ADVERTISEMENT. I Trust Lord BYRON will excuse me for having made somewhat free with the singular Motto to his book. It is, "I will play at BowLS with "the SUN and the Moon."-Old Song! A " certain Family" had been spoken of, in the Quarterly Review, as "ringing changes on NATURE for two "thousand years!" The Critic who professed such ignorance and disdain of external nature, was doubtless sincere! By a somewhat ludicrous coincidence, it happens that the "arms" of this "family," spoken of with such contempt, are, literally, a sun and moon," a Sun, OR, and Moon, ARGENT, secundùm ARTEM. 66 It is, therefore, with this SUN and MOON in Heraldry that Lord BYRON, I have no doubt, plays at " BowLS!" Not with the SUN and MOON in Nature!! In return, I have only ventured to take, as an inscription to my shield, his Lordship's motto, with a trifling alteration: He that plays at "BowLS" (with the " SUN and MOON") Which is only an old "proverb," for part of an OLD SONG! As for any alteration in his heraldic motto, I should not dare to say, NE CREDE BYRON; but, I think, in this game, I shall take from his Lordship's arms the "SUPPORTERS;" though I do not wish to touch a feather of the GRACEFUL and GLITTERING CREST OF HIS HIGH POETICAL CHARACTER. With respect to the other motto I have adopted, "NATURE must give way to ART!!" it is taken, as most readers must know, from a certain Song by POPE, which has been generally conceived to have been written by POPE in banter and ridicule of the person whose name it bears, a Person of Quality! It is now, I think, put beyond a doubt, that Gilbert WAKEFIELD was right, and the song was written by POPE seriously! The first stanza, therefore, I shall give the reader : Song, by a PERSON OF QUALITY. "Fluttering spread your purple pinions, "Gentle CUPID, o'er my heart; "I, a slave in thy dominions! "NATURE MUST give way to ART!" It would be important for the reader to keep in mind one plain distinction, in reading what is here offered. Whatever is picturesque is so far poetical; but all that is "poetical" does not require to be "pictu"resque." Lord BYRON would never have said, "What painter does not break the sea with a boat," &c. if he had remembered this distinction. |