[120] This, and the ensuing and very superior poem, the Song of Zillia,
are from the under-written prose translations, of strains, sung by
dancing nymphs in Persia, at the Grand Vizier’s feast, at which a
gentleman was present, who made these prose translations.
SONG OF ROXANA,
A NAME SIGNIFYING SPLENDOUR.
I.
“When, O my beloved Lord, will thou return? My heart’s idol, my soul’s
treasure! when wilt thou return to bless the eyes of thy Roxana?--In
vain do I look for thee--my eye-lids ache in watching for thy approach.
II.
“The sofa for my beloved is dressed with garlands of jessamine. I have
strewed it with the beauties of my garden, and perfumed it with the oil
of roses.
III.
“My chamber is scented with the rich essence of the Latura. Hasten
then, my beloved!--every thing is prepared for thy reception. Gladden
the heart of thine handmaid by thy presence, thou first of her joys,
chief happiness of her soul!”
[121]
THE SONG OF ZILLIA.
“O! thou lamp of my life, my first, my only love, in vain do I now
call upon thee. Thou art afar off, and hearest not the voice of thy
Zillia,--once the most favoured of thy Seraglio.
“Shawls of Cassimir, and robes of Irva, were presents from my
Lord--such gay attire has no charms for Zillia--They cannot make her
happier.
“Thy palaces, thy baths, and thy gardens, afford me no pleasure--Take
them back--they no longer delight me.
“The mango and pomegranate tempt me in vain--for the fragrance of
flowers, and odours of spices, or the songs of minstrels, I have no
relish.
“But return, O my Lord, to thine handmaid!--come back to her
arms!--restore to her thy heart, and every pleasure will be
renewed--she will be the happiest of women.
[122] “Thou hearest the song of the nightingale, that the vernal season
approaches. Spring has spread a bower of joy in every grove, and the
almond sheds her silver blossoms. Be cheerful, be full of mirth, for
the spring passeth away, it will not last.
“The groves and hills are covered with all sort of flowers. A pavilion
of roses, the seat of Pleasure, is raised in the garden. Who knows
which of us shall be alive when the season ends? Be cheerful, be full
of mirth, for the spring passeth away, it will not last.
“The edge of the bower is filled with the light of Ahmed. Amongst the
plants, the fortunate tulips represent their companion. Come, O people
of Mahomed, this is the season of merriment! Be cheerful, &c.
“Again the dew glitters on the leaves of the lily, like the water of
a bright scymitar. The dew drops fall through the air on gardens of
roses--Listen to me--listen to me, if thou desirest to be delighted! Be
cheerful, &c.
“The roses and lilies are like the cheeks of beautiful maids, in whose
ears pearls hang, like drops of dew. Deceive not thyself with thinking
that these charms will have a long duration. Be cheerful, &c.
“Tulips, roses, and anemonies appear in the garden. The showers and
sun-beams, like sharp lancets, tinge the banks with the colour of
blood. Spend the day agreeably with thy friend!
“The time is past when the plants were sick, and the rose-pbud hung its
drooping head on its bosom. The season is come, in which the rocks and
mountains are covered with tulips. Be cheerful, &c.
“Each morning the clouds shed gems over the rose-garden. The breath of
the gales is full of Tartarian musk--Be not neglectful of thy duty,
through too great love of the world!
“The sweetness of the bowers have made the air so fragrant, that the
dew is changed into rose-water. The sky spreads a pavilion of bright
clouds over the garden. Be cheerful, &c.
“Whoever thou art, know, that the black gusts of the Autumn had seized
the garden--but the king of the world appears, dispensing pleasure to
all. In his reign the happy cup-bearer desired, and obtains the flowing
wine. Be cheerful, &c.
“By these strains I hope to celebrate this delightful valley. May they
be a memorial to its inhabitants, and remind them of this assembly,
and of those fair maids. Be cheerful, be full of mirth, for the spring
passeth away, it will not last.”
[123] l. 3. _Like spears_--This simile, in the original, of the
sun-beams darting through the rains, and tinging the wet banks with
the colour of blood, to _sharp lancets_; and the preceding one, of dew
upon lilies, to the watry lustre of polished steel, are each peculiarly
in the spirit of the oriental poets, whose comparisons are bold and
sublime, but rather broad and general, than answering at all points;
yet not the less beautiful for such want of precision. Surprise,
to find these two characteristic similes omitted in Sir W. Jones’
versification of this ode, induced the author of these poems to give
the above translation.
[124] Fontenelle observes that Daphne fled from Apollo lest he should
give her physic--The author formed her bagatelle upon that hint.
[125] Mr Hayley had heard that Mr Boothby (since, Sir Brooke Boothby)
was in possession of such morceaus, and applied to him on the subject.
The above lines were written extempore after supper, by Sir Brooke, and
the author of this Miscellany, about the year 1784.
[126] l. 11. _Immers’d in low latin_--Sir Brooke Boothby, then Mr
Boothby, had been recently engaged in translating Linnæus, whose herbal
titles are often promiscuously taken from the generally harsh names of
the Continental professors.
[127] l. 17. _Hedwigia_, &c.--Plants called after Dutch and German
botanists.
[128] l. 1. _His cares_--Alluding to his benevolent efforts in the
senate, for the better regulation of the Poor’s laws.
[129] l. 11. _High on its brow_--The accidental fall of part of a rock,
in one of the Colton glens, anticipated Mr Gilbert’s design of dividing
the straight channel of a stream, which fell down the declivity, by
throwing into it stony fragments.
[130] l. 7. _Umber’d flames_--“Each battle sees the other’s _umber’d_
face.”--SHAKESPEAR.
[131] l. 19. _Fam’d Triumvirate_--Messrs. Bolton, Watt, and Kier.
[132] l. 21. _Rapt Sage_--Doctor Priestley, then residing at
Birmingham, and the event wholly unforeseen, which drove him thence in
the year 1791, with so much loss of property, and induced him to quit
his native country. It is to be regretted that he drew upon himself the
hatred of the hierarchy, and the fury of the populace, by quitting his
philosophic studies for the thorny paths of schismatic controversy, and
republican politics.
[133] l. 15. _Dusky sister_--Wolverhampton has the greatest part of her
iron from Ketley, a dreary and barren wold in her vicinity.
[134] l. 18. _Arid moor_--The East-moor, near Sheffield, which is
dreary, though the rest of the country surrounding that town, is very
fine.
[135] l. 7. _Fair-hair’d Naiades_--In Milton’s Comus we find the plural
of Naiad made three syllables, thus
“Amid the flowery kirtled Naiades.”
And the old pastoral poet, Browne, so pluralizes the word Nereid, thus
“Call to a dance the fair Nereides.”
[136] William Newton’s father was a carpenter in the Peak of
Derbyshire, with a large family. He was too ignorant to give his son
any literary advantages, and too indigent to procure them for him. A
dame-school, where a little writing was taught, formed the boundary of
our minstrel’s education. He worked at his father’s trade, and early
became so ingenious, skilful, and industrious, as to be employed by a
few families of consequence in the neighbourhood. On those occasions,
it has been said, he used to examine books, accidentally left in
the apartments where he worked. They awakened into sensibility and
expansion the internal fires of his spirit. Every species of fine
writing engaged his attention, but poetry enchanted him. From that
period all the earning of his mechanic industry, which he could
prudently spare, were expended in purchasing books.
Mr Cunninghame, an ingenious and lettered clergyman in the Peak,
accidentally discovered this flower of the desert. A reserved
disposition, modest and unobtrusive, had over his talents cast a veil,
which few had capacity to pierce. Newton was employed, not only to
execute, but to construct machines for the Derbyshire cotton-mills, and
he had been previously retained as one of the master-workmen in the
Duke of Devonshire’s splendid buildings at Buxton. Early in life he
married a woman of his own rank, and is known to be a kind husband, a
tender father, and, in all respects, a worthy man.
When the author was with her father at his living in the Peak, in the
summer 1783, Mr Cunninghame told her, that Newton had a considerable
number of well-chosen books, religious, philosophic, historic, and
poetic. It was then that Mr C----, first introduced him to her, as the
minstrel of her native mountains. Mr Newton is not ill looking, but
has nothing in his appearance beyond the decent and the clean, till
conversation on ingenious subjects lights up his countenance. When the
first embarrassments were past, which arose from a modest consciousness
that he had not the manners of polished life, he conversed, though
in the accent of his country, on various themes, with perspicuity
and taste, and in perfectly good language; upon the books he had
read, the striking scenery of the few countries he had seen, and the
nature of his own destiny, perceptions, and acquirements. The ease and
elegance of his epistolary style are most extraordinary, his birth and
uneducated youth considered.--The following are extracts from a letter
of thanks, which the author received from him on being presented with
the compositions she had sent into the world.
“All that your pensive, your lonely friend can return for this
unmerited kindness, are the warm effusions of a grateful heart. My walk
along the vale of life, has not been through a wilderness of sweets.
Your having scattered in my path flowers of so agreeable an odour,
culled from the bowers of the muses, will lighten, in many an irksome
hour, the weight of manual labour. Since I received this testimony of
your regard, hope and joy have aided the hands of the mechanic. Sublime
and beautiful objects, which I used to view with melancholy languor,
have now acquired the most animating charms in my sight. As a warm
sun-beam dispels the heavy dews, and raises the head of the drooping
field-flower, so has your kind attention dispersed the clouds, which
were cast about me by adverse fortune. I have lately added to my little
collection of poetry, the works of that sublime bard, and learned and
ingenious critic, Mr Hayley; and I now live in the midst of charming
Monsaldale, whose graces you have so faithfully described in the poem,
which you have been so good to address to me. Last week Mr Cunninghame
found me in this lovely valley, surrounded by wheels, springs, and
other mechanical implements. To his imagination they appeared as the
effect of magic, and he called me Prospero.”
To have found, in the compositions of a laborious villager, some bright
sparks of native genius, amid the dross of prosaic vulgarity, had been
pleasing, though perhaps not wonderful; but the elegance and harmony
of Newton’s writings, both in prose and verse, are miraculous, when
it is remembered that till Mr Cunninghame distinguished him, he had
associated only with the unlettered vulgar.
Monsaldale is the loveliest of the Derbyshire vallies. If its features
are less sublime than those of Dovedale, they are more soft and
smiling, and not less picturesque. Strange that Monsaldale should
seldom be included in the chart traced out for the curious, who mean to
explore the wonders, and the beauties of Derbyshire!
The following stanzas are extracted from a poem, written by Newton,
and addressed to the author of this miscellany. They were composed
during the dangerous walk, which his business obliged him to take
through the severe winter 1785, between the little town of Tideswell,
where his family resided, and Monsaldale, where he was employed in the
cotton-mills. He took this walk every morning, before the day broke,
and every evening after it had closed, over the bleak and mountainous
tracts of Tideswell Moor, always covered with snow when the winters are
rigid.
“Scarce through the sod my cot aspires,
“Scarce shelter’d from the weltering storm,
“Yet here the muses ring their lyres,
“When pealing rains the night deform.
“Far from that cot, each social friend,
“And every dear, domestic tie,
“My pensive hours I’m doom’d to spend,
“And oft to heave the bitter sigh.
“For me pale Slander taints the gale,
“Suspicion spreads her murky snares,
“Disease’s dreaded shaft assails,
“And her dark chalice Hate prepares.
“Lurking beneath a fair disguise,
“Her zone with daggers planted round,
“Ingratitude, with changing eyes,
“Strives Sensibility to wound.
“Ye Sister Nine, again inspire
“The joys my better moments knew,
“When fairy Hope, and young Desire,
“On light wing, round my temples flew.
“Yet here, on Tideswell’s wintry moor,
“While drifted snows my steps ensnare,
“And through the night the tempests roar,
“And fiercely whirl my frozen hair;
“As, straggling, towards my home I wend,
“Sweet fancy cheers the dreary way,
“On my chill’d heart her fires descend,
“Bright as the star that leads the day;
“And, basking in her cordial beams,
“The foster’d JULIA’S form appears;
“The Goddess deck’d her tuneful themes,
“Soft warbling through revolving years.
“Me Julia’s friendship cheers each morn;
“Truth whispers it shall ever last;
“Then let me present evils scorn,
“And bravely triumph o’er the past!”
[137] l. 6. _Long-known_--Near the author’s native village, Eyam, in
Derbyshire.
[138] l. 4. _Ash-trees gay_--The red and varied leaf of the
mountain-ash justifies the epithet _gay_.
[139] l. 9. _Charming Harriet_--Mrs Granville.
[140] l. 15. _Dewes_--Court Dewes, Esq. of Wellsburn, in Warwickshire,
since deceased.
[141] That gentleman is since deceased. Meantime his second son has
given to the public prints repeated proofs of very fine poetic talents.
[142] l. 10. _Nameless thing_--Every month teems with strictures on
poetry, that display the kindred talents and kindred temper of many of
our modern reviewers to those critics, who, in the days of Dryden and
Pope, denied them genius, learning, every thing which distinguishes the
poet from the mere versifier.
[143] l. 7. _Learn’d and lucky pair_--Dr. Green, and Dr. Newton,
afterwards Bishops of Lincoln and Lichfield. They passed many of their
youthful years in Lichfield, of which Bishop Newton was a native, and
in which Bishop Green was usher to the maternal grandfather of the
author of these poems, the Rev. John Hunter; whose school was of high
reputation, and from whom David Garrick, and Samuel Johnson, received
their classic education. At that period Dr. Green, and Dr. Newton, were
rivals in their attachment to the late Mrs Seward, the author’s mother,
and then Miss Hunter, whose beauty was the theme of their muse.
[144] l. 4. _Ingenuous Vyse_--The late Rev. Arch-deacon Vyse, Canon
of Lichfield. Epigrams, and gay ballads, of exquisite spirit, flowed
extempore from his lips, but he declined publishing them.
[145] l. 10. _On thy lyre_--Mr Shaw, the Historian of Staffordshire,
inserted, with the author’s consent, this poem in his work, p. 348.
Beneath the lines on Dr Davies, he gives a note of reference to p.
290 of his history--but his information there, on the subject of that
gentleman’s poetic works, is not accurate. Thus--“He was the author
of Verses on Camden’s Picture, and of those to Bishop Cornwallis,
in Dosdley’s Miscellany. He was about to publish his poems, but was
dissuaded from it.” In the fifth volume of Dodsley’s miscellany, will
be found, by Dr. Sneyd Davies, Canon of Lichfield, “Vacuna.” “On John
Whalley Arranging Pamphlets.” A classic and exquisite little Poem,
entitled, “Epithalamium on the Marriage of Mr Dodd and Miss St. Lege.”
“Verses on Two Friends, Mr Dodd and Mr Horace Walpole born the same
day.” Nothing can be happier than the thoughts in that panygeric,
justly characterising two very eminent, and very opposite, yet united
spirits. So far from being dissuaded from publishing his poetry, he
did publish it, in a now rare, as valuable collection of poems, given
to the public about the year 1744, by his friend the before-mentioned
Mr Whalley, Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, and who was himself,
as that volume evinces, an ingenious poet. It was dedicated to Horace
Walpole. Its pages from 175 to 264, glow with the emanations of Dr
Davies’ genius. The verses on seeing Archbishop Williams’ Monument
[146] l. 1. _Source of my life_--Rev. Thomas Seward, Canon of
Lichfield. In conjunction with Mr Simpson, he published in 1751, an
approved Edition of Beaumont and Fletcher’s Plays, with critical notes
of much ingenuity. The excellent preface was intirely his. His Female
Right to Literature, published in the 2d volume of the first edition of
Dodsley’s Miscellany, has been much and justly celebrated. That same
volume, p. 302, contains Mr Seward’s Verses on Shakespear’s monument at
Stratford-upon-Avon. They do not yield, either in spirit, or beauty, to
any panygeric on that great poet, which has been given by our noblest
Bards. In the subsequent editions of that Miscellany, there is an idiot
alteration in that poem, made by some man, who thought a completer
rhyme a good atonement for grossly injuring the sense--
“Nor yet unrival’d the Meonian strain,
“The British Eagle, and the Mantuan Swan
“Tower equal heights--but happier Stratford thou, &c.”
The editor chose to print Swan Swain, at the expense of all consistency
in the metaphor. in Caernarvonshire, are tender, solemn, impressive,
and interesting. So is the poem to C. P. It contains the following
lines, which speak for themselves.
“---- At this spot, this point,
“Here, Pitt,[A] we social meet, and gaze around,
“And look back to the scenes our pastimes trod
“In life’s fresh morning, when the gamesome hours
“Had sliding feet, and laugh’d themselves away.
“Luxurious season! vital prime! where Thames
“Flows by Etona’s walls, and cheerful sees
“Her sons wide swarming;--and where sedgy Cam
“Bathes with slow lapse his academic grove;
“Pierian walks!--O never, never hope,
“Impossible, untenable, to grasp
“Those joys again, to feel alike the pulse
“Dancing, and fiery spirits boiling high;
“Or see the pleasure, that with careless wing
“Swept on, and flowery garlands toss’d around,
“Disporting. Try to call her back;--as soon
“Bid yesterday return, arrest the flight
“Of time; or musing on the river’s brink
“Say to the wave, that huddles swiftly by
“For ever;--“from thy fountain roll anew!”
CENTER
The late Lord Chatham.
[147] l. 20. _Intellectual rays_--Mr Seward’s life was preserved by
the skill and attention of Dr. Jones, of Lichfield, more than three
years after the composition of the above poem. Mr Seward resided in the
Bishop’s palace at Lichfield, the last 32 years of his life, as did
his predecessor, Mr Walmsley, the learned, and liberal patron of David
Garrick, and Samuel Johnson.
[148] l. 10. _Virtuous Day_--Thomas Day, Esq. since deceased, Author
of the Dying Negro, which has, by misinformation, been given in one of
the public prints of the year 1800, to his friend, Mr Bicknel, also
deceased. It is a noble composition, and the first poem that called the
attention of this nation to the miseries inflicted on that abused race.
Mr Day’s Sandford and Merton is a very popular work on education. The
philosophic Mr Keir, published a Life of that Gentleman, ingeniously
written, but with too indiscriminate eulogy. Mr Day’s mind was rather
great than amiable; his virtues were of a stern complexion. He resided
in Lichfield during the years 1771 and 1772, and was living when the
above poem was written.
[149] l. 14. _Elliot’s happy strain_--F. P. Elliot, Esq. then of
Shenston-Moss, near Lichfield.
[150] l. 19. _Boothby claims_--Brooke Boothby, Esq. since Sir Brooke
Boothby, and then of Lichfield.
[151] l. 8. _Darwin won_--Dr Darwin, Author of the Botanic Garden,
Zoonomia, &c. He was an inhabitant of Lichfield, from the year 1757 to
1781.
[152] l. 17. _Yet Grove_--William Grove, Esq. then living, but since,
alas! deceased. The richness of his poetic vein may be observed in his
Sonnet to the Author of these Volumes. It is amongst the complimentary
poems addressed to her, and prefixed to her miscellany.
[153] l. 21. _Two wond’rous Youths_--Mr Henry Cary, and Mr Thomas
Lister, who each, at the age of fifteen, published verses of much
beauty and classic elegance.
[154] l. 1. _Savoy mountains_--This poem is intended as a poetical
mirror to the striking pictures of Alpine scenery, which Mr Whalley’s
letters from the Continent presented to the author.
[155] l. 5. _Lov’d Chatilion’s home_--Baron de Chatilion, a young
Savoyard nobleman, whom Mr Whalley met at Dijon, and on whose account
he and Mrs Whalley passed the winter at Chambéry, the capitol of Savoy,
situated amidst some of the highest Alps. It is the winter residence of
the Chatilion family.
[156] l. 18. _Sable grain_--The black grain, which, sowed in patches
amidst the corn-fields of Savoy, produces a landscape singularly
shaded, and new to an English eye.
[157] l. 15. _Montmelion shines_--The fortress on the rock, Montmelion,
was the last that yielded to Lewis the Fourteenth, when he conquered
Savoy. This rock stands single in the centre of the vale, wholly
unconnected with the surrounding Alps.
[158] l. 6. _Silver lake_--So it was then with that country--alas, the
change!
[159] l. 1. _Kingly sway_--The author has since been convinced by
the fatal Revolution in France, that a limited monarchy, with its
subordinate ranks, is the best form of government for a great nation
like that country, or Britain.
[160] l. 2. _Bourgian Lake_--A beautiful lake in the province of
Bourgia. The ancient castle of the Chatilion family stands upon it,
but in too ruinous a state to be their general habitation. Mr Whalley,
on his tour through that province with the Baron, passed a very
tempestuous night in that shattered castle.
[161] l. 14. _Sister’s tomb_--Mr Whalley lost his beloved sister, the
lovely and excellent Mrs Sage, two years before he left England.
[162] l. 14. _Lone Valclusa_--The celebrated valley near Avignon. The
laurels which Petrarch had so lavishly planted there, in allusion to
the name of his mistress, are no longer to be found. Olives are now the
only trees in the stony, rocky, and barren precincts near the Fountain.
[163] l. 19. _Proud Sommane_--The Chateau de Sommane. It stands on the
right-hand side of the valley, and was once the habitation of Laura.
It still belongs to her direct descendants, and was lately inhabited
by the learned and ingenious Abbé de Sade, who, some years since,
published the voluminous history of Petrarch and Laura, the Abbé’s
ancestress. From this work Mrs Dobson formed her valuable abridgement.
[164] l. 1. _Matron excellence_--The Baroness de Chatilion.
[165] l. 20. _Fatal price_--The young women of France and Savoy are
educated in monasteries, nor, in general, mix at all with the world
till they are removed from their gloomy and wearisome exclusion, to be
married to the husband appointed for them.
[166] l. 10. _Twice-bless’d angel_--Shakespeare beautifully says of
Mercy:
“------------ it is twice-blessed,
“It blesses him that gives, and him that takes.”
[167] l. 9. _Royal William’s sword_--Duke of Cumberland.