Time was when clothing, sumptuous or for use,
Save3 their own painted skins, our sires had none.
As yet black breeches were not, satin smooth,
Or velvet soft, or plush with shaggy pile.

The hardy chief upon the rugged rock
Wash'd by the sea, or on the gravelly bank
Thrown up by wintry torrents roaring loud,
Fearless of wrong, reposed his weary strength.
Those barbarous ages past, succeeded next
The birthday of invention, weak at first,
Dull in design, and clumsy to perform.
Joint-stools were then created; on three legs
Upborne they stood,—three legs upholding firm
A massy slab, in fashion square or round.
On such a stool immortal Alfred sat,
And sway'd the sceptre of his infant realms;
And such in ancient halls and mansions drear
May still be seen, but perforated sore
And drill'd in holes the solid oak is found,
By worms voracious eating through and through.
At length a generation more refined

Improved the simple plan, made three legs four,
Gave them a twisted form vermicular,

And o'er the seat with plenteous wadding stuff'd
Induced a splendid cover green and blue,
Yellow and red, of tapestry richly wrought
And woven close, or needle-work sublime.
There might ye see the piony spread wide,
The full-blown rose, the shepherd and his lass,
Lap-dog and lambkin with black staring eyes,
And parrots with twin cherries in their beak.
Now came the cane from India, smooth and bright
With Nature's varnish; sever'd into stripes

3 A painted vest Prince Vortiger had on, Which from a naked Pict his grandsire won.

Howard's British Princes.

Yet in another of his poems Cowper says

Taught thee to clothe thy pink'd and painted hide.
Expostulation.

4 As yet this world was not. Par. Lost, v. 577.

That interlaced each other, these supplied
Of texture firm a lattice-work, that braced
The new machine, and it became a chair.
But restless was the chair; the back erect
Distress'd the weary loins that felt no ease;
The slippery seat betray'd the sliding part
That press'd it, and the feet hung dangling down,
Anxious in vain to find the distant floor.

:

These for the rich the rest, whom fate had placed
In modest mediocrity, content

With base materials, sat on well-tann'd hides
Obdurate and unyielding, glassy smooth,
With here and there a tuft of crimson yarn,

Or scarlet crewel in the cushion fixt:

If cushion might be call'd, what harder seem'd

Than the firm oak of which the frame was form'd.
No want of timber then was felt or fear'd
In Albion's happy isle. The lumber stood
Ponderous, and fixt by its own massy weight.
But elbows still were wanting; these, some say,
An Alderman of Cripplegate contrived,
And some ascribe the invention to a priest
Burly and big and studious of his ease.
But rude at first, and not with easy slope
Receding wide, they press'd against the ribs,
And bruised the side, and elevated high
Taught the raised shoulders to invade the ears.
Long time elapsed or ere our rugged sires
Complain'd, though incommodiously pent in,
And ill at ease behind. The ladies first
'Gan' murmur, as became the softer sex.
Ingenious fancy, never better pleased
Than when employ'd to accommodate the fair,

5

The other shape,

If shape it might be call'd, that shape had none.
Par. Lost, iii. 666.

6 The arch'd and ponderous roof; by its own weight

Made steadfast and immoveable.

Congreve. Mourning Bride.

7

Either tropic now

'Gan thunder.

Par. Reg. iv. 410.

Heard the sweet moan with pity, and devised
The soft settee; one elbow at each end,
And in the midst an elbow, it received
United yet divided, twain at once.

So sit two Kings of Brentford on one throne;
And so two citizens who take the air

Close pack'd and smiling in a chaise and one.
But relaxation of the languid frame
By soft recumbency of outstretch'd limbs,
Was bliss reserved for happier days ;-so slow
The growth of what is excellent, so hard
To attain perfection in this nether world.
Thus first necessity invented stools,
Convenience next suggested elbow chairs,
And luxury the accomplished SOFA last.

The nurse sleeps sweetly, hired to watch the sick
Whom snoring she disturbs. As sweetly he
Who quits the coach-box at the midnight hour
To sleep within the carriage more secure,
His legs depending at the open door.
Sweet sleep enjoys the Curate in his desk,
The tedious Rector drawling o'er his head,
And sweet the Clerk below: but neither sleep
Of lazy nurse, who snores the sick man dead,
Nor his who quits the box at midnight hour
To slumber in the carriage more secure,
Nor sleep enjoy'd by Curate in his desk,
Nor yet the dozings of the Clerk are sweet,
Compared with the repose the SOFA yields3.

8 Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet
With charm of earliest birds, &c.

But neither breath of morn when she ascends
With charm of earliest birds, &c.

Par. Lost, iv. 641-656.

Milton has another of these replicatory passages at the end of Book x. :

What better can we do than to the place

Repairing where he judged us, prostrate fall, &c.

They forthwith to the place

Repairing where he judged them, prostrate fell, &c.

Another in Comus, line 222 :—

Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud

Turn forth her silver lining on the night?

Oh may I live exempted (while I live
Guiltless of pamper'd appetite obscene,)
From pangs arthritic that infest the toe
Of libertine excess. The SOFA suits
The gouty limb, 'tis true; but gouty limb,
Though on a SOFA, may I never feel:

105

For I have loved the rural walk through lanes
Of grassy swarth close cropt by nibbling sheep,
And skirted thick with intertexture firm

110

Of thorny boughs; have loved the rural walk

O'er hills, through valleys, and by river's brink,
E'er since a truant boy I pass'd my bounds
To enjoy a ramble on the banks of Thames.
And still remember, nor without regret

115

Of hours that sorrow since has much endear'd,
How oft, my slice of pocket store consumed,
Still hungering pennyless and far from home,
I fed on scarlet hips and stony haws,
Or blushing crabs, or berries that emboss
The bramble, black as jet, or sloes austere.
Hard fare! but such as boyish appetite
Disdains not, nor the palate undepraved
By culinary arts unsavoury deems.
No Sora then awaited my return,

Nor SOFA then I needed. Youth repairs

His wasted spirits quickly, by long toil

Incurring short fatigue; and though our years,
As life declines, speed rapidly away,

10

And not a year but pilfers as he goes

I did not err, there does a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night.
Orlando. If ever you have look'd on better days;
If ever been where bells have knoll'd to church.
Duke. True is it that we have seen better days;
And have with holy bell been knoll'd to church, &c.
As You Like It, Act ii. Sc. 7.
9 Where the nibbling flocks do stray. L'Allegro.
10 Years following years steal something every day.
Pope. Imit. of Hor. Ep. ii. 2.
(Singula de nobis anni prædantur euntes.)
Not numerous are our joys when life is new,
And yearly some are falling of the few.

Young. Sat. v.

120

125

130

Some youthful grace that age would gladly keep,
A tooth or auburn lock, and by degrees
Their length and colour from the locks they spare;
The elastic spring of an unwearied foot

That mounts the stile with ease, or leaps the fence,
That play of lungs inhaling and again
Respiring freely the fresh air, that makes
Swift pace or steep ascent no toil to me,
Mine have not pilfer'd yet; nor yet impair'd
My relish of fair prospect: scenes that soothed
Or charm'd me young, no longer young, I find
Still soothing and of power to charm me still.
And witness, dear companion of my walks,
Whose arm this twentieth winter I perceive
Fast lock'd in mine, with pleasure such as love
Confirm'd by long experience of thy worth
And well-tried virtues could alone inspire,-
Witness a joy that thou hast doubled long.
Thou knowest my praise of nature most sincere,
And that my raptures are not conjured up
To serve occasions of poetic pomp,

135

140 1

145

150

But genuine, and art partner of them all.

How oft upon yon eminence our pace

Has slacken'd to a pause, and we have borne

155

His labouring team, that swerved not from the track,

The sturdy swain diminish'd to a boy11!

Here Ouse, slow winding through a level plain

165

Of spacious meads with cattle sprinkled o'er,
Conducts the eye along his sinuous 12 course
Delighted. There, fast rooted in his bank

11

Yon tall anchoring bark
Diminished to her cock, her cock a buoy
Almost too small for sight.

King Lear, Act iv. Sc. 6.

12 Striking the ground with sinuous trace.

Par. Lost, vii. 481.