The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore

Ah, never be false to me, fair as thou art,
Nor belie all the many kind things thou hast said;
The falsehood of other nymphs touches the Heart,
But THY fibbing, my dear, plays the dev'l with the
Head!

Yet, who would not prize, beyond honours and pelf,
A maid to whom Beauty such treasures has granted,
That, ah! she not only has black eyes herself,
But can furnish a friend with a pair, too, if wanted!
Lord ST-W-RT's a hero (as many suppose,)

And the Lady he woos is a rich and a rare one; His heart is in Chancery, every one knows,

And so would his head be, if thou wert his fair one.

Sweet Maid of the Fancy! when love first came o'er me,

I felt rather queerish, I freely confess; But now I've thy beauties each moment before me, The pleasure grows more, and the queerishness less. Thus a new set of darbies,' when first they are worn, Makes the Jail-bird uneasy, though splendid their ray;

But the links will lie lighter the longer they're borne, And the comfort increase, as the shine fades away!

I had hoped that it would have been in my power to gratify the reader with several of Mr. GREGSON'S lyrical productions, but I have only been able to procure copies of Two Songs, or Chaunts, which were written by him for a Masquerade, or Fancy Ball, given lately at one of the most Fashionable Cock-andHen clubs in St. Giles's. Though most of the company were without characters, there were a few very lively and interesting maskers; among whom, we particularly noticed BILL RICHMOND, as the Emperor of Hayti, attended by SUTTON, as a sort of black Mr. V-NS-T-T; and IKEY PIG made an excellent L-s D-XH-T. The beautiful Mrs. CROCKEY, who keeps the Great Rag Shop in Bermondsey, went as the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street. She was observed to flirt a good deal with the black Mr. V-NS-T-T, but, to do her justice, she guarded her "Hesperidum mala" with all the vigilance of a dragoness. JACK HOLMES,' the pugilistic Coachman, personated Lord C-ST-R-GH, and sang in admirable style

Ya-hip, my Hearties! here am I That drive the Constitution Fly. This Sorg (which was written for him by Mr.

GREGSON, and in which the language and sentiments of Coachee are transferred so ingeniously to the Noble person represented) is as follows:

YA-HIP, MY HEARTIES!

Sung by JACK HOLMES, the Coachman, at a late Masquerade in St. Giles's, in the character of Lo d C-ST—R—GH•

I FIRST was hired to peg a Hack'
They call "The Erin," sometime back,
Where soon I learn'd to patter flash,'
To curb the tits and tip the lash-
Which pleased the Master of THE CROWN
So much, he had me up to town,
And gave me lots of quids1 a year
To tool "The Constitution" here,

So, ya-hip, Hearties! here am I
That drive the Constitution Fly.

Some wonder how the Fly holds out,
So rotten 't is, within, without;
So loaded too, through thick and thin,
And with such heavy creturs IN.
But Lord, 't will 'ast our time-or if
The wheels should, now and then, get stiff,
Oil of Palm's the thing that, flowing,
Sets the naves and felloes' going!

So, ya-hip, Hearties! etc.

Some wonder, too, the tits that pull
This rum concern along, so full,
Should never back or bolt, or kick
The load and driver to Old Nick.
But, never fear-the breed, though British,
Is now no longer game or skittish;
Except sometimes about their corn,
Tamer Houyhnhnms ne'er were born.
So, ya-hip, Hearties! etc.

And then so sociably we ride!-
While some have places, snug, inside,
Some hoping to be there anon,
Through many a dirty road hang on.
And when we reach a filthy spot
(Plenty of which there are, God wot,)
You'd laugh to see, with what an air
We take the spatter-each his share!
So, ya-hip, Hearties! etc.

1 To drive a hackney coach. Hack, however, seems in this place to mean an old broken down stage-coach. 2 To talk slang, parliamentary or otherwise. 3 Horses. 4 Money.

5 A process carried on successfully under the Roman Emperors, as appears from what Tacitus says of the "Instrumenta Regni.""-To tool is a technical phrase among the Knights of the Whip; thus, that illustrious member of the Society, Richard Cypher, Esq. says: "I've dash'd at every thing-pegged at a jerry-tool'd a mail coach." 6 Money.

7 In Mr. Gregson's MS. these words are spelled "knaves and fellows," but I have printed them according to the proper wheelright orthography."

8 The extent of Mr. Gregson's learning will, no doubt, astonish the reader; and it appears by the following lines, from a Panegyric written upon him, by One of the Fancy, that he is also a considerable adept in the Latin language "As to sciences-Boв knows a little of all, And, in Latin, to show that he's no ignoramus, He wrote once an Ode on his friend, Major Paul, And the motto was Paulo majora cauamus ""

Dat's to purify every ting nashty avay?
Pless ma heart, pless ma heart, let ma say vat I vill,
Not a Chrishtian or Shentleman minds vat I say!

The other song of Mr. Gregson, which I have been | And pring avay all de long speeches at vonce, lucky enough to lav hold of, was sung by Old Dat else vould, like tape-vorms, come by degrees! Prosy, the Jew, who went in the character of Major Vill nobodies try my nice Annual Pill, C-RTW-GHT, and who having been, at one time of his life, apprentice to a mountebank doctor, was able to enumerate, with much volubility, the virtues of a certain infallible nostrum, which he called his ANNUAL PILL. The pronunciation of the Jew added considerably to the effect.

THE ANNUAL PILL.

Sung by OLD PROSY, the Jew, in the Character of Major
C-RTW-GHT.

VILL nobodies try my nice Annual Pill,

Dat's to purify every ting nashty avay?
Pless ma heart, pless ma heart, let ma say vat I vill,
Not a Chrishtian or Shentleman minds vat I say!
"T is so pretty a bolus!—just down let it go,

And at vonce, such a radical shange you vill see,
Dat I'd not be surprish'd, like de horse in de show,
If our heads all were found, vere our tailsh ought
to be!

Vill nobodies try my nice Annual Pill, etc.

"Twill cure all Electors, and purge avay clear

Dat mighty bad itching dey've got in deir hands"T will cure, too, all Statesmen, of dullness, ma tear, Though the case vas as desperate as poor Mister

VAN'S.

Dere is noting at all vat dis Pil! vill not reach-
Give de Sinecure Shentleman von little grain,
Pless ma heart, it vill act like de salt on de leech,
And he'll throw de pounds, shillings, and pence, up
again!

Vill nobodies try my nice Annual Pill, etc.

'T would be tedious, ma tear, all its peauties to paint-
But, among oder tings fundamentally wrong,
It vill cure de Proad Pottom--a common complaint
Among M. P's. and weavers-from sitting too
long.2

Should symptoms of speeching preak out on a dunce,
(Vat is often de case) it vill stop de disease,

1 Meaning, I presume, Coalition Administrations. 2 Whether sedentary habits have any thing to do with this peculiar shape, I cannot determine; but that some have supposed a sort of connexion between them, appears from the following remark, quoted in Kornmann's curious book, de Virginitatis Jure-"Ratio perquam lepida est apud Kirchner. in Legato, cum natura illas partes, quæ ad sessionem sunt destinate, latiores in fæminis fecerit quam in viris, innuens domi eas manere debere." Cap. 40.

No. V.

The following poem is also from the Morning Chronicle, and has every appearance of being by the same pen as the two others I have quoted. The Examiner, indeed, in extracting i from the Chronicle, says, "we think we can guess whose easy and sparkling hand it is."

TO SIR HUDSON LOWE.

Effare causam nominis,

Utrum ne mores hoc tui
Nomen dedere, an nomen hoc
Secuta morum regula.

Ausonius.

SIR Hudson Lowe, Sir Hudson Low
(By name, and ah! by nature so,)

As thou art fond of persecutions,
Perhaps thou'st read, or heard repeated,
How Captain Gulliver was treated,

When thrown among the Lilliputians.
They tied him down-these little men did-
And having valiantly ascended

Upon the Mighty Man's protuberance,
They did so strut!-upon my soul,
It must have been extremely droll

To see their pigmy pride's exuberance!

And how the doughty mannikins
Amused themselves with sticking pins
And needles in the great man's breeches;
And how some very little things,
That pass'd for Lords, on scaffoldings

Got up and worried him with speeches.
Alas, alas! that it should happen
To mighty men to be caught napping!-

Though different, too, these persecutions;
For Gulliver, there, took the nap,
While, here, the Nap, oh sad mishap,
Is taken by the Lilliputians!

RHYMES ON THE ROAD,

EXTRACTED FROM THE JOURNAL

OF A

TRAVELLING MEMBER OF THE POCOCURANTE SOCIETY, 1819

THE Gentleman, from whose Journal the following extracts are taken, was obliged to leave England some years ago (in consequence of an unfortunate attachment, which might have ended in bringing him into Doctors' Commons,) and has but very recently been able to return to England. The greater part of these poems were, as he himself mentions in his Introduction, written or composed in an old caleche, for the purpose of beguiling the ennui of solitary travelling; and as verses made by a gentleman in his sleep have fately been called "a psychological curiosity," it is to be hoped that verses made by a gentleman to keep himself awake may be honoured with some appellation equally Greek.

INTRODUCTORY RHYMES.

Different Attitudes in which Authors compose.-Bayes,|
Henry Stephens, Herodotus, etc.-Writing in Bed.-
in the Fields.-Plato and Sir Richard Blackmore.-
Fiddling with Gloves and Twigs.-Madame de
Stael.-Rhyming on the Road, in an old Caleche.
WHAT various attitudes, and ways,

And tricks, we authors have in writing!
While some write sitting, some, like BAYES,
Usually stand while they're inditing.
Poets there are, who wear the floor out,
Measuring a line at every stride;

While some, like HENRY STEPHENS, pour out
Rhymes by the dozen, while they ride.'

HERODOTUS wrote most in bed;

And RICHERAND, a French physician,
Declares the clock-work of the head

Goes best in that reclined position.
If you consult MONTAIGNE and PLINY on
The subject, 't is their joint opinion
That Thought its richest harvest yields
Abroad, among the woods and fields;
That bards, who deal in small retail,
At home may, at their counters, stop;
But that the grove, the hill, the vale,
Are Poesy's true wholesale shop.

1 Pleraque sua carmina equitans composuit.-Paravicin. Singular.

2 Mes pensées dorment, si je les assis.-Montaigne. Animus eorum, qui in aperto aëre ambulant, attollitur.Pliny

And truly I suspect they're right

For, many a time, on summer eves,
Just at that closing hour of light,

When, like an eastern Prince, who leaves
For distant war his Haram bowers,
The Sun bids farewell to the flowers,
Whose heads are sunk, whose tears are flowing
'Mid all the glory of his going-

Even I have felt beneath those beams,

When wand'ring through the fields alone,
Thoughts, fancies, intellectual gleams,
That, far too bright to be my own,
Seem'd lent me by the Sunny Power,
That was abroad at that still hour.
If thus I've felt, how must they feel,
The few, whom genuine Genius warms,
And stamps upon their soul his seal,

Graven with Beauty's countless forms;—
The few upon this earth who seem
Born to give truth to PLATO's dream,
Since in their souls, as in a glass,

Shadows of things divine appear-
Reflections of bright forms that pass
Through fairer worlds beyond our sphere!
But this reminds me I digress;-
For PLATO, too, produced, 't is said
(As one indeed might almost guess,)
His glorious visions all in bed.'
"T was in his carriage the sublime
Sir RICHARD BLACKMORE used to rhyme;

And (if the wits don't do him wrong,)
"Twixt death and epics pass'd his time,
Scribbling and killing all day long-
Like Phoebus in his car, at ease,

Now warbling forth a lofty song,
Now murdering the young Niobes.

There was a hero 'mong the Danes,
Who wrote, we're told, 'mid all the pains
And horrors of exenteration,

Nine charming odes, which, if you look,
You'll find preserved, with a translation,

By BARTHOLINUS in his book.2

1 The only authority I know for imputing this practice to Plato and Herodotus, is a Latin poem by M. de Valois on his Bed, in which he says:

Lucifer Herodotum vidit vesperque cubantem;
Desedit totos hic Plato sæpe dies.

2 Eadem cura nec minores inter cruciates animam infelicom agenti fuit Asbiorno Pruda Danico heroi, cum Bruso

In short, 't were endless to recite
The various modes in which men write.
Some wits are only in the mind

When beaux and belles are round them prating; Some, when they dress for dinner, find

Their muse and valet both in waiting,
And manage, at the self-same time,
To adjust a neckcloth and a rhyme.

Some bards there are who cannot scribble
Without a glove, to tear or nibble,
Or a small twig to whisk about-

As if the hidden founts of Fancy,
Like those of water, were found out

By mystic tricks of rhabdomancy. Such was the little feathery wand' That, held for ever in the hand

Of her who won and wore the crown

Of female genius in this age,
Seem'd the conductor, that drew down
Those words of lightning on her page.
As for myself to come at last,

To the odd way in which I write--
Having employed these few months past
Chiefly in travelling, day and night,
I've got into the easy mode,
You see, of rhyming on the road-
Making a way-bill of my pages,
Counting my stanzas by my stages-
"Twixt lays and re-lays no time lost-
In short, in two words, writing post.
My verses, I suspect, not ill
Resembling the crazed vehicle
(An old caleche, for which a villain

Charged me some twenty Naps at Milan)
In which I wrote them-patch'd-up things,
On weak, but rather easy, springs,
Jingling along, with little in 'em,

And (where the road is not so rough,
Or deep, or lofty, as to spin 'em,

Down precipices) safe enough.—
Too ready to take fire, I own,
And then, too, nearest a break-down;
But, for my comfort, hung so low,
I have n't, in falling, far to go.-

With all this, light, and swift, and airy,
And carrying (which is best of all)

But little for the Doganieri

Of the Reviews to overhaul.

RHYMES ON THE ROAD.

EXTRACT I.

Geneva.

View of the Lake of Geneva from the Jura.3-Anxious to reach it before the Sun went down.-Obliged to proceed on Foot.-Alps.-Mont Blanc.-Effect of the Scene.

"T WAS late-the sun had almost shone His last and best, when I ran on,

ipsum, intestina extrahens, immaniter torqueret, tunc enim novem carmina cecinit, etc.-Bartholin. de causis contempt. mort.

1 Made of paper, twisted up like a fan or feather. 2 Custom-house officers. 3 Between Vattay and Gex.

Anxious to reach that splendid view
Before the day-beams quite withdrew;
And feeling as all feel, on first

Approaching scenes where, they are told Such glories on their eyes shall burst

As youthful bards in dreams behold "T was distant yet, and, as I ran,

Full often was my wistful gaze
Turn'd to the sun, who now began
To call in all his out-post rays,
And form a denser march of light,
Such as beseems a hero's flight.
Oh, how I wish'd for JOSHUA's power,
To stay the brightness of that hour!
But no-the sun still less became,

Diminish'd to a speck, as splendid
And small as were those tongues of flame,
That on th' Apostles' heads descended!

'Twas at this instant-while there glow'd This last, intensest gleam of light— Suddenly, through the opening road,

The valley burst upon my sight! That glorious valley, with its lake,

And Alps on Alps in clusters swelling, Mighty, and pure, and fit to make

The ramparts of a Godhead's dwelling!

I stood entranc'd and mute-as they
Of ISRAEL think th' assembled world
Will stand upon that awful day,

When the Ark's Light, aloft unfurl'd,
Among the opening clouds shall shine,
Divinity's own radiant sign!

Mighty MONT BLANC! thou wert to me,
That minute, with thy brow in heaven,
As sure a sign of Deity

As e'er to mortal gaze was given.
Nor ever, were I destined yet

To live my life twice o'er again, Can I the deep-felt awe forget

The ecstasy that thrill'd me then!

"T was all that consciousness of power,
And life, beyond this mortal hour,-
Those mountings of the soul within
At thoughts of Heaven-as birds begin
By instinct in the cage to rise,

When near their time for change of skies-
That proud assurance of our claim

To rank among the Sons of Light,
Mingled with shame-oh, bitter shame!—
At having risk'd that splendid right,
For aught that earth, through all its range
Of glories, offers in exchange!
"T was all this, at the instant brought,
Like breaking sunshine, o'er my thought-
'Twas all this, kindled to a glow

Of sacred zeal, which, could it shine
Thus purely ever-man might grow,
Even upon earth, a thing divine,
And be once more the creature made
To walk unstain'd the Elysian shade!

No-never shall I lose the trace
Of what I've felt in this bright place.

And should my spirit's hope grow weak-
Should I, O GOD! e'er doubt thy power,
This mighty scene again I'll seek,

At the same calm and glowing hour;
And here, at the sublimest shrine
That Nature ever rear'd to Thee,
Rekindle all that hope divine,
And feel my immortality!

EXTRACT II.

Venice.

The Fall of Venice not to be lamented.-Former Glory. -Expedition against Constantinople.-Giustinianis.-Republic.-Characteristics of the old Government.-Golden Book.-Brazen Mouths.-Spies.Dungeons.-Present Desolation.

MOURN not for VENICE-let her rest
In ruin, 'mong those States unbless'd,
Beneath whose gilded hoofs of pride,
Where'er they trampled, Freedom died.
No-let us keep our tears for them,

Where'er they pine, whose fall hath been
Not from a blood-stain'd diadem,

Like that which deck'd this ocean-queen, But from high daring in the cause

Of human Rights-the only good
And blessed strife, in which man draws
His powerful sword on land or flood.

Mourn not for VENICE-though her fall
Be awful, as if Ocean's wave
Swept o'er her-she deserves it all,
And Justice triumphs o'er her grave.
Thus perish every King and State

That run the guilty race she ran,
Strong but in fear, and only great

By outrage against GOD and man!

True, her high spirit is at rest,

And all those days of glory gone, When the world's waters, east and west, Beneath her white-wing'd commerce shone; When, with her countless barks she went To meet the Orient Empire's might,' And the GIUSTINIANIS sent

Their hundred heroes to that fight.2

Vanish'd are all her pomps, 'tis true,

But mourn them not-for, vanish'd, too,
(Thanks to that Power, who, soon or late,
Hurls to the dust the guilty Great,)
Are all the outrage, falsehood, fraud,

The chains, the rapine, and the blood,
That fill'd each spot, at home, abroad,
Where the Republic's standard stood!
Desolate VENICE! when I track

Thy haughty course through centuries back,

1 Under the Doge Michaeli, in 1171.

Thy ruthless power, obeyed but curs'd,—
The stern machinery of thy State,
Which hatred would, like steam, have burst,
Had stronger fear not chill'd even hate;
Thy perfidy, still worse than aught
Thy own unblushing SARPI' taught,-
Thy friendship, which, o'er all beneath
Its shadow, rain'd down dews of death,—2
Thy Oligarchy's Book of Gold,

Shut against humble Virtue's name,3
But open'd wide for slaves who sold
Their native land to thee and shame,-*
Thy all-pervading host of spies,

Watching o'er every glance and breath, Till men look'd in each other's eyes,

To read their chance of life or death,Thy laws, that made a mart of blood,

And legalized the assassin's knife,— Thy sunless cells beneath the flood,

And racks, and leads that burn out life ;

When I review all this, and see

What thou art sunk and crush'd to now;

Each harpy maxim, hatch'd by thee,
Return'd to roost on thy own brow,-

Thy nobles towering once aloft,

Now sunk in chains-in chains, that have Not even that borrow'd grace, which oft The master's fame sheds o'er the slave, But are as mean as e'er were given To stiff-neck'd Pride, by angry HeavenI feel the moral vengeance sweet, And, smiling o'er the wreck, repeat"Thus perish every King and State,

That treads the steps which VENICE trod; Strong but in fear, and only great

By outrage against man and God!"

EXTRACT III

Venice.

Ld B's Memoirs, Written by himself.-Reflections, when about to read them.

LET me, a moment-ere with fear and hope
Of gloomy, glorious things, these leaves I ope-

1 The celebrated Fra Paolo. The collection of maxims which this bold monk drew up at the request of the Venetian Government, for the guidance of the Secret Inquisition of State, are so atrocious as to seem rather an over-charged satire upon despotism, than a system of policy seriously in culcated, and but too readily and constantly pursued.

2 Conduct of Venice towards her allies and dependencies, particularly to unfortunate Padua Fate of Francesco Carrara, for which see Daru, vol. ii. p. 141.

3 "A l'exception des trente citadins admis au grand conseil pendant la guerre de Chiozzi, il n'est pas arrivé une suele fois que les talens ou les services aient paru à cette noblesse orgueilleuse des titres suffisans pour s'asseoir avec elle."-Daru.

4 Among those admitted to the honour of being inscribed in the Libro d'Oro were some families of Brescia, Treviso and other places, whose only claim to that distinction was the zeal with which they prostrated themselves and their country at the feet of the republic.

5 By the infamous statutes of the State Inquisition, not only was assassination recognized as a regular mode of punishment, but this secret power over life was delegated to their minions at a distance, with nearly as much facility as

2 "La famille entière des Justiniani, l'une des plus illus-a licence is given under the game laws of England. The res de Venise, voulut marcher toute entière dans cette ex-only restriction seems to have been the necessity of applying pedition; elle fournit cent combattans; c'était renouveler for a new certificate, after every individual exercise of the l'exemple d'une illustre famille de Rome; le même malheur power.

les attendait."-Historie de Venise, par Daru.

6 "Les prisons des plomba; c'est-à-dire ces fournaises

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The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore: Including His Melodies, Ballads, Etc ...