Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

Then focial eafe relaxed our cares to rest,
Nor feared a dagger in each neighbour's breast:
Thoughtlefs of harm the peaceful ruftic flept,
And women at old tales of murder wept.
Oft as the Sabbath clofed the weekly toil,
The cheerful village brighten'd with a fmile,
The ruddy damfel met her fun-burnt fwain,
To lead the dancers on the neighbouring plain-
The fcenes of Auburn rose confefs'd to view,
And our fweet bard his glowing picture drew.

"How chang'd the scene!-diftrust and fcowling gloom,
Flag with murk influence thro' the focial room;
The joke, the pun, the fprightly fong, 110 more
See all the thoughtlefs table in a rear-
Affrighted Comus flies the madding feene,
And leaves mankind to politics and fpicen.
No more the sportive muse of Murcia's plains,
Infpires her Preston's (2) wit and attic Arains-
No more do Jephfon's (3) freer or Courtenay's jibe,
Relax the mufcles of the feftive tribe-,
No more Fitzgerald's (4) academic mufe
Unbends from toil to brush the mountain dews:
Even he, (5) whofe talents fway the admiring bar,
Or in the fenate wield refiftless war;
Whofe daring mufe to glory might afpire,
Restrains her foaring flight and ardent fire→→
And anxious only gainful pleas to draw,
Plods the dull round of politics and law,
While clafic Prefton feeks a living tomb,
Th' inglorious idol of a news-club-room-
Liftlefs of fame, or quite content to gain,
The vapid incenfe of Jos. Edkin's (6) brain :
While Alma's mufe, through learning's thorny road,
Leads the meek champion of the chriftian God.
Even Courtenay prostitutes a noble name,
In the rank ftews of democratic fhame;
And Jephfon, grown of fober dullness vain,
Plods in the drowfy biographic train.
No more are rural peace and comfort found,
But ruin, rage, and riot stalk around;
The wakeful village, scorning honest toil,

Sends forth the murderous band to nightly spoil

With Drennan's lies and maudlin whiskey warm, (7)
To rob and laughter, to procure reform.

Alike green youth and unrefifting age,

Yield up
their lives to their infuriate rage;
Not facred robes their impious hands restrain,
And shrieking beauty pleads for life in vain,

With idiot apathy we hear their cries,
Hear their deep groans in fad fucceffion rife;
Like the blood-boltered Banquo's train they come,
And stalk in grim proceffion to the tomb→→
With wonder crazed, with fear and doubt perplexed,
We hardly roufe to ask-" Who falls the next ?”
""Tis fell democracy, whofe furious hand
Stabs at the vital honour of our land,

Tears every infant virtue from the foil,

And fills our fields with turbulence and broil ;
Bids man, unthinking of life's puny fpan,
Raife his mad arm to murder fellow man.'

The arts of calumny, invariably employed by democrats of every denomination, are well delineated in the following paffage :

"Who can be fafe, while Slander thus can roam,
And ftab her victim in his peaceful home?
And, while he fhuns the rankling wound in vain,
Smiles with malignant pleasure on his pain.
Is there one vice or weakness which your mind
Abhors the most, to which 'tis leaft inclined?
That vice or weakness on your name is hurled,
And brands your honour to a flanderous world.
Does fpotlefs birth fupport your honeft pride?
Your mother in a brothel fhall have died.
Does confcious courage fwell your ardent breaft?
A thousand lies your cowardice attest.
Have you drank deep of learning's facred spring?
The name of dunce in every car fhall ring.
Thus Cooke is ignorant and raw from school,
And Cuffe a generous unfufpecting fool-
An horfewhipped coward Barrington appears,
And perjured Ogle lofes both his ears-
Difhonefty affails Latouche's fame,

And infolence is joined with Enniskillen's name.
"But at the fhrine of Faction bend the knee,
Adore the fiend of hell- -Democracy:
Obscene as Griffith, blafphemous as Dodd,
Renounce your Saviour and abjure your God,
In guilt impartial, friends and foes betray,
And let your vices blaze in open day;
Then every Journal with your praise fhall ring,
The PRESS your endless eulogies fhall fing-
Your glorious name in every page fhall ftand,
The pureft patriot of a fuffering land-
And should your crimes the fleeping laws provoke,
You fhall have fpeeches which you never spoke-
Shall have this cordial comfort while you fwing,
That countless traitors from your blood fhall fpring

Dd 4

Eternal

Eternal elegies fhall fing your name,

Eternal affidavits fhall enflame,

Shall fix your fterling guilt and prove your well-earned fame."

We fhall conclude our account of a poem which reflects honour on the principles and feelings of its author, with his address to our gracious Sovereign, in which the fpirit of loyalty is happily combined with the fpirit of truth.

"Oh, friend to Virtue and by Virtue loved!
Honoured by Truth, and by thy God approved;
Though thefe mad times withhold thy praifes due,
Yet future day's fhall own thofe praises true;
Proud of the homage of the good and juft,
Of that pure faith which you defend and trust ;
In all thy glorious life without a foe,

Whom Virtue's felf might be aggrieved to know;
Is there a wretch in morals and in fame,
Loft to himself, to virtue, and to fhame,
At thee his defperate rancour hurls the dart,
Dipped in the poifon of his putrid heart;
Still does the venom'd fhaft from thee recoil,
Still baffled Vice renews her fruitless toil.
Have not thy foes throughout a lengthened reign,
Been only fuch as Wolcot (8) Wilkes, and Paine?
Atheists who fear the faith thy laws defend,
And only hating thee, as Virtue's friend.
Long may thy life remain to Britons dear,
Long may domeftic love thy labours chear;
Long may thy gallant fons thy cause sustain,
And long thy banners triumph o'er the main ;
Soon may thy conquered foes thine empire own,
And crouch for peace to thine offended throne;
Long may thy virtues guard the British ftate,

And GEORGE THE GOOD be hailed as GEORGE THE
GREAT.

(1) Richard Twifs, Efq; F. R.S, &c. &c. &c. a notorious trayeller into foreign parts, in particular Swadlinbar, Waterford, Spain, and the Obelisk in Stillorgan-park he hath a very lively genius, having been feveral times kicked and tweaked by the nofe, for his brilliant fallies in derogation of this country, while he was hofpitably entertained therein. He declined travelling into Connaught and the barony of Forth, 'thofe provinces being remarkable for hofpitality and other favage cuftoms; but was roughly handled, clawed, and bitten by one of those barbarians in a coffee-houfe in London. Mr. Twifs hath, however, outlived the ingratitude of his enemies, whom he had fo grofsly injured, and his refemblance placed in a certain utenfil; for which he went in the most public fpirited manner to Paris, to fee the execution of the late King Louis XVI. with which and a new fpecies of thistle, he returned fafe to his native country, to the great embellishment of the arts and feiences."

2

(2) " Preston.

(2) "Prefton. This gentleman hath written feveral works and poems, which he hath most patriotically printed by fubfcription, on the best Dutch paper and type, for the public benefit- the fame being enriched with fundry engravings and other embellishments, which are of great fervice towards the understanding thereof."

(3) Mr. Jephfon hath written many humorous pieces, particularly the Count of Narbonne, Braganza, and other tragedies: he hath of late turned Plutarch's lives into verfe, from the Greek, which he cal leth Roman portraits, together with the hiftory of Cleopatra-and is now engaged in writing a comedy upon the fad events which have happened in France---from which, the Lord of his infinite mercy, pre

ferve us."

"Mr. Courtenay is also a defcendant of the late Emperor of Conftantinople, and author of many fmart and biting farcafms, parliamen tary fpeeches and other poetic pieces."

(4) Fitzgerald. The Rev. Gerald Fitzgerald, F. T. C. D. and D. D. author of the Academic Sportfman, a paftoral, in verfe; in which there is a poetical defcription of the Black Mountain, the River Dodder, and other artificial curiofities near Dublin---and a treatise on the Hebrew language, in fupport of the Revelations.”

(5) "This gentleman, as I am told, means Counsellor Charles Buche, M. P. for the borough of Callan, and pupil of Mr. Samuel Whyte, at the English Grammar School, No. 75, Grafton-sttreet."

(6) " Jos. Edkins. Keeper of the Dublin Library Society, Boydell's Shakespeare, Capt. Thomas Cunningham, and other curiofities.--This gentleman is an author of good reputation, having with laudable industry and flagrant zeal made a collection of poems, by Mr. Charles Fox, Mr. Sheridan, Dr. Gilbourne, Mr. Tickell, Mrs. Battiere, and other celebrated geniufes.".

"The Captain is an ornament to his Majefty's navy, having lot feveral of his Majefty's cruifers with great credit, againft Jack the Batchelor, the Town of Rush, the Black Joke, and other notorious pirates-from which he has now retired upon his penfion, and enjoys his otium cum dignitate (as my Lord Cloncurry faith) in an arm chair in faid room, which he ufeth for the purpofe of cenfuring his Majef ty's perfon and government, with great fpirit and loyalty, as he is in duty bound, having all his fupport from the bounty thereof."

(7) "A very loyal doctor of phyfic, he having been acquitted and turned out of court, for publishing a treasonable libel; in which being a little man and of weak ftature, he calleth upon the volunteers to help him in overturning his Majefty's perfon and government."

(8)" Dr. Wolcot, a poet, clergyman, and phyfician, firnamed Peter Pindar, whereby he exhibiteth his multifarious talents to the public, having been degraded from his gown for indecency therein; he therefore became juftly enraged at the difcreet conduct and temperance of his Majefty, whom he accordingly revileth in fundry obfcene, witty, and fatirical verfes, in which he hath ingeniouly brought in the facetious hiftories of Tom a Lothian, Jack Hickathrift, the London Jefter, and other claffical authors of good reputation."

ART.

ART. XVII. Peter not infallible! or a Poem addressed to Peter.
Pindar, Efq. on reading his Nil Admirari, a late illiberal At-
tack on the Bishop of London; together with unmanly Abuse of
Mrs. Hannah More: aljo Lines occafioned by his Ode to fome
Robin Red breafts in a Country Cathedral. 4to. Pr. 34.
Cadell and Davies. London. 1800.

THE

HE ingenious author of " Gleanings after Thomfon," reviewed in our Number for September 1799, juftly indignant at the blafphemous ribaldry of Peter Pindar, here adminifters fome wholefome correction and advice to that bard, who is too far gone in profligacy, we fear, to feel the one, or to profit by the other. This attempt is highly creditable to the author's abilities, and, which is of more confequence to him, to his principles. Throughout his poem, too, we have difcovered marks of feeling and humanity, properly tempered, and beneficially applied, which have made us dwell with peculiar pleasure on his pages. His obfervations on "Peter Pindar's almost blafphemous abufe of facred mufic," we fhall extract; as we cannot detach any paffage from his poetry without injuring the sense. "Think, Reader, thou art entering fome venerable Cathedral, when, on a fudden, the majeftic organ peals Devotion through the dome, and bears thy foul along with her in divine enthusiasm to the fkies. While a company of innocent children, in garments of snow, that are fit emblems of the purity of their fouls, are chaunting, at folemn intervals, the ftrains of Jeffe's fon. When, lo! in dreadful vifit, fome fiend peeps from the gloomy cloifter, to mix in horrid fmiles the yell of blafphemy, as he mutters execrations of revenge!Think thus, and what are thy feelings? Nearly fuch were mine, on perufing what is innocently called, "An Ode to fome Robin-redbreafts in a country Cathedral."

"The fcene of the former part of thefe lines is fuppofed to be in the author's college chapel. Nothing but the bofom of Senfibility herfelf can form ideas exalted enough of a finely-fwelling organ preaching devotion to an affembly of youths, uniformly clad in veftments, which are, fometimes, we truft, even here, the pictures of purity within! An affembly that are to be the future guardians of their country's religion, her liberties, and her laws. The writer always obferves a more than ufual degree of attention on a furplice or organ evening. And though, with beings that are not angels, there must be too often "the founds which affectation brays;" yet, if Dr. WOLCOT has ever heard an hallelujah chorus in the "Meffiah," let him tell me whether it be poffible for diffipation not to pause in her mad career, and the cold, indifferent bofom of apathy herself not to expand, for once, with the momentary fires of fomething that borders on devotion? This, perhaps, is afmuch as can be faid of the works of a PETER PINDAR. Nay, a wreath which can feldom be fufpended from the confecrated cushion, as a trophy to the eloquence of the pulpit. If then the reputation of fuch admirable preachers as the organ and her attendant quire of ftripling cherubs-the only ones, at leaft, which mix with mankind-if

the

0

0

« НазадПродовжити »