A modest Monologue you here survey, Yet at that speed you'd never be amazed, If mighty things with small we may compare, Another Marlborough points to Blenheim's story, In Arms and Science long our Isle hath shone, 10 40 And SHAKESPEARE-wondrous SHAKESPEARE-reared a throne For British Poesy-whose powers inspire The British pencil, and the British lyre Her we invoke-her Sister Arts implore: Their smiles beseech whose charms yourselves adore, THREE who their witching arts from Cupid stole 50 Harmonious throng! with nature blending art! Shine in our farce, masque, opera and play, Nay more so stretch the wing the world shall cry, 'But hold,' you'll say, 'this self-complacent boast; Easy to reckon thus without your host.' 60 True, true-that lowers at once our mounting pride; 'Tis yours alone our merit to decide; 'Tis ours to look to you, you hold the prize That bids our great, our best ambitions rise. As if Sir Fretful wrote "the slumberous" verse, 66 the rubbish" to rehearse. And ΙΟ Knew you "Nor even here your smiles would be represt," Knew you these lines-the badness of the best, "Flame! fire! and flame!" (words borrowed from Lucretius.1) "Dread metaphors" which open wounds like issues! "And sleeping pangs awake-and But away"(Confound me if I know what next to say). Lo "Hope reviving re-expands her wings," "In Arts and Sciences our Isle hath shone" (This deep discovery is mine alone). Our twofold feeling owns its twofold cause, You give the means of life, and gild the means you give." 20 70 1. [Busby's translation of Lucretius (The Nature of Things, a Didascalic Poem) was published in 1813. Byron was a subscriber, and is mentioned in the preface as "one of the most distinguished poets of the age." The passage in question is, perhaps, taken from the Second Book, lines 880, 881, which Busby renders "Just as she quickens fuel into fire, And bids it, flaming, to the skies aspire."] Oh "British poesy, whose powers inspire" My verse-or I'm a fool-and Fame's a liar, "Thee we invoke, your Sister Arts implore" With "smiles," and "lyres," and "pencils," and much more. These, if we win the Graces, too, we gain Disgraces, too! "inseparable train !" 30 "Three who have stolen their witching airs from Cupid" (You all know what I mean, unless you're stupid): "Harmonious throng" that I have kept in petto Now to produce in a “divine sestetto" !! "While Poesy," with these delightful doxies, "Sustains her part" in all the "upper" boxes! "Thus lifted gloriously, you'll sweep along," Borne in the vast balloon of Busby's song; "Shine in your farce, masque, scenery, and play " (For this last line George had a holiday). "Old Drury never, never soar'd so high," So says the Manager, and so say I. "But hold," you say, "this self-complacent boast; Is this the Poem which the public lost? 40 "True-true-that lowers at once our mounting pride;" But lo;-the Papers print what you deride. "'Tis ours to look on you—you hold the prize," 'Tis twenty guineas, as they advertise ! "A double blessing your rewards impart "— I wish I had them, then, with all my heart. [First published, Morning Chronicle, October 23, 1812.] 50 VERSES FOUND IN A SUMMER-HOUSE AT HALES-OWEN.1 WHEN Dryden's fool, "unknowing what he sought," His hours in whistling spent, " for want of thought," 2 This guiltless oaf his vacancy of sense Supplied, and amply too, by innocence: Did modern swains, possessed of Cymon's powers, When vice and folly mark them as they pass. The filth they leave still points out where they crawl. [First published 1832, vol. xvii.] REMEMBER THEE! REMEMBER THEE!3 I. REMEMBER thee! remember thee! Till Lethe quench life's burning stream 1. [The Leasowes, the residence of the poet Shenstone, is near the village of Halesowen, in Shropshire.] 2. [See Dryden's Cymon and Iphigenia, lines 84, 85.] 3. The sequel of a temporary liaison formed by Lord Byron during his career in London, occasioned this impromptu. On the cessation of the connection, the fair one [Lady C. Lamb: see Letters, 1898, ii. 451] called one morning at her quondam lover's apartments. His Lordship was from home; but finding Vathek on the table, the lady wrote in the first page of the volume the words, "Remember me!" Byron immediately wrote under the ominous warning these two stanzas.-Conversations of Lord Byron, by Thomas Medwin, 1824, pp. 329, 330. In Medwin's work the euphemisms false and fiend are represented by asterisks.] Remorse and Shame shall cling to thee, 2. Remember thee! Aye, doubt it not. Thou false to him, thou fiend to me!1 [First published, Conversations of Lord Byron, 1824.] TO TIME. TIME! on whose arbitrary wing The varying hours must flag or fly, But drag or drive us on to die— For now I bear the weight alone. I would not one fond heart should share 1. ["To Bd., Feb. 22, 1813. "Remember thee,' nay-doubt it not Thy Husband too may 'think' of thee! Thou false to him-thou fiend to me! "Remember thee'? Yes-yes-till Fate From a MS. (in the possession of Mr. Hallam |