Alive, the foe thy dreadful vigour fled, And saw thee fall with joy-pronouncing eyes; Yet they shall know thou conquerest, though dead-Since from thy tomb a thousand heroes rise! AN ELEGY ON THAT GLORY OF HER SEX, MRS. MARY BLAIZE.1 GOOD people all, with one accord, Who never wanted a good word— The needy seldom pass'd her door, Who left a pledge behind. From The bee, 1759. No. 4. Anonymous.-The verses were reprinted, with the name of the author, in the Companion for a leisure hour, 1769.—The admirable Elegy of Gray, first published in 1751, gave rise to a mass of inferior imitations; and it seems to have been the design of Goldsmith, in his various burlesque elegies, to satirize this fashionable species of sentimentalism. He chose as his model Le fameux La Galisse-a noted French song of fifty stanzas, each of which ends with a ludicrous truism. La Monnoye, who sometimes exercised his critical powers with more than just severity, printed this song in 1715 as an illustration of the style niais! TAYLER 184 She strove the neighbourhood to please, Unless when she was sinning. At church, in silks and satins new, With hoop of monstrous size, She never slumber'd in her pewBut when she shut her eyes. Her love was sought, I do aver, The king himself has follow'd her- But now her wealth and finery fled, The doctors found, when she was dead Her last disorder mortal. Let us lament, in sorrow sore, For Kent-street well may say, That, had she liv'd a twelvemonth moreShe had not died to-day. DESCRIPTION OF AN AUTHOR'S BEDCHAMBER.1 WHERE the Red-lion, flaring o'er the way, Invites each passing stranger that can pay— 1 From The citizen of the world, 1762.-The Chinese philosopher, the character which Goldsmith assumes, is introduced to a club of authors at The broom, near Islington. He finds them in loud debate. A "poet, in shabby finery, holding a manuscript in his hand, is earnestly endeavouring to persuade the company to hear him read the first book of an heroic poem, which he had composed the day before." The other members warmly object. The rules of the club are therefore read; and the poet, after paying the established fine, recites as above-but becomes so much elated that he is "unable to proceed."-Line 3. Calvert=Calvert and Seward, of White-crossstreet. Parsons= lady Parsons, now Hoare and Co. Line 7. A window etc. Our author had projected an heroicomic poem, and has preserved the memory of his hero in these six couplets. Line 14. prince William-William-Augustus, duke of Cumberland; of whom there are numerous engraved portraits. Ob. 1765. |