I.

(_Vide page 217._)

Deux Henris immolés par nos braves ayeux, L’un à la liberté, et Bourbon à nos Dieux, Te menacent, Louis, d’une pareille entreprise: Ils revivent en toi ces anciens tyrans: Crains notre désespoir: la noblesse a des Guises, Paris des Ravaillacs, le clergé des Cléments.

K.

(_Vide page 225._)

Though poetry was certainly neither a point of their rivalship, nor of their ambition, it may not be unwelcome to the curious to compare these great men even in their poetic capacities. The following sonnet was written by Sir R. Walpole when a very young man; the elegy, by Lord Bolingbroke, rather past his middle age. Had they climbed no mountain but Parnassus, it is obvious how far Lord Bolingbroke would have ascended above his competitor, since, when turned of fifty, he excelled in the province of youth.

TO THE HELIOTROPE.[257]

A SONG.

1.

Hail, pretty emblem of my fate! Sweet flower, you still on Phœbus wait; On him you look, and with him move, By nature led, and constant love.

2.

Know, pretty flower, that I am he, Who am in all so like to thee; I, too, my fair one court, and where She moves, my eyes I thither steer.

3.

But yet this difference still I find, The sun to you is always kind; Does always life and warmth bestow: --Ah! would my fair one use me so!

4.

Ne’er would I wait till she arose From her soft bed and sweet repose; But leaving thee, dull plant, by night I’d meet my Phillis with delight.

TO CLARA.[258]

BY HENRY, VISCOUNT BOLINGBROKE.

Dear thoughtless Clara, to my verse attend, Believe for once the lover and the friend; Heav’n to each sex has various gifts assign’d, And shown an equal care of human kind. Strength does to man’s imperial race belong; To yours, that beauty which subdues the strong. But as our strength, when misapplied, is lost, And what should save, urges our ruin most; Just so, when beauty prostituted lies, Of b***s the prey, of rakes the abandon’d prize, Women no more their empire can maintain, Nor hope, vile slaves of lust, by love to reign; Superior charms but make their case the worse, When what was meant their blessing, proves their curse. O nymph! that might, reclin’d on Cupid’s breast, Like Psyche, soothe the God of Love to rest; Or if ambition move thee, Jove enthral, Brandish his thunder, and direct its fall; Survey thyself, contemplate ev’ry grace Of that sweet form, of that angelic face; Then, Clara, say, were those delicious charms Meant for lewd brothels and rude ruffians’ arms? No, Clara, no; that person and that mind Were form’d by nature, and by Heav’n design’d For nobler ends; to these return, though late; Return to these, and so redress thy fate. Think, Clara, think (nor may that thought be vain!) Thy slave, thy Harry, doom’d to drag his chain, Of love ill treated and abus’d, that he From more inglorious chains might rescue thee. Thy drooping health restor’d by his fond cares, Once more thy beauty its full lustre wears. Mov’d by his love, by his example taught, Soon shall thy soul, once more with virtue fraught, With kind and generous truth thy bosom warm, And thy fair mind, like thy fair person, charm. To virtue thus and to thyself restor’d, By all admir’d, by one alone ador’d, Be to thy Harry ever kind and true, And live for him who more than died for you.

(_Vide page 356._)

The reader will find a very ludicrous anecdote relating to Mr. Nugent, during his election at Bristol, in a letter from our Author to Richard Bentley, Esq., dated July 9th, 1754. It is printed in the publication of his correspondence with that gentleman, but we do not venture to insert it here.

END OF VOL. I.

T. C. Savill, Printer, 4, Chandos-street, Covent-Garden.

FOOTNOTES:

[252] The Princess.

[253] Allen, Lord Bathurst.

[254] Sir George Lyttelton, who was out of favour with the Prince, made a parody on this copy of verses: two of the lines were,

No--’tis that all-consenting tongue, That never puts me in the wrong.

[255] “This is a strange country, this England” (said his Royal Highness once); “I am told Doddington is reckoned a clever man; yet I got 5000_l._ out of him this morning, and he has no chance of ever seeing it again.”

[256] His house is since called Brandenburgh House.

[257] I found this song in an old pocket-book belonging to my father, who wrote it, as he told me himself, when he was a very young man, on a sister of Sir William Carew.

[258] This was written on a common woman whom Lord Bolingbroke took into keeping, and who, many years afterwards, sold oranges in the Court of Requests.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.

Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained. For example, Nova-Scotia, Nova Scotia; goodnature, good-nature; Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Lieutenant; se’nnight; disculpate; unapt; deficience; altercate; preponderated.

Pg xix: ‘acknowleged to have’ replaced by ‘acknowledged to have’. Pg 22: ‘he committed to’ replaced by ‘he was committed to’. Pg 25: ‘John Burnard--Factions’ replaced by ‘John Barnard--Factions’. Pg 37: ‘election at Weobly’ replaced by ‘election at Weobley’. Pg 68: ‘19.--The’ replaced by ‘19th.--The’. Pg 85: ‘3.--Palmer’ replaced by ‘3rd.--Palmer’. Pg 95: ‘to wordly success’ replaced by ‘to worldly success’. Pg 153: ‘worthy grammarians’ replaced by ‘worthy of grammarians’. Pg 190: ‘Holdernesse--Murray’ replaced by ‘Holderness--Murray’. Pg 204: ‘upon the recal’ replaced by ‘upon the recall’. Pg 256: ‘consume the propriety’ replaced by ‘consume the property’. Pg 280: ‘revenge offerred’ replaced by ‘revenge offered’. Pg 345: ‘2.--A ’ replaced by ‘2d.--A ’. Pg 383: ‘fidler, Nero’ replaced by ‘fiddler, Nero’. Pg 394: ‘the Mississipi’ replaced by ‘the Mississippi’. Pg 400: ‘as Aid-de-camp’ replaced by ‘as Aide-de-camp’. Pg 414: ‘all the coolurs’ replaced by ‘all the colours’. Pg 445: ‘being confidente of’ replaced by ‘being confidante of’.

Footnote [21]: ‘and and in 1745’ replaced by ‘and in 1745’. Footnote [30]: ‘Stafford in 1706’ replaced by ‘Stafford in 1786’. Footnote [48]: ‘been prefered to’ replaced by ‘been preferred to’. Footnote [98]: ‘been Aid-de-camp’ replaced by ‘been Aide-de-camp’.