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With newly-gathered flowerets; chaplets gay
The snowy hand sustains; the native curls,
O'ershading half, augment their powerful charms;
While Venus, tempered by Minerva, fills
Their eyes with ardour, pointing every glance
To animate, not soften. From on high
Her large controlling orbs Timothea rolls,
Surpassing all in stature, not unlike
In majesty of shape the wife of Jove,
Presiding o'er the empyreal fair.

A popular vitality has been awarded to a ballad of Glover's, while his epics have sunk into oblivion :

Admiral Hosier's Ghost.

[Written on the taking of Carthagena from the Spaniards,

1739.]

[The case of Hosier, which is here so pathetically represented, was briefly this:-In April 1726, that commander was sent with a strong fleet into the Spanish West Indies, to block up the galleons in the ports of that country; or, should they presume to come out, to seize and carry them into England. He accordingly arrived at the Bastimentos near Portobello; but being restricted by his orders from obeying the dictates of his courage, lay inactive on that station until he became the jest of the Spaniards. He afterwards removed to Carthagena, and continued cruising in those seas until the far greater part of his men perished deplorably by the diseases of that unhealthy climate. This brave man, seeing his best officers and men thus daily swept away, his ships exposed to inevitable destruction, and himself made the sport of the enemy, is said to have died of a broken heart.]

As near Portobello lying

On the gentle-swelling flood,
At midnight, with streamers flying,
Our triumphant navy rode;

There while Vernon sat all glorious
From the Spaniards' late defeat,
And his crews, with shouts victorious,
Drank success to England's fleet:

On a sudden, shrilly sounding,
Hideous yells and shrieks were heard;
Then, each heart with fear confounding,
A sad troop of ghosts appeared;

All in dreary hammocks shrouded,

Which for winding-sheets they wore,
And, with looks by sorrow clouded,
Frowning on that hostile shore.

On them gleamed the moon's wan lustre,
When the shade of Hosier brave,
His pale bands were seen to muster,

Rising from their watery grave:
O'er the glimmering wave he hied him,
Where the Burford reared her sail,
With three thousand ghosts beside him,
And in groans did Vernon hail.

Heed, oh, heed our fatal story!

I am Hosier's injured ghost;

You who now have purchased glory
At this place where I was lost:

Though in Portobello's ruin,

You now triumph free from fears,
When you think on my undoing,
You will mix your joys with tears.

See these mournful spectres sweeping
Ghastly o'er this hated wave,

Whose wan cheeks are stained with weeping;
These were English captains brave.

Mark those numbers, pale and horrid,
Who were once my sailors bold;
Lo! each hangs his drooping forehead,
While his dismal tale is told.

I, by twenty sail attended,
Did this Spanish town affright;
Nothing then its wealth defended
But my orders--not to fight!

Oh! that in this rolling ocean
I had cast them with disdain,
And obeyed my heart's warm motion,
To have quelled the pride of Spain !

For resistance I could fear none;
But with twenty ships had done
What thou, brave and happy Vernon,
Hast achieved with six alone.

Then the Bastimentos never

Had our foul dishonour seen, Nor the seas the sad receiver Of this gallant train had been. Thus, like thee, proud Spain dismaying, And her galleons leading home, Though condemned for disobeying, I had met a traitor's doom: To have fallen, my country crying, 'He has played an English part,' Had been better far than dying

Of a grieved and broken heart.

Unrepining at thy glory,

Thy successful arms we hail; But remember our sad story,

And let Hosier's wrongs prevail.

Sent in this foul clime to languish,
Think what thousands fell in vain,
Wasted with disease and anguish,

Not in glorious battle slain.

Hence with all my train attending,
From their oozy tombs below,
Through the hoary foam ascending,
Here I feed my constant wo.

Here the Bastimentos viewing,
We recall our shameful doom,
And, our plaintive cries renewing,
Wander through the midnight gloom.
O'er these waves forever mourning
Shall we roam, deprived of rest,
If, to Britain's shores returning,
You neglect my just request;

After this proud foe subduing,
When your patriot friends you see,
Think on vengeance for my ruin,

And for England-shamed in me.

The poets who follow are a secondary class, few of whom are now noted for more than one or two favourite pieces.

ROBERT DODSLEY.

ROBERT DODSLEY (1703–1764) was an able and spirited publisher of his day, the friend of literature and of literary men. He projected the Annual Register, in which Burke was engaged, and he was the first to collect and republish the Old English Plays,' which form the foundation of our national drama. Dodsley wrote an excellent little moral treatise, The

Economy of Human Life, which was attributed to Lord Chesterfield, and he was author of some dra

Dodsley's House and Shop in Pall Mall.

matic pieces and poetical effusions. He was always attached to literature, and this, aided by his excellent conduct, raised him from the low condition of a livery servant, to be one of the most influential and respectable men of the times in which he lived.

[Song-The Parting Kiss.]

One kind wish before we part,
Drop a tear, and bid adieu:
Though we sever, my fond heart,
Till we meet, shall pant for you.
Yet, yet weep not so, my love,

Let me kiss that falling tear;
Though my body must remove,
All my soul will still be here.

All my soul, and all my heart,
And every wish shall pant for you;
One kind kiss, then, ere we part,
Drop a tear, and bid adieu.

With that first ring I married youth,
Grace, beauty, innocence, and truth;
Taste long admired, sense long revered,
And all my Molly then appeared.

If she, by merit since disclosed,
Prove twice the woman I supposed,
I plead that double merit now,
To justify a double vow..

Here, then, to-day (with faith as sure,
With ardour as intense, as pure,
As when, amidst the rites divine,
I took thy troth, and plighted mine),
To thee, sweet girl, my second ring
A token and a pledge I bring:
With this I wed, till death us part,
Thy riper virtues to my heart;
Those virtues which, before untried,
The wife has added to the bride;
Those virtues, whose progressive claim,
Endearing wedlock's very name,
My soul enjoys, my song approves,
For conscience' sake as well as love's.

And why-They show me every hour Honour's high thought, Affection's power, Discretion's deed, sound Judgment's sentence, And teach me all things-but repentance.

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SAMUEL BISHOP.

SAMUEL BISHOP (1731-1795) was an English clergyman, Master of Merchant Tailors' School, London, and author of some miscellaneous essays and poems. The best of his poetry was devoted to the praise of his wife; and few can read such lines as the following without believing that Bishop was an amiable and happy man :

To Mrs Bishop, on the Anniversary of her Wedding-
Day, which was also her Birth-Day, with a Ring.

'Thee, Mary, with this ring I wed'-
So, fourteen years ago, I said.
Behold another ring!- For what?'
'To wed thee o'er again? Why not?

Sir William Jones.

His father was an eminent mathematician, but died when his son was only three years of age. The mother, who was well qualified for the duty by her care of educating young Jones devolved upon his virtues and extensive learning. When in his fifth year, the imagination of the young scholar was caught by the sublime description of the angel in the tenth chapter of the Apocalypse, and the impression was never effaced. In 1753 he was placed

tegrity, disinterested benevolence, and unwearied perseverance. In the intervals of leisure from his duties, he directed his attention to scientific objects, and established a society in Calcutta to promote inquiries by the ingenious, and to concentrate the knowledge to be collected in Asia. In 1784, his health being affected by the climate and the closeness of his application, he made a tour through various parts of India, in the course of which he wrote The Enchanted Fruit, or Hindoo Wife, a poetical tale, and a Treatise on the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India. He also studied the Sanscrit language, being unwilling to continue at the mercy of the Pundits, who dealt out Hindoo law as they pleased. Some translations from oriental authors, and origiestablished at Calcutta, entitled The Asiatic Miscellany. He meditated an epic poem on the Discovery of England by Brutus, to which his knowledge of Hindoo mythology suggested a new machinery, the agency of Hindoo deities. To soften the violence of the fiction into harmony with probability, the poet conceived the future comprehension of Hindostan within the circle of British dominion, as prospectively visible in the age of Brutus, to the guardian angels of the Indian peninsula. This gorgeous design he had matured so far as to write the argu

at Harrow school, where he continued nearly ten years, and became an accomplished and critical classical scholar. He did not confine himself merely to the ancient authors usually studied, but added a knowledge of the Arabic characters, and acquired sufficient Hebrew to read the Psalms. In 1764 he was entered of University college, Oxford. Here his taste for oriental literature continued, and he engaged a native of Aleppo, whom he had discovered in London, to act as his preceptor. He also assiduously perused the Greek poets and historians. In his nineteenth year, Jones accepted an offer to be private tutor to Lord Althorp, afterwards Earl Spencer. A fellowship at Oxford was also conferred upon him, and thus the scholar was relieved from the fear of want, and enabled to pursue his favou-nal poems and essays, he contributed to a periodical rite and unremitting studies. An opportunity of displaying one branch of his acquirements was afforded in 1768. The king of Denmark in that year visited England, and brought with him an eastern manuscript, containing the life of Nadir Shah, which he wished translated into French. Jones executed this arduous task, being, as Lord Teignmouth, his biographer, remarks, the only oriental scholar in England adequate to the performance. He still continued in the noble family of Spencer, and in 1769 accompanied his pupil to the continent. Next year, feeling anxious to attain an independentments of the intended books of his epic, but the station in life, he entered himself a student of the poem itself he did not live to attempt. In 1789 Sir Temple, and, applying himself with his characteristic William translated an ancient Indian drama, Saconardour to his new profession, he contemplated with tala, or the Fatal Ring, which exhibits a picture of pleasure the stately edifice of the laws of England,' | Hindoo manners in the century preceding the Chrisand mastered their most important principles and tian era. He engaged to compile a digest of Hindoo details. In 1774 he published Commentaries on and Mahometan laws; and in 1794 he translated Asiatic Poetry, but finding that jurisprudence was a the Ordinances of Menu or the Hindoo system of jealous mistress, and would not admit the eastern | duties, religious and civil. His motive to this task, muses to participate in his attentions, he devoted like his inducement to the digest, was to aid the himself for some years exclusively to his legal benevolent intentions of our legislature in securing studies. A patriotic feeling was mingled with this to the natives, in a qualified degree, the administraresolution. Had I lived at Rome or Athens,' he tion of justice by their own laws. Eager to accomsaid, 'I should have preferred the labours, studies, plish his digest, Sir William Jones remained in and dangers of their orators and illustrious citizens India after the delicate health of Lady Jones com-connected as they were with banishment and even pelled her departure in December 1793. He prodeath-to the groves of the poets or the gardens of posed to follow her in the ensuing season, but in April the philosophers. Here I adopt the same resolution. he was seized with inflammation of the liver, which The constitution of England is in no respect inferior terminated fatally, after an illness of one week, on the to that of Rome or Athens.' Jones now practised 27th of April 1794. Every honour was paid to his at the bar, and was appointed one of the Commis- remains, and the East India Company erected a sioners of Bankrupts. In 1778, he published a monument to his memory in St Paul's Cathedral. translation of the speeches of Isæus, in causes con- The attainments of Sir William Jones were so procerning the law of succession to property at Athens, found and various, that it is difficult to conceive how to which he added notes and a commentary. The he had comprised them in his short life of fortystirring events of the time in which he lived were eight years. As a linguist he has probably never not beheld without strong interest by this accom- been surpassed; for his knowledge extended to a plished scholar. He was decidedly opposed to the critical study of the literature and antiquities of American war and to the slave trade, then so pre- various nations. As a lawyer he had attained to a valent, and in 1781 he produced his noble Alcaic high rank in England, and he was the Justinian of Ode, animated by the purest spirit of patriotism, India. In general science there were few departand a high strain of poetical enthusiasm. He also ments of which he was ignorant: in chemistry, joined in representing the necessity that existed for mathematics, botany, and music, he was equally proa reform of the electoral system in England. But ficient. He seems,' says his biographer, to have though he made speeches and wrote pamphlets in acted on this maxim, that whatever had been atfavour of liberty and pure government, Jones was tained was attainable by him; and he was never obno party man, and was desirous, he said, of being served to overlook or to neglect any opportunity of transported to the distance of five thousand leagues adding to his accomplishments or to his knowledge. from all the fatal discord of contending politicians. When in India, his studies began with the dawn; His wishes were soon accomplished. He was ap- and in seasons of intermission from professional duty, pointed one of the judges of the supreme court at continued throughout the day; meditation retraced Fort William, in Bengal, and the honour of knight- and confirmed what reading had collected or inveshood was conferred upon him. He married the tigation discovered. By a regular application of daughter of Dr Shipley, bishop of St Asaph; and time to particular occupations, he pursued various in April 1783, in his thirty-seventh year, he em- objects without confusion; and in undertakings barked for India, never to return. Sir William which depended on his individual perseverance, he Jones entered upon his judicial functions with all was never deterred by difficulties from proceeding to the advantages of a high reputation, unsullied in- a successful termination.' With respect to the

division of his time, Sir William Jones had written in India, on a small piece of paper, the following lines:

Sir Edward Coke:

Six hours in sleep, in law's grave study six, Four spend in prayer-the rest on nature fix.

Rather:

Seven hours to law, to soothing slumber seven, Ten to the world allot, and all to heaven.*

The poems of Sir William Jones have been collected and printed in two small volumes. An early collection was published by himself, dedicated to the Countess Spencer, in 1772. They consist of a few original pieces in English and Latin, and translations from Petrarch and Pindar; paraphrases of Turkish and Chinese odes, hymns on subjects of Hindoo mythology, Indian Tales, and a few songs from the Persian. Of these the beautiful lyric from Hafiz is the most valuable. The taste of Sir William Jones was early turned towards eastern poetry, in which he was captivated with new images, expressions, and allegories, but there is a want of chasteness and simplicity in most of these productions. The name of their illustrious author 'reflects credit,' as Campbell remarks, on poetical biography, but his secondary fame as a composer shows that the palm of poetry is not likely to be won, even by great genius, without exclusive devotion to the pur

suit.'

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An Ode, in Imitation of Alcaus.

What constitutes a state?

Not high-raised battlement or laboured mound,
Thick wall or moated gate;

Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned;
Not bays and broad-armed ports,

Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride;
Not starred and spangled courts,

Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride.
No: men, high-minded men,

With powers as far above dull brutes endued
In forest, brake, or den,

As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude;
Men who their duties know,

But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain,
Prevent the long-aimed blow,

And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain:
These constitute a state,

And sovereign Law, that state's collected will,
O'er thrones and globes elate

Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill;
Smit by her sacred frown,

The fiend Discretion like a vapour sinks,

And e'en the all-dazzling Crown

Hides his faint rays, and at her bidding shrinks.

Such was this heaven-loved isle,
Than Lesbos fairer, and the Cretan shore!
No more shall Freedom smile?

Shall Britons languish, and be men no more?
Since all must life resign,

Those sweet rewards, which decorate the brave, 'Tis folly to decline,

And steal inglorious to the silent grave.

* As respects sleep, the example of Sir Walter Scott may be added to that of Sir William Jones, for the great novelist has stated that he required seven hours of total unconsciousness to fit him for the duties of the day.

A Persian Song of Hafiz.

Sweet maid, if thou would'st charm my sight,
And bid these arms thy neck enfold;
That rosy cheek, that lily hand,
Would give thy poet more delight
Than all Bocara's vaunted gold,
Than all the gems of Samarcand.

Boy, let yon liquid ruby flow,

And bid thy pensive heart be glad,
Whate'er the frowning zealots say:
Tell them, their Eden cannot show
A stream so clear as Rocnabad,
A bower so sweet as Mosellay.

O! when these fair perfidious maids,
Whose eyes our secret haunts infest,.
Their dear destructive charms display,
Each glance my tender breast invades,
And robs my wounded soul of rest,
As Tartars seize their destined prey.
In vain with love our bosoms glow:
Can all our tears, can all our sighs,
New lustre to those charms impart ?
Can cheeks, where living roses blow,
Where nature spreads her richest dyes,
Require the borrowed gloss of art?

Speak not of fate: ah! change the theme,
And talk of odours, talk of wine,
Talk of the flowers that round us bloom:
'Tis all a cloud, 'tis all a dream;
To love and joy thy thoughts confine,
Nor hope to pierce the sacred gloom.
Beauty has such resistless power,
That even the chaste Egyptian dame
Sighed for the blooming Hebrew boy:
For her how fatal was the hour,
When to the banks of Nilus came
A youth so lovely and so coy!

But ah! sweet maid, my counsel hear
(Youth should attend when those advise
Whom long experience renders sage):
While music charms the ravished ear;
While sparkling cups delight our eyes,
Be gay, and scorn the frowns of age.

What cruel answer have I heard?
And yet, by Heaven, I love thee still:
Can aught be cruel from thy lip?
Yet say, how fell that bitter word
From lips which streams of sweetness fill,
Which nought but drops of honey sip?

Go boldly forth, my simple lay,
Whose accents flow with artless ease,
Like orient pearls at random strung:
Thy notes are sweet, the damsels say;
But oh! far sweeter, if they please

The nymph for whom these notes are sung!

The Concluding Sentence of Berkeley's Siris Imitated.
Before thy mystic altar, heavenly Truth,

I kneel in manhood as I knelt in youth:
Thus let me kneel, till this dull form decay,
And life's last shade be brightened by thy ray:
Then shall my soul, now lost in clouds below,
Soar without bound, without consuming glow.*

*The following is the last sentence of the Siris:-' He that would make a real progress in knowledge must dedicate his age as well as youth, the latter growth as well as the first fruits, at the altar of Truth.'

Tetrastic From the Persian.

On parent knees, a naked new-born child,
Weeping thou sat'st while all around thee smiled;
So live, that sinking in thy last long sleep,
Calm thou mayst smile, while all around thee weep.

FRANCIS FAWKES.

FRANCIS FAWKES (1721-1777) translated Anacreon, Sappho, Bion, and other classic poets, and wrote some pleasing original verses. He was a clergyman, and died vicar of Hayes, in Kent. Fawkes enjoyed the friendship of Johnson and Warton; but, however classic in his tastes and studies, he seems, like Oldys, to have relished a cup of English ale. The following song is still, and will always be, a favourite:

The Brown Jug.

Dear Tom, this brown jug that now foams with mild ale,
(In which I will drink to sweet Nan of the vale)
Was once Toby Fillpot, a thirsty old soul,
As e'er drank a bottle, or fathomed a bowl;
In bousing about 'twas his praise to excel,
And among jolly topers he bore off the bell.
It chanced as in dog-days he sat at his ease,
In his flower-woven arbour, as gay as you please,
With a friend and a pipe puffing sorrows away,
And with honest old stingo was soaking his clay,
His breath-doors of life on a sudden were shut,
And he died full as big as a Dorchester butt.
His body when long in the ground it had lain,
And time into clay had resolved it again,
A potter found out in its covert so snug,

And with part of fat Toby he formed this brown jug;
Now sacred to friendship, and mirth, and mild ale,
So here's to my lovely sweet Nan of the vale!
Johnson acknowledged that Frank Fawkes had
done the Odes of Anacreon very finely.'

WILLIAM WHITEHEAD.

WILLIAM WHITEHEAD (1715-1785) succeeded to the office of poet-laureate, after it had been refused by Gray. He was the son of a baker in Cambridge, and distinguished himself at Winchester school, on leaving which he obtained a scholarship at Clare-hall, in the university of his native town. He was afterwards tutor to the son of the Earl of Jersey. Whitehead had a taste for the drama, and wrote The Roman Father, and Creusa, two indifferent plays. After he had received his appointment as laureate, he was attacked by Churchill, and a host of inferior satirists, but he wisely made no reply. In the family of Lord Jersey he enjoyed comfort and happiness, till death, at seventy, put a period to his inoffensive life.

Variety.

[This easy and playful poem opens with the description of a rural pair of easy fortune, who live much apart from society.]

Two smiling springs had waked the flowers
That paint the meads, or fringe the bowers,
(Ye lovers, lend your wondering ears,
Who count by months, and not by years),
Two smiling springs had chaplets wove
To crown their solitude, and love:
When, lo! they find, they can't tell how,
Their walks are not so pleasant now.
The seasons sure were changed; the place
Had, somehow, got a different face,

Some blast had struck the cheerful scene;
The lawns, the woods were not so green.
The purling rill, which murmured by,
And once was liquid harmony,
Became a sluggish, reedy pool;
The days grew hot, the evenings cool.
The moon, with all the starry reign,
Were melancholy's silent train.
And then the tedious winter night-
They could not read by candle-light.

Full oft, unknowing why they did,
They called in adventitious aid.
A faithful favourite dog ('twas thus
With Tobit and Telemachus)
Amused their steps; and for a while
They viewed his gambols with a smile.
The kitten, too, was comical,
She played so oddly with her tail,
Or in the glass was pleased to find
Another cat, and peeped behind.

A courteous neighbour at the door,
Was deemed intrusive noise no more.
For rural visits, now and then,
Are right, as men must live with men.
Then cousin Jenny, fresh from town,
A new recruit, a dear delight!
Made many a heavy hour go down,
At morn, at noon, at eve, at night:
Sure they could hear her jokes for ever,
She was so sprightly and so clever!

Yet neighbours were not quite the thing-
What joy, alas! could converse bring
With awkward creatures bred at home-
The dog grew dull, or troublesome,
The cat had spoiled the kitten's merit,
And, with her youth, had lost her spirit.
And jokes repeated o'er and o'er,
Had quite exhausted Jenny's store.

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-And then, my dear, I can't abide
This always sauntering side by side.'
'Enough!" he cries, the reason's plain :
For causes never rack your brain.
Our neighbours are like other folks ;
Skip's playful tricks, and Jenny's jokes,
Are still delightful, still would please,
Were we, my dear, ourselves at ease.
Look round, with an impartial eye,
On yonder fields, on yonder sky;
The azure cope, the flowers below,
With all their wonted colours glow;
The rill still murmurs; and the moon
Shines, as she did, a softer sun.

No change has made the seasons fail,
No comet brushed us with his tail.
The scene's the same, the same the weather-
We live, my dear, too much together.'

Agreed. A rich old uncle dies,
And added wealth the means supplies.
With eager haste to town they flew,
Where all must please, for all was new.

Why should we paint, in tedious song,
How every day, and all day long,
They drove at first with curious haste
Through Lud's vast town; or, as they passed
'Midst risings, fallings, and repairs

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Of streets on streets, and squares on squares,
Describe how strong their wonder grew
At buildings-and at builders too?
When Night her murky pinions spread,
And sober folks retire to bed,

To every public place they flew,
Where Jenny told them who was who.
Money was always at command,

And tripped with pleasure hand in hand.
Money was equipage, was show,
Gallini's, Almack's, and Soho;

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