His works were neat, and often found With verse immortal as his sole. And if he did, 't were shame to "Black-it." Malta, May 16. 1811 FAREWELL TO MALTA. ADIEU, ye joys of La Valette! Adieu, sirocco, sun, and sweat! Adieu, thou palace rarely enter'd! Adieu, ye mansions where — I've ventured! Adieu, ye cursed streets of stairs! (How surely he who mounts you swears!) Adieu, ye merchants often failing! Adieu, thou mob for ever railing! Adieu, ye packets without letters! Adieu, ye fools who ape your betters! Adieu, thou damned'st quarantine, That gave me fever, and the spleen ! Adieu that stage which makes us yawn, Sirs, Adieu his Excellency's dancers! Adieu to Peter whom no fault's in, But could not teach a colonel waltzing; Adieu, ye females fraught with graces Of all that strut "en militaire ! !" Farewell to these, but not adieu, And fallen chiefs, and fleets no more, And now I've got to Mrs. Fraser, And now, O Malta! since thou'st got us I'll not offend with words uncivil, But only stare from out my casement, Return to scribbling, or a book, UNHAPPY DIVES! in an evil hour 'Gainst Nature's voice seduced to deeds accurst! Once Fortune's minion, now thou feel'st her power; Wrath's viol on thy lofty head hath burst. In Wit, in Genius, as in Wealth the first, How wond'rous bright thy blooming morn arose ! But thou wert smitten with th' unhallow'd thirst Of crime un-named, and thy sad noon must close In scorn, and solitude unsought, the worst of woes. 1811. [First published, 1832.] ON MOORE'S LAST OPERATIC FARCE, OR FARCICAL OPERA. GOOD plays are scarce, So Moore writes farce : The poet's fame grows brittle — That Little's Moore, But now 't is Moore that's little. September 14. 1811.1 EPISTLE TO A FRIEND, 2 IN ANSWER TO SOME LINES EXHORTING THE AUTHOR TO BE CHEERFUL, AND TO BANISH CARE. 66 The motto of thy revelry! Perchance of mine, when wassail nights 1 "On a leaf of one of Lord Byron's paper-books I find an Epigram, which, though not perhaps particularly good, I consider myself bound to insert."- MOORE. [The farce in question was called "M. P.; or, the Blue Stocking," and came out at the Lyceum Theatre, on the 9th of September.] 2 [i. e. Mr. Francis Hodgson (not then the Reverend). See Wherewith the children of Despair 'T were long to tell, and vain to hear, The babe which ought to have been mine, |