Page images
PDF
EPUB

A heap of dust alone remains of thee;

'T is all thou art, and all the proud shall be ! To the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady. Line 71.

Ye Gods! annihilate but space and time,

And make two lovers happy.

Martinus Scriblerus on the Art of Sinking in Poetry. Ch. 11.

Of manners gentle, of affections mild ;

In wit a man, simplicity a child.*

Epitaph on Gay.

The saint sustained it, but the woman died.

Epitaph on Mrs. Corbet.

Who ne'er knew joy but friendship might divide,
Or gave his father grief but when he died.

Epitaph on the Hon. S. Harcourt.

A brave man struggling in the storms of fate,
And greatly falling with a falling state.

Prologue to Mr. Addison's Cato.

You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come;
Knock as you please, there's nobody at home.+

[blocks in formation]

There take (says Justice), take ye each a shell,
We thrive at Westminster on fools like you:
'T was a fat oyster-live in peace—adieu.

Verbatim from Boileau.

* Her wit was more than man, her innocence a child.
DRYDEN. Elegy on Mrs. Killigrew.

His wit invites you by his looks to come;
But when you knock, it never is at home.

COWPER. Conversation.

ODYSSEY.

Few sons attain the praise

Of their great sires, and most their sires disgrace.

Book ii. Line 315.

Far from gay cities and the ways of men.

Book xiv. Line 410.

Who love too much, hate in the like extreme.

Book xv. Line 79.

True friendship's laws are by this rule expressed,
Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.*

This is the Jew

That Shakspere drew.+

Book xv.

Line 83.

THOMAS TICKELL. 1686-1740.

[OR e'er was to the bowers of bliss conveyed

NOR

A fairer spirit, or more welcome shade.

On the Death of Addison. Line 45.

* Welcome the coming, speed the going guest.

HORACE. Book ii. Satire ii. Line 160. Page 192.

On the 14th February, 1741, Macklin established his fame as an actor, in the character of Shylock, in the 'Merchant of Venice,' and restored to the stage a play which had been forty years supplanted by Lord Lansdowne's 'Jew of Venice.' Macklin's performance of this character so forcibly struck a gentleman in the pit, that he, as it were involuntarily, exclaimed,

"This is the Jew

That Shakspere drew.'

It has been said that this gentleman was Mr. Pope, and that he meant his panegyric on Macklin as a satire against Lord Lansdowne.

Biog. Dram. vol. i. pt. ii. p. 469.

There taught us how to live; and (oh ! too high
The price for knowledge) taught us how to die.*
On the Death of Addison.

I hear a voice you cannot hear,

Which says I must not stay,

I see a hand you cannot see,

Line 81.

Which beckons me away.

Colin and Lucy.

THOMAS PARNELL. 1679-1718.

REMOTE from man, with God he passed the days,

Prayer all his business, all his pleasure praise.

The Hermit. Line 5.

Let those love now, who never lov'd before,

Let those who always loved, now love the more.†

[blocks in formation]

Written in the time of Julius Cæsar, and by some ascribed to

Catullus:

Cras amet qui numquam amavit;

Quique amavit, cras amet.

A damsel lay deploring

All on a rock reclined.

The What D'ye Call't. Act. ii. Sc. 8.

So comes a reckoning when the banquet's o'er,
The dreadful reckoning, and men smile no more.
Ibid. Act. ii. Sc. 9.

[blocks in formation]

Whence is thy learning? Hath thy toil
O'er books consumed the midnight oil?*

The Shepherd and the Philosopher.

When yet was ever found a mother
Who'd give her booby for another?

The Mother, the Nurse, and the Fairy.

While there is life there's hope, he cried.†

The Sick Man and the Angel.

And when a lady's in the case,
You know all other things give place.

The Hare and many Friends.

Life's a jest, and all things show it ;
I thought so once, and now I know it.

Epitaph on Himself.

* The midnight oil was a common phrase; it is used by Shenstone, Cowper, Lloyd, and others.

† Ελπίδες ἐν ζωοῖσιν, ἀνέλπιστοι δὲ θανόντες.

THEOCRITUS. Id. iv. Line 42.

L

LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGUE.
1690-1762.

ET this great maxim be my virtue's guide,In part she is to blame that has been tried ; He comes too near, that comes to be denied.*

The Lady's Resolve.

And we meet, with champagne and a chicken, at last.†

The Lover.

JOHN BYROM. 1691-1763.

OME say, compared to Bononcini,

SOME

That Mynheer Handel's but a ninny;

Others aver that he to Handel

Is scarcely fit to hold a candle.

Strange all this difference should be

"Twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

On the Feuds between Handel and Bononcini.

*The Lady's Resolve was a fugitive piece, written on a window by Lady Montague, after her marriage (1713). The last lines were taken from Overbury:-The Wife, St. 36.

'In part to blame is she

Which hath without consent been only tried;
He comes too near that comes to be denied.'

What say you to such a supper with such a woman?

BYRON. Note to Letter on Bowles. 'Nourse asked me if I had seen the verses upon Handel and Bononcini, not knowing that they were mine.' Byrom's Remains (Cheltenham Soc.), vol. i. p. 173. The last two lines have been attributed to Swift and Pope. Vide Scott's edition of Swift, and Dyce's edition of Pope.

« PreviousContinue »