A SONNET.'

WEEPING, murmuring, complaining,
Lost to every gay delight;
Myra, too sincere for feigning,
Fears th' approaching bridal night.

Yet why impair thy bright perfection?
Or dim thy beauty with a tear?
Had Myra follow'd my direction,
She long had wanted cause of fear.

SONG.

FROM THE ORATORIO OF THE CAPTIVITY.

THE wretch, condemn'd with life to part,
Still, still on hope relies;

And every pang that rends the heart,
Bids expectation rise.

Hope, like the glimmering taper's light,
Adorns and cheers the way;
And still, as darker grows the night,
Emits a brighter ray.

1 See The Bee, p. 94.

PROLOGUE WRITTEN AND SPOKEN BY THE POET LABERIUS,

MAN KNIGHT, WHOM CÆSAR FORCED UPON THE STAGE. PRESERVED BY MACROBIUS.1

AT! no way left to shun th' inglorious stage, save from infamy my sinking age! ce half alive, oppress'd with many a year, at in the name of dotage drives me here? me there was, when glory was my guide, force nor fraud could turn my steps aside; w'd by power, and unappal'd by fear, ch honest thrift I held my honour dear: - this vile hour disperses all my store, all my hoard of honour is no more; ah! too partial to my life's decline, sar persuades, submission must be mine; n I obey, whom heaven itself obeys, peless of pleasing, yet inclin'd to please. re then at once I welcome every shame, d cancel at threescore a life of fame;

This translation was first printed in one of our Author's liest works, The Present State of Learning in Europe,' mo. 1759.

I

No more my titles shall my children tell,
The old buffoon will fit my name as well;
This day beyond its term my fate extends,
For life is ended when our honour ends.2

2 See Macrobii Saturn. lib. ii. c. vii. p. 369. ed Zeunii. Goldsmith has translated, or rather imitated, only the first fifteen lines of the Prologus, ending

'Uno plus vixi mihi quam vivendum fuit.'

I venture to add the remainder,

Too lavish still in good, or evil hour,
To show to man the empire of thy power,
If fortune, at thy wild impetuous sway,
The blossoms of my fame must drop away,
Then was the time the obedient plant to strain
When life was warm in every vigorous vein,
To mould young nature to thy plastic skill,
And bend my pliant boyhood to thy will.
So might I hope applauding crowds to hear,
Catch the quick smile, and HIS attentive ear.
But ah! for what hast thou reserv'd my age?
Say, how can I expect the approving stage;
Fled is the bloom of youth-the manly air--
The vigorous mind that spurn'd at toil and care
Gone is the voice, whose clear and silver tone
The enraptur'd theatre would love to own.
As clasping ivy chokes the encumber'd tree,
So age with foul embrace has ruin'd me.

Thou, and the tomb, Laberius, art the same,
Empty within, what hast thou but a name?

OF GOLDSMITH

PROLOGUE TO ZO

RAGEDY. WRITTEN BY JOSEPH

AT THE THEATRE ROYAL,

MDCCLXXII. SPOKEN B

these bold times, when le distant climates, and t Then wise astronomers to

d quit for Venus Talle botanists, all cold many Take the fair, and pat tr bard into the genera dad fits his little frigate •With Scythian stores, a He this way steers his co Tet ere he lands he ha To make an observatio Where are we driven? This seems a Lord, what a sultry c rocky an Ton ill foreboding cl

There mangroves sp
'em-
Here trees of statel

'em

PROLOGUE TO ZOBEIDE.

AGEDY. WRITTEN BY JOSEPH CRADDOCK, ESQ. ACTED

AT THE THEATRE ROYAL, COVENT GARDEN,

MDCCLXXII. SPOKEN BY MR. QUICK.

hese bold times, when learning's sons explore distant climates, and the savage shore; en wise astronomers to India steer, 1 quit for Venus many a brighter here; ile botanists, all cold to smiles and dimpling, sake the fair, and patiently-go simpling, r bard into the general spirit enters,

d fits his little frigate for adventures.

ith Scythian stores, and trinkets deeply laden, this way steers his course, in hopes of trading

t ere he lands he has order'd me before

make an observation on the shore.

here are we driven? our reckoning sure is lost! is seems a rocky and a dangerous coast. ord, what a sultry climate am I under! on ill foreboding cloud seems big with thunder, (Upper gallery.) here mangroves spread, and larger than I've seen