Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

epigram. It consists, first, of an argument in prose; next follows a motto from Roscommon. Then comes the epigram; and lastly, notes serving to explain the epigram; but you shall have it with all its decorations.

[blocks in formation]

AN EPIGRAM

ADDRESSED TO THE GENTLEMEN REFLECTED ON IN THE

ROSCIAD, A POEM, BY THE AUTHOR.

There was also another new a gram, which came out upon matter, that a critic might sp roperly fitted with its string.

Worried with debts, and past all hopes of bail, His pen he prostitutes t' avoid a gaol.

2

ROSCOM.

LET not the hungry Bavius' angry stroke
Awake resentment, or your rage provoke-
But pitying his distress, let virtue1 shine,
And giving each your bounty, let him dine.
For thus retain'd, as learned council can,
Each case, however bad, he'll new japan;
And by a quick transition, plainly show
'Twas no defeat of yours, but pocket low,
That caus'd his putrid kennel to o'erflow.

The last lines are certainly executed in a very masterly manner; it is of that species of augmentation, called the perplexing. It effectually flings the antagonist into a mist; there's no answering it: the laugh is raised against him, while he is endeavouring to find out the jest. At once he shows

1 Charity.

2 Settled at one shilling, the price of the poem.

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

1

There, there is a perplex

it quite perfect; the autho notes. Almost every wo one too. I, YOU, HE and who are you? Here that may in a short time should consequently have but when the reader com maze is inextricable. H tery, without ever reach that small is a word po and great was a very p This was denoted Churchill, Colman, and

he author has a kennel, and that this kennel is putrid, at this putrid kennel overflows. But why does it overIt overflows, because the author happens to have low

ts.

e was also another new attempt in this way, a prosaic am, which came out upon this occasion. This is so full tter, that a critic might split it into fifteen epigrams, each erly fitted with its string. You shall see it.

TO G. C. AND R. L.

As you, or I, or he, or all together,
as one, both, three of them, they know not
whether;

s, I believe, between us great or small,
, I, he, wrote it not-'twas Churchill's all.

here, there is a perplex! I could have wished to have made uite perfect; the author, as in the case before, had added es. Almost every word admits a scholium, and a long too. I, YOU, HE. Suppose a stranger should ask, who are you? Here are three obscure persons spoken of, t may in a short time be utterly forgotten. Their names uld consequently have been written in notes at the bottom; when the reader comes to the words great and small, the ze is inextricable. Here the stranger may dive for a mysy, without ever reaching the bottom. Let him know then t small is a word poorly introduced to make good rhyme, great was a very proper word to keep small company. This was denoted against the triumvirate of friends, urchill, Colman, and Lloyd.

OF GOLI

(v. Cit. of the World. ii. 208.) Even in the sultry wilds of Southern America the lover is not satisfied with possessing his mistress's person, without having her mind.

In all my Emma's beauties blest,
Amidst profusion still I pine;

For though she gives me up her breast,
Its panting tenant is not mine.

TRANSLATION OF THE SOUTH AMERICAN

ODE.

The following translations occur in Goldsmith's Essays (ed. 1821). When he has adopted a translation, he has affixed the name of the author; I conclude, therefore, that those without a name are his own.

THE critic who, with nice discernment, knows
What to his country and his friends he owes ;
How various nature warms the human breast,
To love the parent, brother, friend, or guest.
What the great functions of our judges are,
Of senators, and generals sent to war:
He can distinguish with unerring art
The strokes peculiar to each different part.

HOR.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

POSE a painter to a human head
ald join a horse's neck, and wildly spread
various plumage of the feather'd kind
limbs of different beasts, absurdly join'd;
f he gave to view a beauteous maid,
ve the waist with every charm array'd,
uld a foul fish her lower parts unfold,
uld you not laugh such pictures to behold?

z tragic bard, a goat his humble prize, le satyrs naked and uncouth arise;

muse severe, secure, and undismay'd, rustic joke in solemn strain convey'd, - novelty alone he knew could charm

HOR.

awless crowd, with wine and feasting warm.

HOR.

L

ESPIS, inventor of dramatic art,

nvey'd his vagrant actors in a cart,

gh o'er the crowd the mimic tribe appear'd,
_d play'd and sung, with lees of wine besmear'd.

HOR.

EN Eschylus, a decent vizard used, ilt a low stage; the flowing robe diffus'd; language more sublime two actors rage, nd in the graceful buskin tread the stage.

HOR.

HE comic poets, in its earliest age,
Who form'd the manners of the Grecian stage-
Was there a villain who might justly claim
A better right of being damn'd to fame,
Rake, cut-throat, thief, whatever was his crime,
They boldly stigmatiz'd the wretch in rhyme.

HOR.

WITH passions not my own who fires my heart,
Who with unreal terrors fills my breast,
As with a magic influence possess'd.

HOR.

BUT God and man, and letter'd post denies
That poets ever are of middling size.

POETS would profit, or delight mankind,
And with the amusing show the instructive join'd

PROFIT and pleasure, mingled thus with art,
To soothe the fancy, and improve the heart.

AT ease reclin'd beneath the verdant shade,
No more shall I behold my happy flock
Aloft, hang browzing on the tufted rock.

VIRG.

THESE on the mountain billows hung: to those
The yawning waves the yellow sand disclose.

VIRG.

[blocks in formation]
« FöregåendeFortsätt »