The Advantages of Music. her faded charms; the splendid spectacle of the Opera boxes, and the glittering birth-day drawing-room were shut out for ever! She might be told, that she was the best and most tastefully attired lady there; she might be deceived. The rouge could not possibly be so delicately shaded on her cheek, as she herself had been used to dispose it; her chevelure might be placed awry; the malicious might laugh at it, and how could she remedy the cause of their ridicule ? She found she must endeavour to search for some pleasures of the mind, where the eye seeks not the gratification of splendour and show: first, she diligently applied herself to her music; it proved to her a source of never-failing comfort; and she always played well, but now better than ever; her ear became more sensibly alive to the nice and correct magic of sounds, and the heaven-created science harmonized her mind yet she could not A Spark of expiring Vanity. entirely forget, that once, when seated at her harp, the star and ribbon-decked flatterers have styled her a Cecilia and a Muse; she sometimes fancied too, that as she played so much better than she did at that time, she would, as blind, be now more interesting: but these were only the remaining dying sparks of vanity, which yet did not kindle into the flame, that could consume the solid virtue which was gaining strength each day in her mind; and which, like the metal, gold, mocks all the efforts of destroying fire. 66 Charlotte, my love," said she, one evening," read to me some of those sweet verses you found last week among the extracts you had collected: I mean to desire Kelly, my favourite composer, to set a few stanzas of them to music." Lady Charlotte complied with the request of her mother; and some of those verses, though they may have been seen before by the public eye, we cannot for Sentimental Poetry. bear giving them a place here; as many of our readers may not have perused them to every reader they must be acceptable and pleasing; as they mark, so well, the delicacy and feeling of the noble writer. The lines specified by inverted commas are those the Duchess of Pyrmont gave orders to be set to music. The Appeal of a deserted Wife to her Husband. "Ah! good my Lord, what is the dire pretence, "That draws your high displeasure on my head? "Witness this heart, unconscious of offence, "Witness the blameless life I still have led. A mother's love, a father's shelt'ring dome, In Albion hop'd to find another home, My fond heart whisper'd, as I cross'd the main, Go, in a tender husband's bosom reign, And taste the raptures of his country's love! Sentimental Poetry. "Since first we met, I watch'd your ev'ry look, "My dearest hopes, your heart's fond love to share; "Each wish, each motion, from your eye I took, "Liv'd on your smiles, and griev'd in all your care. I challenge all the spite of sland'rous tongues; Why cast me off?-What is the cruel plea? Ah! Heav'n forgive the cause of all my wrongs, The artful fair, that steals your heart from me! If aught you heed the voice of future time, Say, will it shew the brave, the manly part, To wound that breast, whose weakness is its crime, And urge your triumph o'er a broken heart? I to a gen'rous public leave my cause; Be mine the task, and suffer and to die! "Alas! you heed me not, you shun my sight! "Vain are my plaints, no more this face can charm! "Yet once my soft endearments could delight, "Yet on my lips your vows of faith are warm!” By that true faith you at the altar swore, "By all the mem'ry of endearments past, "Yet ONE APPEAL remains!-one trial more,"And trust me, that APPEAL shall be my last! The last Appeal. "Look on that smiling babe, first pledge of love; "Her bosom has not learnt, like mine, to bleed; "Yet more her helpless innocence may move, "Her speechless eloquence may better plead." After the Duchess had heard the above lines, with an emotion of virtuous tenderness for the suffering writer, and a regret, not unaccompanied with indignation, that one really alive to feminine merit should be yet blind to such intrinsic worth, she asked her daughter if she had any thing new to read to her! "Nothing very new," replied Lady Charlotte, "but amongst other papers, I found some sketches of characters penned by Philip; which, if you please, I will now give your Grace" and she did, nearly in the following manner. |