The morn was cold; he views with keen desire With beer and milk arrears the frieze was scor'd,' A cap by night—a stocking all the day! FROM THE ORATORIO OF THE CAPTIVITY. [The publication of this and the following song we have traced back to 1776, when they appeared, as here given, added to the first edition of 'The Haunch of Venison' (4to, Kearsley and Ridley, 1776). The oratorio from which they were extracted, though probably written about 1761, was not printed till 1820. See p. 61 for the Oratorio, and pp. 63 and 67, for the previous forms of these two songs.—ED.] SONG. THE wretch condemn'd with life to part, Still, still on hope relies ; And ev'ry pang that rends the heart Bids expectation rise. Hope, like the glim'ring taper's light, SONG. O MEMORY! thou fond deceiver, And turning all the past to pain. Thou, like the world, th' oppress'd oppressing, Var.-An unpaid reck'ning on the frieze, &c. 2 The author has given a similar, or rather, with a very slight alteration, the same description of the alehouse, in the 'Deserted Village.' -PRIOR. THE DOUBLE TRANSFORMATION: A TALE. [This and the next poem have not been traced farther back in print than the 'Essays' volumes (1765-6), though, doubtless, as Goldsmith's motto for the Essays' was "Collecta revirescunt," these two poems, which were respectively Essays XXVI. and XXVII. in the first edition, and XXVIII. and XXIX. in the second edition, had appeared in print before. Our text is that of the author-revised second edition of the Essays,' 1766, the variations being from the first edition.-ED.] SECLUDED from domestic strife, Such pleasures, unalloy'd with care, Could Cupid's shaft at length transfix 2 1 The following additional couplet is in the first edition :Without politeness aim'd at breeding, And laugh'd at pedantry and reading. 2 After this, the following lines were in the first edition :- Made sonnets, lisp'd his sermons o'er, 5 10 15 So, with decorum all things carried, Miss frown'd, and blush'd, and then was-married. To be a dull, domestic friend? In short, by night, 'twas fits or fretting; 2 1 Var.-And though she felt his visage rough.-First edition. 2 Var.-Now tawdry Madam kept a bevy.—First edition. 50 While all their hours were pass'd between Thus, as her faults each day were known,2 Or thins her lip, or points her nose: Whenever rage or envy rise, How wide her mouth, how wild her eyes Her face is grown a knowing phiz; 60 65 ! And though her fops are wondrous civil, 70 That dire disease, whose ruthless power 75 Withers the beauty's transient flower,— The glass, grown hateful to her sight,. 1 After this line, followed in the first edition : She, in her turn, became perplexing, Thus every hour was pass'd, &c. 2 Var.-Each day, the more her faults were known.-First edition. 3 Thus to perplex, &c.-First edition. 80 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. In vain she tries her paste and creams, Poor madam, now condemn'd to hack 90 95 100 A NEW SIMILE IN THE MANNER OF SWIFT. [1765, or earlier. See Introduction to 'The Double Transformation,' p. 84.] -LONG had I sought in vain to find' 1 Var.-I long had rack'd my brains to find.-First edition. 2 The Rev. Andrew Tooke's Pantheon,' a popular illustrated mytho logy of the time.-ED. |