"On Myra's breast the opening rose shall blow, 66 Reflecting from her cheek a livelier bloom; "For Stella shall the bright carnation glow"Beneath her eyes' bright radiance meet its doom. "Smart pinks and daffodils shall Flavia grace, 66 66 Of elegance and love an emblem true." In gardens oft a beauteous flow'r there grows, In sweet security it humbly blows, And rears its purple head to deck the green. This flower, as nature's poet sweetly sings, Was once milk-white, and heart's-ease was its name; Till wanton Cupid pois'd his roseate wings, A vestal's sacred bosom to inflame. With treacherous aim the god his arrow drew, Heart's-ease no more the wandering shepherds found, "This flow'r, with sweet-brier join'd, shall thee adòrn, Sweet Jessie, fairest mid ten thousand fair! "But guard thy gentle bosom from the thorn, 66 Which, tho' conceal'd, the sweet-brier still must. bear. "And place not Love, tho' idle, in thy breast, "Tho' bright its hues, it boasts no other charm"So may thy future days be ever blest, "And friendship's calmer joys thy bosom warm!" But where does Laura pass her lonely hours? Does she still haunt the grot and willow-tree? Shall Silvio from his wreath of various flow'rs Neglect to cull one simple sweet for thee? "Ah Laura, no," the constant Silvio cries, 66 "For thee an ever-fading wreath I'll twine; Though bright the rose, its bloom too swiftly flies, "No emblem meet for love so true as mine. "For thee, my love, the myrtle, ever-green, 66 66 "Shall every year its blossom sweet disclose, Which, when our spring of youth no more is seen, "Shall still appear more lovely than the rose." Forgive, dear youth," the happy Laura said, "Forgive each doubt, each fondly anxious fear, "Which from my heart for ever now is fled— Thy love and truth, thus tried, are doubly dear. "With pain I mark'd the various passions rise, "When beauty so divine before thee mov'd; "With trembling doubt beheld thy wandering eyes, "For still I fear'd; alas! because I lov'd. -- 184 MEMOIRS OF R. B. SHERIDAN. "Each anxious doubt shall Laura now forego, “No more regret those joys so lately known, Conscious, that tho' thy breast to all may glow, 66 66 Thy faithful heart shall beat for her alone. "Then, Silvio, seize again thy tuneful lyre, 66 "Nor yet sweet Beauty's power forbear to praise; CHAPTER V. THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL. Mr. Sheridan was now approaching the summit of his dramatic fame ;-he had already produced the best opera in the language, and there now remained for him the glory of writing also the best comedy. As this species of composition seems, more perhaps than any other, to require that knowledge of human nature and the world which experience alone can give, it seems not a little extraordinary that nearly all our first-rate comedies should have been the productions of very young men. Those of Congreve were all written before he was five-and-twenty. Farquhar produced the Constant Couple in his two-andtwentieth year, and died at thirty. Vanbrugh was a young ensign when he sketched out the Relapse and the Provoked Wife; and Sheridan crowned his reputation with the School for Scandal at six-and-twenty. It is, perhaps, still more remarkable to find, as in the instance before us, that works which, at this period of life, we might suppose to have been the rapid offspring of a careless, but vigorous fancy,-anticipating the results of experience by a sort of second-sight inspiration,-should, on the contrary, have been the slow result of many and doubtful experiments, gradually unfolding beauties unforeseen even by him who produced them, and arriving at length, step by step, at perfection. That such was the tardy process by which the School for Scandal was produced, will appear from the first sketches of its plan and dialogue, which I am here enabled to lay before the reader, and which cannot fail to interest deeply all those who take delight in tracing the alchemy of genius, and in watching the first slow workings of the menstruum, out of which its finest transmutations arise. "Genius," says Buffon, "is Patience;" or (as another French writer has explained his thought) "La Patience cherche, et le Génie trouve;" and there is little doubt that to the co-operation of these two powers all the brightest inventions of this world are owing;--that Patience must first explore the depths where the pearl lies hid, before Genius boldly dives and brings it up full into light. There are, it is true, some striking exceptions to this rule; and our own times have witnessed more than one extraordinary intellect, whose depth has not prevented their treasures from lying ever ready within reach. But the records of Immortality furnish few such instances; and all we know of the works that she has hitherto marked with her seal, sufficiently au |