Tag Archives: narrative

Anonymous, “The Rise of Tea”

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ANONYMOUS

 “The Rise of Tea”

 

Think not, ye fair, deceiv’d by poet’s lays,
Cupid in sloth inglorious melts his days;
Think not enchain’d on Chloe’s breast he lies,
Or bathes himself in Delia’s languid eyes;
Now here, now there, the wanton wanderer roves                              5
O’er Belgia’s waters, or Italia’s groves;
Now soothes the hearts of Gallia’s silken swains,
Now fires the tawny youth on Java’s plains.
As o’er luxurious China’s fields he sails,
Upborn by lovers sighs, and balmy gales,                                              10
Deep in the bosom of a fragrant glade,
Where pines, slow-moving, form’d a dancing shade,
Where Zephyr stole the rose’s rich perfume,
And wakeful almonds shook their snowy bloom,
Crown’d with rough thickets rose a moss-grown cave,                       15
Whose tinkling sides pour down a sparkling wave:
Unwilling to desert its native groves,
The ling’ring stream in flow’ry lab’rinths roves;
The god of love feeds his insatiate sight,
Slow wave his loose wings, and retard his flight.                                  20
But say, what soft confusion seiz’d thy breast,
What heaving sighs thy instant flame confest,
When Thea broke from Morpheus’ dewy arms,
Rose from the grot, and blaz’d in all her charms?
Its swelling orb no hoop enormous spread,                                           25
Like magic sphere to guard the tim’rous maid;
No torturing stays the yielding waist confin’d,
A bliss for lover’s arms alone design’d;
Her hair, by no malicious art repress’d
Play’d in the wind, and wanton’d o’e her breast.                                   30
Jove grew a swan to press the Spartan fair:
What form to taste those charms would Cupid wear?
Quick thro’ the sounding grove the god descends,
Quick at her feet the sighing suppliant bends.
Can you be deaf when Syren passion sues?                                           35
Or how can beauty fly, when love pursues?
No more he seeks the Cyprian’s smoaking fanes,
Or sips rich nectar in celestial plains;
In Thea’s heart a flame more pleasing glows,
And from her lips more luscious nectar flows.                                       40
Venus, indignant, saw her power decay,
And rush’d impetuous through the realms of day:
Thus dost thou guard thy once-lov’d parent’s throne
Shall then the rebel power my power disown?
See! where the fatal cause of my disgrace                                               45
(Each hateful beauty glowing in her face)
Insulting stands!—–There let her fixt remain,
Nor be the anger of a goddess vain.
To kneel to sue she strove, unhappy maid!
In vain, her stiffening knees refuse their aid:                                          50
Her arms she lifts with pain, in wild surprize
She starts to see a verdant branch arise:
O Love! she try’d to say, thy Thea aid,
Her ruddy lips the envious leaves invade:
Yet then, just sinking from his tortur’d view,                                           55
Her swimming eyes languish’d a last adieu.
Venus triumphant, with a scornful smile,
Points to the tree, and seeks the Cyprian isle.
Her mark’d the goddess with indignant eyes,
And grief and rage, alternate tyrants, rise.                                               60
Then sighing o’er the vegetable fair,
Yet still, he said, thou claim’st thy Cupid’s care!
Her arts no more shall Cytherea prove,
But own my Thea aids the cause of love.
To the free isle, I’ll give thy rights divine,                                                  65
To nymphs, whose charms alone can equal thine,
For thee the toiling sons of Ind’ shall drain
The honey’d sponge, which swells the leafy cane:
The gentle Naiads to thy shrine shall bring
The limpid treasures of the crystal spring;                                               70
Thy verdant bloom shall stain the glowing stream,
Diffusing fragrance in the quivering stream;
Around thy painted altar’s brittle pride
Shall dimpled smiles and sleek-brow’d health preside,
Whilst white-rob’d nymphs display each milder grace,                          75
The morning dream just glowing on each face.
With joy I see, in ages yet unborn,
Thy votaries the British isle adorn.
With joy I see enamour’d youths despise
The goblet’s lustre for the fair one’s eyes:                                                  80
Till rosy Bacchus shall his wreaths resign,
And Love and Thea triumph o’er the vine.

NOTES:

2 Cupid, The roman god of love, son of Venus goddess of love. His Greek name is Eros (OED).

 6 Belgia Belgium; Italia Italy.

 7 Gallia France.

 12 Zephyr God of the west wind, often associated with summer and sweetness (OED).

 23 Thea The nymph personification of tea; Morpheus God of sleep (OED).

 31 Jove, Jupiter, king of the gods and god of the heavens. He is also remembered as Zeus, his name among the Greeks (OED); a swan to press the Spartan fair Leda of Sparta, who was raped by Zeus in the form of a swan, giving birth to Helen of Troy, famous for her role in the Iliad (Encyclopedia Britannica).

 35 Syren Enchanting woman-bird hybrid that appears in the Odyssey. They are known for their song that can enchant any man, creating a deadly love that causes sailors to dash their ships against rocks pursuing them (OED).

 37 the Cyprian An epithet for Aphrodite/Venus; fanes “Temples” (OED).

 38 Nectar The drink of the gods. Related to Ambrosia, another drink of the gods. This could possibly refer to both the nectar of the gods, and the nectar of flowering plants (OED).

 41 Venus Goddess of love, mother of Cupid, also called Aphrodite among the Greeks. She is storied to be a jealous deity who lashes out against women who are called more beautiful than her, such as Psyche legendary wife of Cupid (OED).

 63 Cytherea Another name for Venus. This name refers to the Greek island Cythera, which like Cyprus was significant to the worship of Venus (OED).

 67 Ind’ An “earlier name for the country now called India” (OED).

 69 Naiad A water nymph (OED).

 81 Bacchus Roman god of wine and revelry (OED).

Source: The Annual Register (1761), pp. 261-262.

Edited by Daniel Chiu

John Bennet, “The Fortune-Teller”

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JOHN BENNET

“The Fortune-Teller”

 

One Whitsuntide, when merry glee
Proclaim’d each blooming rustic free;
When nymphs and swains, in circling bands,
At sound of tabor join’d their hands
In nimble dance, with sprightly mien,                                                                                    5
Beneath the bower on the green:
Methought the golden age reviv’d,
So harmless were the sports contriv’d.

But ah! how soon the scene was chang’d,
When from these rural joys they rang’d.                                                                               10
For at the place th’ Egyptian crew
Came for lucrative interview;
Among the tribe a buxom lass,
Who daily wonders brought to pass.
Yet pedling first was their pretence,                                                                                       15
To learn if any had the sense
Their hocus pocus to elude,
If not to tell the multitude;
One of their tribe, both deaf and dumb,
Reveal’d past, present, and to come.                                                                                      20

The scheme succeeds; such numbers flock,
Made Christian-Faith a laughing stock!
Made it appear that Satan hath
His eye fix’d on implicit faith.
Now to his oracle they press,                                                                                                   25
And hope in vain for happiness.

The Sybil seated in grimace,
Her vot’ries come with anxious-face;
They write the sum of their demand,
And wishing at her alter stand.                                                                                                30
One for a husband gives her fee,
Who’s soon to be the happy she;
Not so another can be blest,
Till two long years have broke her rest;
But still a second fee retains,                                                                                                   35
And years to months a change regains:
She threatens some and some collogues,
And proves too many w—s and r—s.

She to the matrimonial slate
In order reads their certain fate;                                                                                              40
Bids the dull husband straight provide
For th’ issue of his teeming bride:
Assures the barren of success,
That children shall their ages bless.

A brother seeks a brother lost,                                                                                         45
In prison strong confin’d and crost;
But tho’ he roams on foreign strand,
He soon shall see his native land.

Another offers at her shrine,
Who’s promis’d treasures from the mine:                                                                              50
Could but his partner have such bliss,
Her pilfer’d goods she would not miss.

A mother ardently requires
An answer kind to her desires:
A long-lost daughter was the theme,                                                                                       55
And she receives a golden dream.

Good God! that mortals e’er should strive
In hidden secrets thus to dive:
Would they regard thy sacred text,
Impostors could not have pretext                                                                                            60
Unwary people to delude,
Or on thy attributes intrude.

They still kept on their impious trade,
And ev’ry day fresh vot’ries made;
Till vengeance bid Astrea rise:                                                                                                   65
Despair then seiz’d their baleful eyes.
Their utmost skill now at the stake,
The deaf and dumb could hear and speak,
And from her shrine in haste withdrew;
Shame and confusion with her flew.                                                                                        70

Demetrius found his gains were gone;
Diana fled; her witchcrafts done.
He then betray’d one of the crew,
The darling pelf yet still his view.
Virtue rejoic’d to see the stroke,                                                                                               75
That vice itself the charm had broke:
Astrea’s orders were obey’d,
And th’ hag to prison was convey’d.

Th’ infernal tribe now sad distrest,
Detractor’s council was a jest;                                                                                                   80
Who finding that fair virtue’s cause
Was well defended by just laws;
To give such vile adherents play,
His canker’d heart no more could say;
Thus added to lost reason, loss of pay.                                                                                   85

NOTES:

1 Whitsuntide “The church season of Pentecost,” a festival occurring on the seventh Sunday after Easter in the Christian tradition (OED).

2 rustic “A person living in the countryside; a peasant” (OED).

3 nymph “A beautiful young woman” (OED); swain “A country gallant or lover” (OED).

4 tabor A drum (OED).

5 mien “The look … manner, or conduct of a person, as showing character, mood, etc.” (OED).

6 bower “A place closed in or overarched with branches of trees, shrubs, or other plants (OED).

11 place “Woodstock” [Author’s Note].

27 Sybil “A prophetess; a fortune-teller, a witch” (OED).

28 vot’ries “A devout worshipper” (OED).

37 collogues “To prevail upon or influence … to coax” (OED).

38 w–s and r–s Likely to be understood as “whores and rogues.”

42 teeming “Child-bearing” (OED).

46 crost “Thwarted” (OED).

52 pilfer’d “Stolen” (OED).

65 Astrea Astraea, Greek goddess of justice (Dixon-Kennedy, Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology, 52).

66 baleful “Unhappy … miserable” (OED).

71 Demetrius A biblical figure who falsely worshipped the Roman goddess Diana, causing him to incite a riot against the Apostle Paul (OCB).

72 Diana Roman goddess of hunting, wilderness, and animals (Dixon-Kennedy, Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology, 52).

74 pelf “Stolen good[s]” (OED).

84 canker’d “Infected with evil; corrupt, depraved (OED).

Source: Poems on Several Occasions (London, 1774), pp. 17-22. [Google Books]

Edited by Alex Pittel