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Hark! the loud peal begins, the clamorous joy, | Quick fix the nets, and cut off his retreat
The gallant chiding loads the trembling air.

Ye Naiads fair, who o'er those floods preside,
Raise up your dripping heads above the wave,
And hear our melody. Th' harmonious notes
Float with the stream; and every winding creek
And hollow rock, that o'er the dimpling flood
Nods pendant, still improve from shore to shore
Our sweet reiterated joys. What shouts!
What clamour loud! What gay heart-cheering
sounds

Into the sheltering deeps. Ah! there he vents!
The pack plunge headlong, and pretended spears
Menace destruction: while the troubled surge
Indignant foams, and all the scaly kind,
Affrighted, hide their heaps. Wild tumult reigns,
And loud uproar. Ah, there, once more he vents!
See, that bold hound has seiz'd him! down they
sink

Together lost: but soon shall he repent
His rash assault. See, there escap'd, he flies
Half-drown'd, and clambers up the slippery bank
With ouze and blood distain'd. Of all the brutes,
Whether by Nature form'd, or by long use,
This artful diver best can bear the want
Of vital air. Unequal is the fight,

Urge through the breathing brass their mazy way!
Nor quires of Tritons glad with sprightlier strains
The dancing billows, when proud Neptune rides
In triumph o'er the deep. How greedily
They snuff the fishy steam, that to each blade
Rank-scenting clings! See! how the morning | Beneath the whelming element. Yet there

dews

They sweep, that from their feet besprinkling drop
Dispers'd, and leave a track oblique behind.
Now on firm land they range; then in the flood
They plunge tumultuous; or through reedy pools
Rustling they work their way: no hole escapes
Their curious search. With quick sensation now
The fuming vapour stings; flutter their hearts,
And joy redoubled bursts from every mouth
In louder symphonies. Yon hollow trunk,
That with its hoary head incurv'd salutes
The passing wave, must be the tyrant's fort,
And dread abode. How these impatient climb,
While others at the root incessant bay!
They put him down. See, there he drives along!
Th' ascending bubbles mark his gloomy way.

He lives not long; but respiration needs
At proper intervals. Again he vents;
Again the crowd attack. That spear has pierc'd
His neck, the crimson waves confess the wound.
Fixt is the bearded lance, unwelcome guest,
Where'er he flies; with him it sinks beneath,
With him it mounts; sure guide to every foe.
Inly he groans; nor can his tender wound
Bear the cold stream. Lo! to yon sedgy bank
He creeps disconsolate: his numerous foes
Surround him, hounds, and men. Pierc'd through
and through,

On pointed spears they lift him high in air;
Wriggling he hangs, and grins, and bites in vain:
Bid the loud horns, in gaily-warbling strains,
Proclaim the felon's fate; he dies, he dies.

Green.

Matthew Green ward 1696 zu London geboren und gehörte zu der Secte der Quäker, von der er sich jedoch später lossagte, ohne indessen zu einer anderen Gemeine überzutreten. Er bekleidete einen Posten bei dem Zollamte und starb 1737 in seiner Vaterstadt. Unter seinen wenigen hinterlassenen Gedichten zeichnet sich vorzüglich sein descriptiv-didactisches Poem the Spleen, durch Originalität, Energie und Naivetät sehr vortheilhaft aus.

From Green's Spleen.

Contentment, parent of delight, So much a stranger to our sight, Say, goddess, in what happy place

Mortals behold thy blooming face;
Thy gracious auspices impart,
And for thy temple choose my heart.
They, whom thou deignest to inspire,
Thy science learn, to bound desire;

By happy alchymy of mind

They turn to pleasure all they find;
They both disdain in outward mien
The grave and solemn garb of Spleen,
And meretricious arts of dress,
To feign a joy, and hide distress;
Unmov'd when the rude tempest blows,
Without an opiate they repose;
And, cover'd by your shield, defy
The whizzing shafts, that round them fly:
Nor meddling with the god's affairs,
Concern themselves with distant cares;
But place their bliss in mental rest,
And feast upon the good possess'd.
Forc'd by soft violence of pray'r,
The blithsome goddess soothes my care;
I feel the deity inspire,

And thus she models my desire.
Two hundred pounds half-yearly paid,
Annuity securely made,

A farm some twenty miles from town,
Small, tight, salubrious, and my own;
Two maids, that never saw the town,
A serving-man, not quite a clown;
A boy to help to tread the mow,

And drive, while t' other holds the plough;
A chief, of temper form'd to please,
Fit to converse, and keep the keys;
And better to preserve the peace,
Commission'd by the name of niece;
With understandings of a size
To think their master very wise.
May Heav'n (it's all I wish for) send
One genial room to treat a friend,
Where decent cupboard, little plate,
Display benevolence, not state.
And may my humble dwelling stand
Upon some chosen spot of land:
A pond before full to the brim,

Where cows may cool, and geese may swim;
Behind, a green like velvet neat,
Soft to the eye, and to the feet;
Where od'rous plants in evening fair
Breathe all around ambrosial air;
From Eurus, foe to kitchen ground,
Fenc'd by a slope with bushes crown'd,
Fit dwelling for the feather'd throng
Who pay their quit-rents with a song.
With op'ning views of hill and dale,
Which sense and fancy too regale,

Where the half-cirque, which vision bounds,
Like amphitheatre surrounds;

And woods impervious to the breeze,
Thick phalanx of embodied trees,
From hills through plains in dusk array
Extended far, repel the day.

Here stillness, height, and solemn shade

Invite, and contemplation aid:

Here nymphs from hollow oaks relate
The dark decrees and will of Fate,
And dreams beneath the spreading beech
Inspire, and docile fancy teach;
While soft as breezy breath of wind,
Impulses rustle through the mind.
Here Dryads, scorning Phoebus' ray,
While Pan melodious pipes away,
In measur'd motions frisk about,
Till old Silenus puts them out.
There see the clover, pea, and bean,
Vie in variety of green;

Fresh pastures speckled o'er with sheep,
Brown fiedls their fallow sabbaths keep,
Plump Ceres golden tresses wear,
And poppy top-knots deck her hair,
And silver streams through meadows stray,
And Naïads on the margin play,
And lesser nymphs on side of hills
From play-thing urns pour down the rills.
Thus shelter'd, free from care and strife,
May I enjoy a calm through life;
See faction, safe in low degree,
As men at miserable elves

Not kind, so much as to themselves,
Curs'd with such souls of base alloy,
As can possess, but not enjoy;
Debarr'd the pleasure to impart
By av'rice, sphincter of the heart,
Who wealth, hard-earn'd by guilty cares,
Bequeath untouch'd to thankless heirs.
May I, with look ungloom'd by guile,
And wearing Virtue's liv'ry-smile
Prone the distressed to relieve,
And little trespasses forgive,
With income not in fortune's pow'r
And skill to make a busy hour,
With trips to town life to amuse,
To purchase books, and hear the news,
To see old friends, brush off the clown,
And quicken taste at coming down;
Unhurt by sickness' blasting rage,
And slowly mellowing in age,
When Fate extends its gathering gripe,
Fall off like fruit grown fully ripe,
Quit a worn being without pain,
Perhaps to blossom soon again.

The Sparrow and Diamond.
A Song.

I lately saw, what now I sing,
Fair Lucia's hand display'd;
This finger grac'd a diamond ring,
On that a sparrow play'd.

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Richard Savage, berühmter durch seine traurigen Schicksale als durch seine poetischen Leistungen, die eigentlich von jenen mehr Glanz erhalten als sie selbst besitzen, ward am 10. Januar 1697 oder 1698 in Foxcourt, Holborn, geboren. Er war ein natürlicher Sohn des Earl Rivers und der Gräfin von Macclesfield, die ihre Schande offen bekannte, um dadurch zur Ehescheidung zu gelangen, und ihr armes Kind, vom Augenblicke seiner Geburt an, mit dem widernatürlichsten Hasse verfolgte. Es ward der Sorgfalt einer armen Frau übergeben und dieser eingeschärft, ihm nie seinen Ursprung zu entdecken. So wuchs Savage auf, nothdürftige Bildung in einer lateinischen Schule zu St. Albans erhaltend. Durch den Tod seiner Pflegemutter erfuhr er das Geheimniss seiner Geburt, aber alle seine Bemühungen, die Anerkennung seiner Mutter zu erhalten, waren vergeblich; sie stiess ihn zurück und suchte ihn zu unterdrücken, wo sie es nur vermochte. Der Mangel zwang ihn, sich seinen Lebensunterhalt durch die Feder zu verdienen; Noth und Elend trieben ihn unstät herum; Nichts erweichte die Gräfin, ja, als er das Unglück gehabt hatte, im Zorn des Rausches einen Menschen zu erstechen, und zum Tode verurtheilt wurde, wandte sie alle ihr zu Gebote stehenden Mittel an, seine Begnadigung zu verhindern. Er ward jedoch trotz dem begnadigt und Lord Tyrconnel nahm ihn zu sich in sein Haus; Savage war indessen durch seine Leiden moralisch zerstört und überwarf sich mit seinem Wohlthäter. Er erhielt dann eine kleine

Pension von der Königin Caroline, die aber mit deren Tode wieder einging. Eine unbedeutende Schuld brachte ihn darauf zu Bristol in das Gefängniss, wo er am 1. August 1743 starb.

Savage hat ein Trauerspiel, ein Lustspiel, mehrere descriptive Gedichte und kleinere Poesieen hinterlassen; seine besten Leistungen sind the Wanderer und the Bastard;- es finden sich darin einzelne nicht gewöhnliche Schönheiten, deren Wirkung jedoch durch eben so viel Unbedeutendes und Geringes geschwächt wird.

Select Passages
from the Wanderer.

Beneath appears a place, all outward bare,
Inward the dreary mansion of despair!
The water of the mountain-road, half stray'd,
Breaks o'er it wild, and falls a brown cascade.
Has nature this rough, naked piece design'd,
To hold inhabitants of mortal kind?
She has. Approach'd, appears a deep descent,
Which opens in a rock a large extent!
And hark!

A feeble taper, from yon lonesome room,
Scattering thin rays, just glimmers through the
gloom.

There sits the sapient bard in museful mood,
And glows impassion'd for his country's good!
All the bright spirits of the just combin'd,
Inform, refine, and prompt his towering mind!
He takes the gifted quill from hands divine,
Around his temples rays refulgent shine!
Now rapt! now more than man! I see him
climb,

its hollow entrance reach'd, I hear To view this speck of earth from worlds sublime! A trampling sound of footsteps hastening near! I see him now o'er nature's works preside! A death-like chillness thwarts my panting breast: How clear the vision! and the scene how wide! Soft! the wish'd object stands at length con-Let some a name by adulation raise,

Of youth his form!

fess'd!

But why with anguish

bent?

Why pin'd with sallow marks of discontent?
Yet patience, labouring to beguile his care,
Seems to raise hope, and smiles away despair.
Compassion, in his eye, surveys my grief,
And in his voice invites me to relief.
Preventive of thy call, behold my haste,

(He says) nor let warm thanks thy spirits waste!
All fear forget Each portal I possess,
Duty wide-opens to receive distress.

Oblig'd, I follow, by his guidance led;
The vaulted roof re-echoing to our tread:
And now, in squar'd division's, I survey
Chambers sequester'd from the glare of day;
Yet needful lights are taught to intervene,
Through rifts; each forming a perspective scene.
In front a parlour meets my entering view;
Oppos'd, a room to sweet refection due.
Here my chill'd veins are warm'd by chippy
fires,

Through the bor'd rock above, the smoke
pires;
Neat, o'er a homely board, a napkin's spread,
Crown'd with a heapy canister of bread.
A maple cup is next dispatch'd to bring
The comfort of the salutary spring:
Nor mourn we absent blessings of the vine,
Here laughs a frugal bowl of rosy wine;
And savoury cates, upon clear embers cast,
Lie hissing, till snatch'd off, a rich repast!

Or scandal, meaner than a venal praise!
My muse (he cries) a nobler prospect view!
Through fancy's wilds some moral's point pursue!
From dark deception clear drawn truth display,
As from black chaos rose resplendent day!
Awake compassion, and bid terror rise!
Bid humble sorrows strike superior eyes!
So pamper'd power, unconscious of distress,
May see, be mov'd, and, being mov'd redress.
Ye traitors, tyrants, fear his stinging lay!
Ye powers unlov'd, unpitied in decay!
But know, to you sweet-blossom'd fame he
brings,

Ye heroes, patriots, and paternal kings!

O Thou, who form'd, who rais'd the poet's art,
(Voice of thy will!) unerring force impart!
If wailing worth can generous warmth excite!
If verse can gild instruction with delight,
Inspire his honest muse with orient flame,
To rise, to dare, to reach the noblest aim!

But, O my friend! mysterious is our fate!
ex-How mean is fortune, though his mind elate!
Aeneas-like he passes through the crowd.
Unsought, unseen, beneath misfortune's cloud;"
Or seen with slight regard: Unprais'd his name
His after-honour, and our after-shame
The doom'd desert, to avarice stands confess'd
Her eyes averted are, and steel'd her breast.
Envy asquint the future wonder eyes:
Bold insult, pointing, hoots him as he flies;
skill'd in darker ways,
While coward censure,
Hints sure detraction in dissembled praise!
Hunger, thirst, nakedness, their grievous fall!

Unjust derision too! that tongue of gall!
Slow comes relief, with no mild charms endued,
Usher'd by pride, and by reproach pursued.
Forc'd pity meets him with a cold respect,
Unkind as scorn, ungenerous as neglect.

Thy foes are virtue's, and her friends are thine!
Patience is thine, and peace thy days shall
crown;

Thy treasure prudence, and thy claim renown:
Myriads, unborn, shall mourn thy hapless fate,

Yet, suffering worth! thy fortitude will shine; And myriads grow, by thy example, great!

Blair.

Robert Blair ward 1699 in Edinburg geboren; Sohn und Enkel ausgezeichneter Geistlichen, widmete er sich ebenfalls der Theologie, erhielt eine treffliche Erziehung, machte dann grössere Reisen und wurde darauf 1731 Prediger zu Athelstaneford in der Grafschaft East-Lothian, wo er am 4. Februar 1746 starb.

Einige Gelegenheitsverse abgerechnet hat Blair nur ein einziges Gedicht geschrieben, The Grave, das erst nach seinem Tode, 1747 zu Edinburg erschien, und seitdem unzählige Mal wieder aufgelegt worden ist. Es ist ein didactisches, religiöses Poem, voll ernster, tiefer Wahrheit, reich an ergreifenden Schilderungen in einer kräftigen, lebendigen und überaus wohllautenden Sprache geschrieben, und verdient die Anerkennung, deren es sich selbst jetzt noch erfreut, vollkommen.

Select Passages from:
The Grave.

Invidious grave! how dost thou rend in sunder
Whom love has knit, and sympathy made one!
A tie more stubborn far than nature's band.
Friendship! mysterious cement of the soul;
Sweetner of life, and solder of society,
I owe thee much. Thou has deserv'd from me,
Far, far beyond what I can ever pay.
Oft have I prov'd the labours of thy love,
And the warm efforts of thy gentle heart,
Anxious to please. Oh! when my friend and I
In some thick wood have wander'd heedless on,
Hid from the vulgar eye, and sat us down
Upon the sloping cowslip-cover'd bank,
Where the pure limpid stream has slid along
In grateful errors through the under-wood,
Sweet murmuring: methought the shrill-tongu'd

thrush

Mended his song of love; the sooty black-bird
Mellow'd his pipe, and soften'd every note:
The eglantine smell'd sweeter, and the rose
Assum'd a dye more deep; whilst ev'ry flower
Vied with its fellow plant in luxury

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With anguish heavy laden; let me trace it:
From yonder bed it comes, where the strong man,
By stronger arm belabour'd, gasps for breath

Of dress. Oh! then, the longest summer's day Like a hard-hunted beast. How his heart

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