
But power alike both males and females love.
What makes ye diff’rence then, you may enquire, 25
Between the hero, and the rural ‘squire;
Between the maid bred up with courtly care,
Or she who earns by toil her daily fare:
Their power is stinted, but not so their will;
Ambitious thoughts the humblest cottage fill; 30
Far as they can they push their little fame,
And try to leave behind a deathless name.
In education all the diff’rence lies;
Women, if taught, would be as bold and wise
As haughty man, improv’d by art and rules; 35
Where God makes one, neglect makes twenty fools.
And tho’ Nugatrixes are daily found,
Flutt’ring Nugators equally abound;
Such heads are toyshops, fill’d with trifling ware,
And can each folly with each female share. 40
A female mind like a rude fallow lies;
No seed is sown, but weeds spontaneous rise.
As well might we expect, in winter, spring,
As land untill’d a fruitful crop shou’d bring:
As well might we expect Peruvian ore 45
We shou’d possess, yet dig not for the store:
Culture improves all fruits, all sorts we find,
Wit, judgment, sense—fruits of the human mind.
Ask the rich merchant, conversant in trade,
How nature operates in the growing blade; 50
Ask the philosopher the price of stocks,
Ask the gay courtier how to manage flocks;
Inquire the dogmas of the learned schools,
(From Aristotle down to Newton’s rules;)
Of the rough soldier, bred to boisterous war, 55
Of one still rougher, a true British tar;
They’ll all reply, unpractis’d in such laws,
Th’ effect they know, tho’ ignorant of the cause.
The sailor may perhaps have equal parts,
With him bred up to sciences and arts; 60
And he who at the helm or stern is seen,
Philosopher or hero might have been.
The whole in application is compris’d,
Reason’s not reason, if not exercis’d;
Use, not possession, real good affords; 65
No miser’s rich that dares not touch his hoards.
Can female youth, left to weak woman’s care,
Misled by custom (folly’s fruitful heir);
Told that their charms a monarch may enslave,
That beauty like the gods can kill or save; 70
Taught the arcanas, the mysterious arts,
By ambush dress to catch unwary hearts;
If wealthy born, taught to lisp French and dance,
Their morals left (Lucretius like) to chance;
Strangers to reason and reflection made, 75
Left to their passions, and by them betray’d;
Untaught the noble end of glorious truth,
Bred to deceive even from their earliest youth;
Unus’d to books, nor virtue taught to prize;
Whose mind a savage waste unpeopled lies; 80
Which to supply, trifles fill up the void,
And idly busy, to no end employ’d:
Can these, from such a school, more virtue show,
Or tempting vice treat like a common foe?
Can they resist, when soothing pleasure wooes; 85
Preserve their virtue, when their fame they lose?
Can they on other themes converse or write,
Than what they hear all day, & dream all night?
Not so the Roman female fame was spread;
Not so was Clelia, or Lucretia bred; 90
Not so such heroines true glory sought;
Not so was Portia, or Cornelia taught;
Portia! the glory of the female race;
Portia! more lovely by her mind than face.
Early inform’d by truth’s unerring beam, 95
What to reject, what justly to esteem;
Taught by philosophy all moral good,
How to repel in youth th’ impetuous blood;
How her most favourite passions to subdue,
And fame thro’ virtue’s avenues pursue; 100
She tries herself, and finds even dolorous pain
Can’t the close secret from her breast obtain.
To Cato born, to noble Brutus join’d,
She shines invincible in form and mind.
No more such generous sentiments we trace 105
In the gay moderns of the female race;
No more, alas! heroic virtue’s shown,
Since knowledge ceas’d, philosophy’s unknown.
No more can we expect our modern wives
Heroes shou’d breed, who lead such useless lives. 110
Wou’d you, who know th’ arcana of the soul,
The secret springs which move and guide the whole;
Wou’d you, who can instruct as well as please,
Bestow some moments of your darling ease,
To rescue woman from this Gothic state, 115
New passions raise, their minds anew create:
Then for the Spartan virtue we might hope;
For who stands convinc’d by generous Pope?
Then wou’d the British fair perpetual bloom,
And vie in fame with ancient Greece and Rome. 120

NOTES:

Title Alexander Pope (1688-1744), poet and translator, was one of the most influential literary figures of his era. His poem, “Of the Characters of Women: An Epistle to a Lady,” was first published in 1735.

Epigraph Nec rude quid profit video ingenium Nor can I see what benefit can come from untrained talent (Horace, Art of Poetry, l. 410).

1 custom Traditional social practice or habitual behavior.

16 this fair tyrant of the Cyprian plains Reference to a woman whose power is derived from beauty and sex appeal; associated in classical mythology with Cyprus and the cult of Aphrodite.

17 bawble Variation of “bauble,” a trinket.

19 the trumpet’s call A reference to the Biblical tradition that a trumpet will sound preceding the last judgement (I Corinthians 15:52).

22 For love of power is still the love of fame Cf. Pope, “Of the Characters of Women, ll. 207-214. Irwin’s line echoes Pope’s l. 210.

37 Nugatrixes Female triflers; apparently made up by Irwin from the Latin “nugator” (“trifler”).

38 Nugators Male triflers.

41 fallow Land left uncultivated.

45 Peruvian ore Gold.

47 Culture Cultivation.

50 the growing Blade The botanical world of plants.

54 Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher and natural scientist; Newton Sir Isaac Newton(1642-1727), influential English physicist, mathematician, and natural philosopher.

56 tar Sailor.

61 he who at the helm or stern is seen The captain of a ship.

68 heir;) Printer’s error; corrected to “heir);”

71 arcanas Mysteries, or secrets; art Printer’s error; corrected to “arts.”

72 ambush dress Dressing to entrap men.

73 lisp Speak.

74 Lucretius like Titus Lucretius Carus (c. 99-c. 55 BC), Roman poet and philosopher, best known in the eighteenth century for his poem, De rerum natura (“On the Nature of Things”) which popularized Epicurean ideas regarding science and ethics. Irwin here references a central principle of Epicurean/Lucretian atomism: the random swerve (“clinamen”) of atoms from their natural downward course.

86 fame Reputation.

90 Clelia Cloelia, Roman maiden famous for her bravery and courage; Lucretia Legendary heroine of ancient Rome, raped by Sextus Tarquinius and committed suicide after her father and husband promised revenge on the Tarquins, eventually driving them from Rome and laying the foundations of the Republic.

92 Portia Porcia Catonis (70-43 BC); Cornelia Cornelia Africana, an example of virtuous womanhood.

101 dolorous pain Severe physical pain; Porcia is said to have lacerated her own thigh and endured the pain to prove to Brutus that he could trust her with his secrets.

102 the close secret Brutus’s role in the plot to assassinate Julius Caesar.

103 Cato (95-46 BC), Roman statesman, father of Porcia Catonis; Brutus (85-42 BC), Roman politician, divorced his first wife to marry Porcia Catonis.

106 gay moderns of the female race Contemporary women dedicated to their social pleasures.

115 Gothic “Barbarous, rude, uncouth” (OED).

117 Spartan “Distinguished by simplicity, frugality, courage, or brevity of speech” (OED).

Source: The Gentleman’s Magazine (December, 1736), p. 745.

Edited by Bill Christmas

Janet Little, “From Snipe, a favourite Dog, to his Master”

JANET LITTLE

“From Snipe, a favourite Dog, to his Master”

O best of good masters, your mild disposition
Perhaps may induce you to read my petition:
Believe me in earnest, though acting the poet,
My breast feels the smart, and mine actions do shew it.
At morn when I rise, I go down to the kitchen, 5
Where oft I’ve been treated with kicking and switching.
There’s nothing but quiet, no toil nor vexation,
The cookmaid herself seems possess’d of discretion.
The scene gave surprise, and I could not but love it,
Then found ’twas because she had nothing to covet. 10
From thence to the dining-room I took a range sir,
My heart swells with grief when I think of the change there;
No dishes well dress’d, with their flavour to charm me,
Nor even so much as a fire to warm me.
For bread I ransack ev’ry corner with caution, 15
Then trip down the stair in a terrible passion.
I go with old James, when the soss is a dealing,
But brutes are voracious and void of all feeling;
They quickly devour’t: not a morsel they leave me,
And then by their growling ill nature they grieve me. 20
My friend Jenny Little pretends to respect me,
And yet sir at meal-time she often neglects me:
Of late she her breakfast with me would have parted,
But now eats it all, so I’m quite broken hearted.
O haste back to Loudoun, my gentle good master, 25
Relieve your poor Snipy from ev’ry disaster.
A sight of yourself would afford me much pleasure,
A share of your dinner an excellent treasure,
Present my best wishes unto the good lady,
Whose plate and potatoes to me are ay ready: 30
When puss and I feasted so kindly together;
But now quite forlorn we condole with each other.
No more I’ll insist, lest your patience be ended;
I beg by my scrawl, sir, you’ll not be offended;
But mind, when you see me ascending Parnassus, 35
The need that’s of dogs there to drive down the Asses.

NOTES:

17 soss A sloppy mess or mixture; a dish of food having this character (OED).

25 Loudoun A castle where Little was employed by Frances Dunlop and took charge of dairy, a position that offered financial stability and the means to publish her volume of poems, with the help of her patron.

31 puss A conventional proper or pet name for a cat, freq. (sometimes reduplicated) used as a call to attract its attention (OED).

35 Parnassus A mountain in Greece that, according to Greek mythology, was sacred to the several gods and serves as a metaphor for the the home of poetry, literature, and by extension, learning.

36 The need that’s of dogs there to drive down the Asses Allusion to Robert Burns’s “Epistle to J. L*****k, An Old Scotch Bard” (ll. 67-72).

Source: Janet Little, The Poetical Works of Janet Little, the Scotch Milkmaid (Air, 1792). [Hathi Trust]

Edited by Kent Congdon

William Hamilton Reid, “The Panic; or a Meditation supposed to be written upon the Discovery of the Plague”

WILLIAM HAMILTON REID

“The Panic; or a Meditation supposed to be written upon the Discovery of the Plague”

When the dire disease
Had on the first pale victim set its seal,
‘Twas horrid! Mute, aghast, his neighbours stood.—
The symptoms sure, the death-struck wretch they shun:
Precaution vain! like lightning flew his fate, 5
And guilt attractive scour’d each dark recess
Where vice couch’d low, meanly submissive grown
To sad suspension now on all impos’d.
Not ev’n the court the harsh alarm evades:
Spurning the guards, the messenger abrupt 10
Bursts on the throne: Nor Majesty itself,
Nor sycophants in courtly arts refin’d,
Such as who erst the Danish monarch urg’d
To curb the waves, could sooth the grating sound,
Or into silence bribe the dauntless truth— 15
Quite the reverse! their flight announc’d their fears:
Whilst on the crowd by desp’rate power restrain’d
“Grim Death grinn’d horrible:” flush’d with the hope
Of mortal festival.— ‘Tis now Despair
And Desolation stalk the once-throne’d streets. 20
Hence Poverty, and all its squalid brood,
Work general ruin, till hecatombs
Of victims gasp, and scarce a parting sigh
Surviving wretches trust the treacherous air.
Meanwhile habitual Misery verges on 25
To damn soft Pity’s source: nor juvenile Love,
Nor th’ Amor Patriae, save Friendship none
(That gem celestial) braves the sullen power,
Or looks beyond the present gloomy bound;
For others, midst these chilling scenes of woe 30
Callous, distress the dying and the dead,
And, vainly hoping to outlive the storm,
Consign their treasures to the groaning earth.
Yet say, my Muse; can all the forms of Death,
That like fierce torrents sweep this mortal stage,— 35
Can famine, war, or pestilence, compare
With keen reflection, edg’d with conscious guilt,
And time misspent, and suffering goodness scorn’d,
And dark futurity? No! This alone
Close view’d, can freeze the boiling blood of lust, 40
And in a moment damp an age’s joy.—
Then let us hence contingences improve
By foresight prudent, and self-love refine:—
So shall true dignity adorn each brow,
Firm-footed peace with calm unruffled hours, 45
And mental freedom with immortal youth,
Renew the soul.—Then, saturated high
With beauty inexpressive, each great mind,
In faint resemblance of all-bounteous heaven,
Shall seize officious each occurring hour 50
To spread the joy, and raise a “groveling world.”

NOTES:

Title Plague The bubonic plague destroyed much of Europe in the Middle Ages.

13 the Danish monarch An allusion to Valdemar IV Atterdag. The title Atterdag roughly translates to “New Day,” a title bestowed because of his restoration of wealth to Denmark during his reign.

18 “Grim Death grinn’d horrible:” Reid is drawing from Book II of Milton’s Paradise Lost. He is synthesizing two passages, “Grim Death, my son and foe” (l. 804) and “Death/Grinn’d horrible a ghastly smile” (ll. 845-46), perhaps for alliterative effect.

22 hetacombs In ancient times, a reference to public sacrifice of 100 oxen for a religious ceremony. By the eighteenth-century, however, it meant a great number of people dying (OED).

27 Amors Patriae Latin for love of one’s country (OED).

34 Muse In poetry, the image of the Muse was often invoked as someone who aids the poet in writing.

42 contingences Variant spelling of the word contingencies.

51 “groveling world” Quotation not traced.

Source: The Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. 59 Pt. 2 (July 1789), pp. 650-651.

Edited by Burl S. Rices

“E. V.”, “The Nightingale’s Complaint”

“E. V.”

“The Nightingale’s Complaint”

Why, my mournful warbler, why
Dost waste the tedious day
With many a tear, and many a sigh,
And many a plaintive lay?

Dost thou the captive state bewail 5
In which thou’rt doom’d to dwell?
No more to visit hill or dale,
Or woods or shaded dell?

To which my bird, my fav’rite bird,
With sweet persuasion sung; 10
Nor sweeter numbers e’er were heard
From Linley’s tuneful tongue:

“Is there not cause for tears and sighs,
“For loss of sacred home?
“For loss of freedom of the skies 15
“Giv’n us at large to roam?

“Is there not cause for tears and sighs,
“When, in some distant grove,
“Perhaps my Philomela dies
“In absence from her love? 20

“Oft, after Vespers, would repair
“The woods and groves among,
“The matron, and her virgin care,
“And listen to my song.

“The hermit, too, would oft attend 25
“Unseen by mortal eye;
“Awhile his beads, his pray’rs suspend,
“And praise my melody.

“Oft wou’d some hapless shepherd swain
“Beneath the shade recline; 30
“Of love’s vicissitudes complain,
“And mingle woes with mine.

“What is the fretted roof to me,
“Or spacious splendid dome,
“Compar’d to sweet simplicity, 35
“Compar’d to humbler home?

“Some other birds of brighter dyes,
“Some bird of happier grace,
“May boast, perhaps, might proudly prize
“This gay, distinguish’d place. 40

“Vain of his plumage, vain of dress,
“Vain of his gaudy cage;
“But sure the graces ne’er will bless,
“Nor will his note engage.

“Ne’er was the servile votive song 45
“To harmony ally’d;
“Nor e’er shall slav’ry guide my tongue;”
He said, he bow’d and dy’d.

NOTES:

Title Nightingale The nightingale is used frequently in poetry. Its song is emphasized and usually linked to the art involved in the creation of poetry.

7 dale A valley.

8 dell A deep natural hollow or vale of no great extent, the sides usually clothed with trees or foliage (OED).

12 Linley’s tuneful tongue Elizabeth Ann Linley (1754-1792) was the daughter of the famous musician Thomas Linley and belonged to a musically-gifted family. Elizabeth Ann was known for her singing voice and her career was at its height during the mid 1770s.

19 Philomela A poetic term for nightingale.

21 Vespers The Evening Prayer or Evensong; this prayer was typically said around sunset.

29 swain A man, a youth, a boy (OED).

Source: The Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. 45 (London, 1775), p. 492.

Edited by Shanna Cooper

“Tom Telltroth,” “On the Hon. Master—-who bled to Death, after a cross Incision on the Jugular, by a French Empiric”

“TOM TELLTROTH”

“On The Hon. Master—-who bled to Death, after a cross Incision on the Jugular, by a French Empiric”

All Sciences a fawning Monsieur knows. London a Poem.

When thousands fall in spite of skill
What wonder Ignorance should kill?
Such, noble youth, was thy hard fate,
Thy life cut short before its date!
Whose ancestors Britannia’s boast, 5
In thee a rising hero’s lost!
Resolv’d, the slaught’rer o’er thee stood,
To have at all events thy blood,
Thro’ thy arterial channels broke,
And butcher’d with repeated stroke. 10
But let this tale be never heard;
Still be the foreign tribe prefer’d,
Trust them, ye great, their pockets fill,
They only rob, betray and kill.

NOTES:

Title Empyric Archaic spelling of empiric. A practitioner of medicine who lacks academic training and qualifications; a practitioner of traditional or folk medicine (OED).

Epigraph All Sciences a Fawning Monsieur knows Samuel Johnson, “London,” line 115: “All Sciences a fasting Monsieur knows.” For Johnson’s fasting (Catholic, religious observation of abstinence of food) Telltroth substitutes fawning (cringing, servile flattery or homage) (OED).

5 Britannia Britain personified as a woman; the figure representing this, depicted wearing a helmet, holding a shield and trident, and usually seated, emblematic of Britain (or England) esp. as an imperial or sea power, or as a symbol of nationalism (OED).

7-10 Resolv’d…stroke These lines describe the process of extracting blood (from a person, animal, vein, or part of the body) for (supposed) therapeutic practices (OED).

11 this tale “His Death is said to be from a Fever” [Author’s Note].

Source: The Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. 13 (April 1743), pp. 212-213.

Edited by Keith Roche

Anonymous, “A Simile for the contending Poets at Dublin”

ANONYMOUS

“A Simile for the contending Poets at Dublin”

So, in the streets, when trollops jar,
Contending high in wordy war;
With burning ire their venom fries,
Reproach and clamour rend the skies,
The hubbub fell, is heard aloud, 5
And round them rakes a blackguard crowd;
With scornfull hiss, the list’ning rabble,
And laughter loud, foment the squabble,
With fiercer rage, their sound inspire
To keener lust of vengeance fire; 10
Fresh peals of spite tumultuous rise,
New Billingsgate in vollies flies,
Foul on each other’s fame, they fall,
‘Till each leaves either, none at all.
And when th’inglorious rout expires, 15
Hiss’d, rail’d, and laught at, each retires.

NOTES:

1 trollops A “morally loose woman,” especially suggesting slovenly dress and manners (OED).

2 Jar To make unpleasantly loud and inharmonious noises. To abruptly and violently effect, as in a fight.

6 blackguard A person, generally a man, who behaves in a dishonorable or otherwise despicable way (OED).

8 foment To encourage, incite or instigate.

12 Billingsgate Originally a fish market in London infamous for the vitriolic language of its fishmongers, at some point the term came to denote verbal abuse in general (OED).

16 rail’d Verbally attacked.

Source: The Gentlemen’s Magazine, Vol. 5 (January 1735), p. 48.

Edited by Joseph Watkins

Richard Jago, “The Blackbirds”

RICHARD JAGO

“The Blackbirds”

The sun had chas’d the mountain snow,
And kindly loos’d the frozen soil,
The melting streams began to flow,
And ploughmen urg’d their annual toil.

‘Twas then, amid the vocal throng 5
Whom nature wakes to mirth and love,
A blackbird rais’d his am’rous song,
And thus it echo’d through the grove.

O fairest of the feather’d train!
For whom I sing, for whom I burn, 10
Attend with pity to my strain,
And grant my love a kind return.

For see the wintry storms are flown,
And gently Zephyrs fan the air;
Let us the genial influence own, 15
Let us the vernal pastime share.

The raven plumes his jetty wing
To please his croaking paramour;
The larks responsive ditties sing,
And tell their passion as they soar. 20

But trust me, love, the raven’s wing
Is not to be compar’d with mine;
Nor can the lark so sweetly sing
As I, who strength with sweetness join.

O! let me all thy steps attend! 25
I’ll point new treasures to thy sight;
Whether the grove thy wish befriend,
Or hedge-rows green, or meadows bright.

I’ll shew my love the clearest rill
Whose streams among the pebbles stray: 30
These will we sip, and sip our fill,
Or on the flow’ry margin play.

I’ll lead her to the thickest brake,
Impervious to the school-boy’s eye;
For her the plaister’d nest I’ll make, 35
And on her downy pinions lie.

When, prompted by a mother’s care,
Her warmth shall form th’ imprison’d young;
The pleasing task I’ll gladly share,
Or cheer her labors with my song. 40

To bring her food I’ll range the fields,
And cull the best of every kind;
Whatever nature’s bounty yields,
And love’s assiduous care can find.

And when my lovely mate would stray 45
To taste the summer sweets at large,
I’ll wait at home the live-long day,
And tend with care our little charge.

Then prove with me the sweets of love,
With me divide the cares of life; 50
No bush shall boast in all the grove
So fond a mate, so blest a wife.

He ceas’d his song. The melting dame
With soft indulgence heard the strain;
She felt, she own’d a mutual flame, 55
And hasted to relieve his pain.

He led her to the nuptial bower,
And nestled closely to her side;
The fondest bridegroom of that hour,
And she, the most delighted bride. 60

Next morn he wak’d her with a song,
“Behold, he said, the new-born day!
The lark his matin peal has rung,
Arise, my love, and come away.”

Together through the fields they stray’d, 65
And to the murm’ring riv’let’s side;
Renew’d their vows, and hopp’d and play’d,
With honest joy and decent pride.

When oh! with grief the Muse relates
The mournful sequel of my tale; 70
Sent by an order from the fates,
A gunner met them in the vale.

Alarm’d the lover cry’d, My dear,
Haste, haste away, from danger fly;
Here, gunner, point thy thunder here; 75
O spare my love, and let me die.

At him the gunner took his aim;
His aim, alas! was all too true:
O! had he chose some other game!
Or shot—as he was wont to do! 80

Divided pair! forgive the wrong,
While I with tears your fate rehearse;
I’ll join the widow’s plaintive song,
And save the lover in my verse.

NOTES:

7 blackbird Common Eurasian thrush, noted for its melodious song (OED).

14 Zephyr The west wind.

29 shews Period spelling of “show.” A rill is a small stream.

33 brake A thick stand of bushes or briars.

35 plaistr’d Period spelling of plastered.

36 pinions The terminal segment of a bird’s wing, bearing the primary flight feathers (OED).

57 bower A term for abode or cottage.

63 matin peal “Matin” is French for spring; “peal” is the ringing of a bell.

66 riv’let Rivulet, a small river or stream.

Source: Bell’s classical arrangement of fugitive poetry (London, 1789), vol. VIII, pp. 103-106. [ECCO]

Edited by Phillip Barron

Rev. John Langhorne, The Tears of Music. A Poem, to the Memory of Mr. Handel

REV. JOHN LANGHORNE

The Tears of Music. A Poem, to the Memory of Mr. Handel

SPIRITS of Music, and ye Powers of Song,
That wak’d to painful Melody the Lyre
Of young JESSIDES, when, on GILBOA’s Mount,
He wept o’er bleeding Friendship; ye that mourn’d,
While Freedom drooping o’er EUPHRATES’ Stream 5
Her pensive Harp on the pale Osier hung,
Begin once more the Sorrow-soothing Lay.
Ah! where shall now the Muse fit Numbers find?
What Accents pure to greet thy tuneful Shade?
Sweet Harmonist! ’Twas thine, the tender Fall                                          10
Of Pity’s plaintive Lay; for thee the Stream
Of silver-winding Music sweeter play’d,
And purer flow’d for Thee, ―all silent now
Those Airs that, breathing o’er the Breast of THAMES,
Led amorous ECHO down the long, long Vale,                                         15
Delighted; studious from thy sweeter Strain
To melodize her own; when the sad Hour
She mourns in Anguish o’er the golden Breast
Of young NARCISSUS. From their Amber Urns,
Parting their green Locks streaming in the Sun,                                       20
The NAIADS rose and smil’d: Nor since the Day,
When first by Music, and by Freedom led
From Grecian ACIDALE; nor since the Day,
When last from ARNO’s weeping Fount they came,
To smooth the Ringlets of SABRINA’s Hair, 25
Heard They like Minstrelsy—Fountains and Shades
Of TWIT’NAM, and of WINDSOR fam’d in Song!
Ye Mounts of CLERMONT, and ye Bowers of HAM!
That heard the fine Strain vibrate thro’ your Groves,
Ah! where were then your long-lov’d Muses fled,                                     30
When HANDEL breath’d no more?—and Thou, sweet Queen,
That nightly wrapt thy MILTON’s hallow’d Ear
In the soft Ecstasies of LYDIAN Airs,
And since attun’d to HANDEL’s high-wound Lyre
The Lay by Thee suggested; could’st not Thou 35
Soothe with thy sweet Song the grim Fury’s Breast?
Ah! no: from Thee too, heav’d the helpless Sigh,
Thy fair Eyes floating in a mournful Tear,
When MILTON died, and HANDEL breath’d no more.
COLD-HEARTED Death! his wanly-glaring Eye 40
Nor Virtue’s Smile attracts, nor Fame’s loud Trump
Can pierce his Iron Ear, for ever barr’d
To gentle Sounds: the golden Voice of Song,
That charms the gloomy Partner of his Birth,
That soothes Despair and Pain, He hears no more,                                 45
Than rude Winds, blust’ring from the CAMBRIAN Cliffs,
The Traveller’s feeble Lay. To court fair Fame,
To toil with slow Steps up the Star-crown’d Hill,
Where Science, leaning on her sculptur’d Urn,
Looks conscious on the secret-working Hand 50
Of Nature; on the Wings of Genius borne,
To soar above the beaten Walks of Life,
Is, like the Paintings of an Evening Cloud,
Th’ Amusement of an Hour. Night, gloomy Night
Spreads her black Wings, and all the Vision dies. 55
ERE long, the Heart, that heaves this Sigh to Thee,
Shall beat no more! ere long, on this fond Lay
Which mourns at HANDEL’s Tomb, insulting Time
Shall strew his cankering Rust. Thy Strain, perchance,
Thy sacred Strain shall the hoar Warrior spare; 60
For Sounds like thine, at Nature’s early Birth,
Arous’d Him slumbering on the dead Profound
Of dusky Chaos; by the golden Harps
Of choral Angels summon’d to his Race:
And Sounds like thine, when Nature is no more, 65
Shall call him weary from the lengthen’d Toils
Of twice Ten Thousand Years.—O would his Hand
Yet spare some Portion of this vital Flame,
The trembling Muse that now faint Effort makes
On young and artless Wing, should bear thy Praise 70
Sublime, above the mortal Bounds of Earth,
With heavenly Fires relume her feeble Ray,
And learn of Seraphs how to sing to Thee.

I FEEL, I feel the sacred Impulse—hark!
Wak’d from according Lyres the sweet Strains flow 75
In Symphony divine; from Air to Air
The trembling Numbers fly: swift bursts away
The Flow of Joy; now swells the Flight of Praise.
Springs the shrill Trump aloft; the toiling Chords
Melodious labour thro’ the flying Maze; 80
And the deep Base his strong Sounds rolls away,
Majestically sweet—Yet, HANDEL, raise,
Yet wake to higher Strains thy sacred Lyre:
The Name of Ages, the Supreme of Things,
The great MESSIAH asks it; He whose Hand 85
Led into Form yon everlasting Orbs,
The Harmony of Nature—He whose Hand
Stretch’d o’er the wilds of Space this beauteous Ball,
Whose Spirit breathes thro’ all his smiling Works
Music and Love—yet HANDEL raise the Strain. 90
Hark! what angelic Sounds, what Voice divine
Breathes thro’ the ravisht Air! My rapt Ear feels
The Harmony of Heaven. Hail sacred Choir!
Immortal Spirits, hail! If haply those
That erst in favour’d PALESTINE proclaim’d 95
Glory and Peace: her Angel-haunted Groves,
Her piny Mountain, and her golden Vales
Re-echo’d Peace—But, Oh! Suspend the Strain—
The swelling Joy’s too much for mortal Bounds!
’Tis Transport even to Pain. Oh, lead me then, 100
Convey me to the sad, the mournful Scene,
Where trembling Nature saw her GOD expire.
Flow, stupid Tears! and veil the conscious Eye
That yet presumes to gaze—
Flow, stupid Tears! in vain—ye too confess 105
That HE alone unequal’d Sorrow bore.

BUT, hark! what pleasing Sounds invite mine Ear,
So venerably sweet? ‘Tis SION’s Lute.
Behold her Hero! from his valiant Brow
Looks JUDAH’s Lyon, on his Thigh the Sword 110
Of vanquished APOLLONIUS—The shrill Trump
Thro’ BETHORON proclaims th’ approaching Fight.
I see the brave Youth lead his little Band,
With Toil and Hunger faint; yet from his Arm
The rapid SYRIAN flies. Thus HENRY once, 115
The British HENRY, with his way-worn Troop,
Subdued the Pride of France—now louder blows
The martial Clangor, lo NICANOR’s Host!
With threat’ning Turrets crown’d, slowly advance
The ponderous Elephants.— 120
The blazing Sun, from many a golden Shield
Reflected, gleams afar. Judean Chief!
How shall thy Force, thy little Force sustain
The dreadful Shock!
The Hero comes— ’Tis boundless Mirth and Song 125
And Dance and Triumph, every laboring String,
And Voice, and breathing Shell in Concert strain
To swell the Raptures of tumultuous Joy.
O Master of the Passions and the Soul,
Seraphic HANDEL! how shall Words describe 130
Thy Music’s countless Graces, nameless Powers!

When He of GAZA, blind, and sunk in Chains,
On female Treachery looks greatly down,
How the breast burns indignant! In thy strain,
When sweet-voic’d Piety resigns to Heaven, 135
Glows not each Bosom with the Flame of Virtue?
O’ER JEPTHA’s votive Maid when the soft Lute
Sounds the slow Symphony of Funeral Grief,
What youthful Breast but melts with tender Pity!
What Parent bleeds not with a Parents woe! 140

O, longer than this worthless Lay can live!
While Fame and Music sooth the human Ear;
Be this thy Praise: to lead the polish’d Mind
To Virtue’s noblest Heights; to light the Flame
Of British Freedom, rouse the generous Thought, 145
Refine the Passions, and exalt the Soul
To love, to Heaven, to Harmony and Thee.

NOTES:

Title George Frederick Handel (1685-1759), Baroque composer; he died in London, England.

3 GILBOA’s Mount Mountain in Northern Israel. In “The Book of Samuel” of the Bible, Mount Gilboa is the location where the Philistines killed Saul and his son Jonathon. Handel composed Saul, an English Libretto, in 1738 (Charles Cudworth, Handel [1972], p. 28.).

5 EUPHRATES This river appears in Handel’s Opera Belshazzar (opera.stanford.edu).

6 Osier “A small Eurasian willow” (OED).

14 Those Airs…THAMES The Water-Music (Author’s note). “Handel’s matchless delicacy as an orchestrator…makes him alert to the beauties of varied sonority and echo effects in the resonant clarity of a summer evening on the river [Thames]” (Jonathan Keates, Handel: The Man and his Music [1985], p. 77).

15-19 ECHO…NARCISSUS From Ovid’s Metamorphosis.

21 NAIADS Water nymphs.

22 Grecian ACIDALE A fountain in Greece, referred to in Spenser’s The Faerie Queene (AC Hamilton, The Spenser Encyclopedia [1990], p. 4.).

24-25 ARNO’s weeping Fount…SABRINA’s Hair An allusion to John Milton’s Comus. Arno is a river, and Sabrina, a nymph. In 1737, Handel “reworked Milton’s Comus for an opera, Sabrina” (Paul Henry Lang, George Frideric Handel [1966], p. 317).

27 TWIT’NAM…WINDSOR Alexander Pope’s house and his poem “Windsor Forest.”

28 CLERMONT A mansion built in the eighteenth century in Surrey, England.

28 HAM A suburb of London, on the banks of the Thames.

33 LYDIAN A musical scale.

34 And since attun’d… “L’Allegro and Il Penseroso, set to Music by Mr. HANDEL [Author’s note].

36 sweet Song… “See MILTON’s Lycidas” [Author’s note].

41 Trump “Trumpet” (OED).

46 CAMBRIAN Welsh.

73 Relume “To relight, rekindle” (OED).

85 MESSIAH Handel’s English oratorio, composed in 1741.

108 Sion’s Zion.

109 her Hero “Judas Maccabeus” [Author’s note]. Handel composed an oratorio by the same name in 1746 (Keates, p. 160).

110-112 JUDAH’s…BETHORAN “The governor of Samaria, Apollonius, now assembled a large number of Gentiles into an army…to attack the people of Israel. When Judah learned of Apollonius’s movements, he went out to meet this army and defeated them, killing Apollonius…Among the spoils, Judah found Apollonius’s own sword, which he took and used in battle for the rest of his life” (The Inclusive Bible [2007], p. 571.) This battle took place in Bethoran.

115 HENRY Henry V (1386-1422), King of England from 1413-1422, famously defeated the French in the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.

118 NICANOR A governor of Judea.

125 The Hero comes… “Chorus of Youths, in Judas Maccabeus” [Author’s note].

132 When He of Gaza… “See the Oratorio of Samson” [Author’s note].

137 JEPTHA From Bible Judges 11. Handel composed his last oratorio, Jephtha, in 1751 (Cudworth, p. 49).

Source: The Tears of Music. A Poem, to the Memory of Mr. Handel. With an Ode to the River Eden (London, 1760). [Sutro Library of the California State University Library, San Francisco]

Edited by Gerald Barr

John Frizzle, “An Irish Miller, to Mr. Stephen Duck”

JOHN FRIZZLE

“An Irish Miller, to Mr. Stephen Duck”

O Stephen, Stephen, if thy gentler Ear
Can yet a rustick Verse unruffled hear,
Receive these Lines, but look not for much Skill
Nor yet for Smoothness, from a Water-mill.
I near the Hopper stand with dusty Coat, 5
And, if my Mouth be open, dusty Throat.
The Stones, the Wheels, the Water make a Din;
Hogs grunt without, or squeeks a Rat within.
To meditate sweet Verse is this a Place?
Or will the Muses such a Mansion grace? 10
Think when thy Flail rebounded from the Floor
Was’t then you made the Shunamite?–no sure.
And can I write? ah! make my Case your own,
A Miller Poet let a Thrasher own.
Smooth gliding Thames now bids thy Notes refine, 15
And Royal Richmond’s Shades and Caroline.
The wond’rous Grotto may thy Song inspire,
And Foundress influence like Celestial Fire.
Where I awhile from Noise and Dust releas’d,
And Sacks, and Horses, and the mooter Chest; 20
And I could see the Hermitage, even I,
As well as you, my little Skill might try,
The splendid Scene attempting to recite,
Princes can build–and shall not Poets write?
But the good Queen, as Fame acquaints us here, 25
Does ev’ry way so excellent appear,
Around her such Diffusive Bounty sheds,
So constant in the path of Glory treads,
That they who know her Nobleness of Mind,
Not much t’admire in works of Art can find. 30
Should she build Palaces that charm the sight,
Her Godlike virtues would give more delight.
Should she command high Pyramids to frame,
Her fair Perfections would more wonder claim.
The Grotto, Stephen, no hard Task has been, 35
But where’s an equal Pen to such a Queen?

NOTES:

11 Flail A Flail was a tool used to thresh grain. This line alludes to lines 36-37 of “The Thresher’s Labour,” Duck’s most well known and breakthrough work: “From the strong Planks our Crab-Tree Staves rebound,/ And Echoing Barns return the rattling Sound.”

12 Shunamite Another allusion to one of Duck’s poems, “The Shunammite,” a poem of some few hundred lines and recounting a biblical tale about the prophet Elisha.

12 no sure Most likely, the phrase is an archaic variant of the modern, “surely not,” but with the order reversed in order to complete the couplet with “Floor” from line eleven.

15-17 Duck published a panegyric to Queen Caroline, his patron, titled, “On the Queen’s Grotto, in Richmond Gardens.” Line fifteen of Frizzle’s work parallels line seven of the Duck poem: “Flow swiftly, THAMES; and flowing, still proclaim” (Duck, Poems on Several Occasions, 1736 [ECCO]).

18 Foundress “Female founder” (OED). Another allusion to Duck’s “On the Queen’s Grotto, in Richmond Gardens”, wherein he refers to the Queen in line 29: “And You, Imperial Foundress! deign to smile” (Duck, Poems on Several Occasions, 1736 [ECCO]).

20 mooter Chest A variant of “Multure-chest,” the receptacle where a miller collects his portion of what a mill produces (EDD).

21 Hermitage An allusion to the Duck poem “Verses on the Hermitage,” which was an earlier version of “On the Queen’s Grotto, in Richmond Gardens” ostensibly published without Duck’s consent (See Jennifer Batt, “From the Field to the Coffeehouse: Changing Representations of Stephen Duck,” Criticism 47:4 [Fall, 2005]: pp. 460.)

33 Frame “To give structure to, shape, or construct” (OED).

Source: The Gentleman’s Magazine, Vol. 3 (February 1733), p. 95

Edited by Joseph Watkins

Poetical Scavenger

An Annotated Digital Miscellany of Eighteenth-Century Poems

Author Archives: admin

Mary Leapor, “The Genius in Disguise”

[Anne Ingram, Viscountess Irwin], “An Epistle to Mr. POPE. By a Lady. Occasioned by his Characters of Women”

Janet Little, “From Snipe, a favourite Dog, to his Master”

William Hamilton Reid, “The Panic; or a Meditation supposed to be written upon the Discovery of the Plague”

“E. V.”, “The Nightingale’s Complaint”

“Tom Telltroth,” “On the Hon. Master—-who bled to Death, after a cross Incision on the Jugular, by a French Empiric”

Anonymous, “A Simile for the contending Poets at Dublin”

Richard Jago, “The Blackbirds”

Rev. John Langhorne, The Tears of Music. A Poem, to the Memory of Mr. Handel

John Frizzle, “An Irish Miller, to Mr. Stephen Duck”