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EDWIN AND EMM An

**Mark it, Cefario, it is true and plain.

The fpinfters and the knitters in the fun, "And the free maids that weave their thread with bones, Do ufe to chant it. It is filly Sooth, "And dallies with the innocence of love,

Like the old age."

SHAKESP. TWELFTH NIGHT.

I.

FAR in the windings of a vale,

Faft by a fheltering wood,

The fafe retreat of health and peace,
An humble cottage stood.

H.

There beauteous Emma Aourish'd fair,

Beneath a mother's eye;

Whofe only wifh on earth was now

To fee her bleft, and die.

III.

The fofteft blush that Nature fpreads

Gave colour to her cheek:

"Such orient colour fmiles through heaven,

When vernal mornings break.

IV.

Nor let the pride of great-ones fcorn

This charmer of the plains;

That fun, who bids their diamond blaze,

To paint our lily deigns.

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V.

Long had the fill'd each youth with love,
Each maiden with despair;

And though by all a wonder own'd,

Yet knew not she was fair.

VI.

Till Edwin came, the pride of swains,
A foul devoid of art;

And from whofe eye, ferenely mild,
Shone forth the feeling heart.

VII.

A mutual flame was quickly caught:
Was quickly too reveal'd:
For neither bofom lodg'd a wish,

That virtue keeps conceal'd.

VIII.

What happy hours of home-felt blifs

Did love on both beftow!

But blifs too mighty long to laft,
Where fortune proves a foe.

IX.

His Sifter, who, like Envy form'd,

Like her in mifchief joy'd,

To work them harm, with wicked skill,
Each darker art employ'd.

X.

The Father too, a fordid man,
Who love nor pity knew,
Was all-unfeeling as the clod,
From whence his riches grew.

XI. Long

XI..

Long had he feen their fecret flame,

And feen it long unmov'd:

Then with a father's frown at last

Had fternly difapprov'd.

XII.

In Edwin's gentle heart, a war
Of differing paffions strove :
His heart, that durft not disobey,
Yet could not ceafe to love.

XIII.

Deny'd her fight, he oft behind
The spreading hawthorn crept,

To snatch a glance, to mark the spot
Where Emma walk'd and wept.

XIV.

Oft too on Stanemore's wintery waste,
Beneath the moonlight-shade,
In fighs to pour his foften'd foul,
The midnight-mourner ftray'd..

XV.

His cheek, where health with beauty glow'd,

A deadly pale o'erçaft:

So fades the fresh rose in its prime,

Before the northern blast.

XVI.

The parents now, with late remorse,

Hung o'er his dying bed;

And weary'd heaven with fruitless vows,

And fruitlefs forrow fhed.

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XVII.

'Tis paft! he cry'd-but if your fouls
Sweet mercy yet can move,

Let thefe dim eyes once more behold,
What they must ever love!

XVIII.

She came; his cold hand foftly touch'd,,
And bath'd with many a tear :
Faft-falling o'er the primrose pale,
So morning dews appear.

XIX.

But oh his fifter's jealous care,
A cruel fifter fhe!

Forbade what Emma came to fay;:

66 My Edwin, live for me!”

XX.

Now homeward as the hopeless wept

The church-yard path along,

The blaft blew cold, the dark owl fcream'd

Her lover's funeral fong.

XXI.

Amid the falling gloom of night,

Her ftartling fancy found

In every bush his hovering fhade,.

His groan in every found.

XXII.

Alone, appall'd, thus had the pafs'd

The vifionary vale

When lo! the death-bell fmote her ear,

Sad founding in the gale!

XXII. Juft

XXIII.

Just then the reach'd, with trembling step,

Her aged mother's door

He's gone! the cry'd; and I fhall fee

That angel-face no more!

XXIV.

I feel, I feel this breaking heart

Beat high ageinst my side

From her white arm down funk her head;

She fhivering figh'd, and died.

Extract of a Letter from the Curate of BowES, in. YORKSHIRE, on the Subject of the preceding

Poem.

To Mr. COPPERTHWAITE at MARRICK.

WORTHY SIR,

*

As to the affair mentioned in yours, it happened long before my time. I have therefore been obliged to confult my clerk, and another person in the neighbourhood, for the truth of that melancholy event. The hiftory of it is as follows:

both

THE family-name of the young man was Wrightson; of the young maiden Railton. They were much of the fame age; that is, growing up to twenty. In their birth was no difparity: but in fortune, alas! fhe was his inferior. His father, a hard old man, who had by his toil acquired a handfome competency, expected and required that his fon fhould marry fuitably. Y 4

But

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