Tag Archives: heroic couplets

Anonymous, “An Invocation to Poverty”

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ANONYMOUS

 An INVOCATION to POVERTY. By an HONOURABLE COMMONER,
After the Reflection on his PENURY, thrown out in the House of Commons last Sessions.

 

Oh! Poverty! of pale, consumptive hue,
If thou delight’st to haunt me, still in view;
If still thy presence must my steps attend,
At least continue as thou art — my Friend!
When Scotch example bids me be unjust,                                                                  5
False to my word — or faithless to my trust,
Bid me the baneful error quickly see,
And shun the world, to find Repose with thee;
When Vice to Wealth would turn my partial eye,
Or Int’rest shut my ear to Sorrow’s cry,                                                                         10
Or Courtier’s custom would my reason bend,
My Foe to flatter, — or desert my Friend:
Oppose, kind Poverty, thy temper’d shield,
And bear me off unvanquish’d from the field.
If giddy Fortune e’er return again,                                                                           15
With all her idle — restless, wanton train, —
Her magic glass should false Ambition hold,
Or Av’rice bid me put my trust in Gold,
To my relief, thou virtuous Goddess, haste,
And with thee bring thy daughters ever chaste,                                                           20
Health! Liberty! and Wisdom! sisters bright,
Whose charms can make the worst condition light,
Beneath the hardest fate the mind can chear,
Can heal Affliction — and disarm Despair!
In chains, in torments, pleasure can bequeath,                                                             25
And dress in smiles the tyrant hour of Death!

NOTES:

Title Honourable Commoner Someone not born of nobility, but who possesses nobility; Penury Poverty; House of Commons The lower house of England’s legislative branch.

 1 Consumptive Pale, as if dying of tuberculosis.

 5 Scotch The Scottish people.

 8 Repose Rest.

 11 Courtier Attendant of the royal court.

SOURCE: The Gentleman’s Magazine, Vol. 46 (September 1776), p. 428. [J. Paul Leonard Library]

Edited by George Griffith

Ann Yearsley, “Thoughts on the Author’s Own Death. Written when very Young”

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ANN YEARSLEY

“Thoughts on the Author’s Own Death. Written when very Young”

 

Thus, when the fatal stroke of Death’s design’d,
On oozy banks th’ expiring swan reclin’d,
Her own sad requiem sings in languid note,
While o’er the stream the dying echoes float.

But, ah! can youth dwell on the tragic part?                                  5
Can I describe the trembling, panting heart?
In Fancy’s frolic age can I relate
The pangs, the terrors of a dying state?
Yes—tho’ unskill’d, I’ll the grim shade pursue,
And bring the distant terror to my view;                                               10
Dwell on the horrors of that gloomy hour;
Death, made familiar, loses half his power.
Peace then, ye passions of ungovern’d youth,
Foes to reflection, enemies to the truth!
Let me, unruffled by your clamorous voice,                                          15
Make the drear regions of the tomb my choice;
And while sad Fancy paints the dismal scene,
Where reflects ghosts by midnight moons are seen
Stalk o’er the gloomy grave, Muse! be it thine
To rouse the vain, the giddy, and supine,                                              20
Who Pleasure’s rounds pursue; while young Desire
Wakes the gay dream, and feeds the dangerous fire:
From these I fly—and now, my pensive soul
Mark the harsh scream of yon death-bonding owl;
Perhaps she calls some lingering, tardy ghost                                     25
To smell the world, ere the dread hour be loft
That parts the night from morn. Come, restless souls,
Relax from torture; you whom Fate controuls
To purge your earthly crimes in liquid fire,
In anguish plung’d, till ages shall expire;                                               30
(This, ROME’S grand tenet) sin thus wash’d away,
Pure, bright, and cleans’d, you’ll wing to endless day.
Presumption, hold! Lo, o’er yon misty tomb
Leans a sad spectre, and bemoans the doom
Of never-erring Justice; heavenly power!                                               35
Support and guard me in this gloomy hour
Of dread inquiry!—”Say, thou wretched soul,
O teach a young, rash, inexperienced fool,
What ‘tis to die, and where thou wing’dst thy way,
When turn’d a wanderer from thy house of clay?                                40
Did’st tread soft lawns, or seek Elysian groves,
Where Poets feign lover’s spirit roves?
Or, on light pinions cut the closing air,
And to each planetary world repair?
Or, guideless, stray where dismal groans rebound,                             45
And forked lightnings quiver on the ground?
Or did sad fiends thy unhous’d spirit meet,
And with shrill yellings the poor trembler greet
To the dark world? Describe that scene of woe
Which thou hast felt, and may I ever know!”                                         50
“Thou’lt know, indeed,” it answers with a groan,
“The pangs of death too sure shall by thy own;
Pains yet unfelt must seize thy every part,
And Death’s cold horrors hover round thy heart;
Thy dying eyes fix’d on some darling friend,                                          55
While strong convulsions their wild orbs extend;
One gasp, and deep eternity in view,
The soul shoots forth, and groans a last adieu.
I dare no more—but Oh! too curious maid,
Seek not to pierce th’impenetrable shade                                             60
Which wraps futurity; thou‘rt sure to die;
Rest there, nor farther search, nor question why;
Scan not Omnipotence—of that beware;
Oft the too curious eye is dimm’d by blank despair.”

Farewel, poor Ghost! ye horrors of the night,                                 65
Begone, nor more my shudd’ring soul affright;
The question unresolv’d I soon shall know,
Then let me haste from this sad scene of woe.

Henceforth, vain Pleasure, I renounce thy joy,
Enchanting Fair, who tempt’st but to destroy;                                        70
Ye thoughtless maids who transient dreams pursue,
No more my moments must be lost with you;
No more my soul in empty mirth shall share,
Or fondly relish pleasures ting’d with care.

And thou, all-merciful! omniscient Power!                                       75
O teach me to redeem each mis-spent hour;
In youth the mind’s best gifts most strongly shine,
Ah! let them not too suddenly decline!
In mercy add a few remaining years,
The grave shall lose its sting, my soul shall lose its fears.                     80

NOTES:

2 expiring swan reclin’d Greek mythological “swan-song;” “a song like that fabled to be sung by a dying swan; the last work of a poet or musician, composed shortly before death; any final performance, action, or effort” (OED).

20 supine Lying on one’s back (OED).

24 Harsh scream of yon death-bonding owl Roman mythology denotes the owl as an omen of ill-fortune or death; contrarily, the Greeks thought owls to bring imminent good fortune.

31 tenet A doctrine, dogma, principle, or opinion, in religion, philosophy, politics, or the like, held by a school, sect, party, or person (OED).

40 house of clay Colloquially this means, “of the Earth”; see also King James Bible, Job 4:19, “How much more them that dwell in houses of clay….”

41 Elysian Of the nature of, or resembling, what is in Elysium (The supposed state or abode of the blessed after death in Greek mythology.); beatific, glorious (OED).

43 pinions A bird’s wing; esp. the wing of a bird in flight (OED).

61 futurity The quality, state, or fact of being future (OED).

63 Omnipotence As an abstract concept: all-powerfulness, almightiness; force, person, or being representing or embodying this quality; God (OED).

71 transient Passing by or away with time; not durable or permanent; temporary (OED).

73 mirth Pleasurable feeling; enjoyment, gratification; joy, happiness (OED).

Source: Poems, on Several Occasions, 4th edn. (London, 1786), pp. 15-20. [Google Books]

Edited by Abby Bergman

[Mrs. Letches], “A Tribute”

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[MRS. LETCHES]

 “A Tribute”

What tho’ in quick succession Stars appear,
The glorious Sun is ever bright and clear!
Those lesser Orbs can ne’er his radiance shade,
For with immortal splendor he’s array’d:
No more can humble merit throw a veil                                                                                  5
On real worth—its lustre will prevail!

 With tender sympathy my bosom glows!
To ease your wrongs, and to relieve your woes!
With Eagle-sight my Soul would scape her bounds,
To pour the balm of comfort o’er your wounds.                                                                   10

Angelic Liberty! thou source divine!
Shall mortals dare to manacle thy power?
Shall the best gift which Heav’n did deign assign
To guilty man when drave from Eden’s bow’r!
Be trampled on by violaters base?                                                                                            15
And Scourge, and Chains, and Food to horses due,
Be long prepar’d for that unhappy race,
Afric’s sad sons! while they their direful task pursue!

Forbid it justice, honesty, and love,
Conspire ye heaven-born souls! and crush the throne                                                 20
Of avarice vile — so shall the blest above
Resound your triumph to the Almighty One:
Who sweetly will approve the glorious deed
Which so congenial to his Orders are;
For smiling mercy came, mild Heaven’s meed,                                                                       25
When justice stern did call for doom severe.

NOTES:

 Author Mrs. Letches This attribution is based on an inscription on the title page in what appears to be a contemporary hand (see ESTC T42632). She published anonymously as “A Lady” in one of the centers of the Atlantic “triangle” trade and her personal history remains unknown. Throughout the eighteenth century, Bristol’s booming port not only transported goods but also enslaved African people to the Americas and West Indies. At this same time, Bristol was known to have a large abolitionist movement that Mrs. Letches clearly contributed to. She dedicated her volume to “the Inhabitants of Bristol” (iii).

13 deign “To think it worthy of oneself (to do something); to think fit, vouchsafe, condescend” (OED).

14 drave That is “driven”; bow’r “Sanctuary.”

16 Scourge “To beat with a scourge; to whip severely, flog” (OED).

18 Afric’s sad sons “A native or inhabitant of Africa, esp. a black African” (OED).

 22 Resound To sing the praises of; Almighty One God.

25 meed “Something given in return for labour or service; recompense” (OED).

SOURCE: Poems on Several Occasions (Bristol, 1792), pp. 18-19. [Google Books]

 Edited by Sherry Portillo

Anna Seward, “Written by Miss Anna Seward in the blank Leaves of her own Poems presented by her to William Newton…”

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ANNA SEWARD

 “Written by Miss ANNA SEWARD in the blank Leaves of her own Poems, presented by her to WILLIAM NEWTON, Native of a Village upon Tideswell Moor, near Monsaldale in the Peak”

 

Thou gentle Bard, on whose internal sight
Genius has pour’d her many – colour’d light;
With whom the loveliest of the Virtues dwell,
And wave their halcyon plumes around thy cell,
Tho’ wayward Fortune has not deign’d to throw                           5
One gaudy trophy on thy pensive brow,
With conscious dignity thy tree-born soul
Disdains to court her insolent controul;
And tho’ proud Fame no sunny glance has shed
On the low roof that screens thy modest head,                             10
The same exalted spirit scorns to wail
Her echoes silent in thy lonely vale.

Yet, while one votary of the Muses blames
Th’ unjust neglect of the capricious dames,
Still may she stimulate that noble pride,                                          15
Which rather seeks in humblest roof to hide
The shining gifts that lavish Genius gave,
Than, courting Fortune’s smile, commence her slave;
Than climb Parnassus’ steep and thorny ways,
And drop the rose of Peace to grasp the bays.                               20

Thy quiet haunts Reflection loves to trace
Thro’ walks of savage, or of smiling, grace;
And pleas’d she finds the scenes, that gave thee birth,
Types of thy lot, thy talents, and thy worth.

As conscious Memory, with reverted glance,                             25
Roves o’er the wild and mountainous expanse,
Her faithful traces to my sight restore
The long, long tracts of Tideswell’s naked Moor;
Strech’d on vast hills, that far and near prevail,
Bleak, stony, bare, monotonous, and pale.                                       30
Wide o’er the waste, in noon-tide’s sultry rays,
The frequent lime-kiln darts her umber’d blaze;
Her suffocating smoke incessant breathes,
And shrouds the sun in black convolving wreaths;
And here, with pallid ashes heap’d around,                                      35
Oft sinks the mine, and blots the dreary ground.
In vain warm Spring demands her robe of green,
No sheltering hedge-rows vivify the scene;
O’er its grey breast no undulating trees
With lavish foliage court the lively breeze;                                         40
But from the Moor the rude stone walls disjoin,
With angle sharp, and long unvaried line,
The cheerless field, — where slowly wandering feed
The lonely cow, and melancholy steed,
Expos’d abide the summer’s ardent breath,                                      45
And wintry storm that yells along the heath.

At length benigner mountains meet the eyes;
Their shrubby heights in rounder grace arise;
And, from the first steep summit, pleas’d I throw
My eager glances on the depths below,                                             50
As sinks abrupt the sylvan Monsaldale
From the swart sun-beam and the howling gale.

Behold in front the lucid river spread
His bankless waters o’er the sunny mead;
As of his broad and sheety shallows proud,                                     55
Shine the clear mirror of the passing cloud;
Then to the left along the valley glide,
With smooth meander, and with narrower tide,
Thro’ banks, where thick the spreading alders grow,
And deep calm waves reflect their pendent bough.                        60
Refreshing sweets the breathing hay-cocks yield,
That richly tuft the long and narrow field,
As gently to the right it curves away
Round the green cliffs with scatter’d nut-trees gay;
Cliffs, whose smooth breast, above the silver stream,                   65
Swells to the sun, and yellows in his beam,
While on th’ opposing shore dwarf foliage hides,
Sombrous, and soft, the mountain’s lofty sides,
And throws its latest fringe upon the flood,
That laves the concave of the pensile wood;                                    70
Till down the rocks, rude, broken, mossy, steep,
In parted tides the foaming waters leap;
Then thro’ the mazes of the rambling dale
With silent lapse they flow, or rush with tuneful wail.

The self-taught Edwin, in his lowly state,                                   75
Feels this sweet glen an emblem of his fate;
For as it glows with beauty rich and rare,
Near healthy hills, unsightly, bleak, and bare,
So, ‘midst unletter’d hinds as rude as those,
He, pensive minstrel of the mountains, rose;                                   80
Who, like devoted Chatterton, was born
In Nature’s triumph, and in Fortune’s scorn;
With kindred talents, and in happier mind,
By prudence guarded, as by taste refin’d;
Whom industry preserves from woes fevere,                                   85
Which ill the noble spirit knows to bear;
Saves from those pains that Wealth’s mean sons deride,
Dependent hopes, and heart corroding pride,
When, for with’d amity, and ow’d respect,
It meets the chilling air of base neglect;                                             90
The stingy Patron’s contumelious aid;
The taunt of Envy, studious to upbraid;
Those thousand ills, by which the Great are prone
To crush the talents that eclipse their own.

Be thine the blessings, Edwin, that reward                                95
Ev’n manual labour to th’ enlighten’d bard!
Energic health, and, in rare union join’d
The melting heart, and philosophic mind;
Genius is thine — before her solar state,
O fly, ye mists of inauspicious fate!                                                     100
Hers is the flood of cloudless day, that shows
The charms that Nature, and that Art bestows;
And she has given thee wealth, that shames the toys
Which Fortune grants, and Vanity enjoys;
The toys of groveling souls, empower’d to seize                              105
On the soft splendors of luxurious ease;
Whom yet with scorn discerning eyes behold
Pleas’d with life’s tinsel, reckless of her gold;
Gold richer far than India’s mine affords,
Th’ internal wealth of intellectual hoards;                                          110
Which buy, disdaining Fortune’s bounded plain,
Creative Mind’s illimitable reign.

O! if in that wide range my Muse’s powers
May lure thy tarrience in her cypress bowers,
Should’st thou perceive that genuine sweets belong                       115
To the pale flowrets of her pensive song,
The thought, that they have sooth’d thy toils, shall dwell
Warm with the bosom joys that Fame’s bright meed excel.

 

NOTES:

Title WILLIAM NEWTON, Native of a Village upon Tideswell Moor, near Monsaldale in the Peak William Newton (1750–1830), a laboring-class poet often referred to as ‘the Peak Minstrel’ was a friend of Anna Seward, who encouraged him in his writing and corresponded with him until her death. He lived near the village of Tideswell in the valley of Monsal Dale in the Peak District of Derbyshire, England.

3 the loveliest of the Virtues The seven Christian virtues consisting of four cardinal virtues from ancient Greek philosophy which are prudence, justice, temperance (meaning restriction or restraint), and courage (or fortitude) and three theological virtues which are faith, hope, and charity (or love). We do not know which virtues Anna Seward considered “the loveliest.”

4 halcyon Calm, tranquil, prosperous, joyful.

13 Muses In Greek Mythology, nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne who are the goddesses of the inspiration of literature, science, and the arts.

19 Parnassus The home of the Muses; a mountain in Greece that became known as the home of poetry, music, and learning.

28 Moor A tract of open uncultivated upland area characterized by low growing vegetation.

32 lime-kiln A furnace, used for making quicklime for making plaster and cement.

43 convolving Rolling or winding together.

61 hay-cocks Conical mounds of hay.

68 Sombrous Gloomily dark; shadowy; dimly lighted, somber.

70 pensile “Situated on a steep downward slope” (OED).

75 Edwin Anna Seward’s poetic epistolary name for William Newton.

81 Chatterton Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770), English poet who came from an underprivileged background, similar to William Newton. Chatterton, who was unable to find a patron for his art, lived in extreme poverty and took his life by drinking arsenic before his eighteenth birthday.

91 contumelious Scornful and insulting.

114 tarrience Delay, lingering.

Source: The Gentleman’s Magazine (March, 1785), p. 213.

Edited by Irina Auerbuch

[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

“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        

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