Stern o'er each bosom Reason holds her state, 325 With daring aims irregularly great, Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, I see the lords of human kind pass by; Intent on high designs, a thoughtful band, By forms unfashion'd, fresh from Nature's hand; 330 Fierce in their native hardiness of soul, True to imagin'd right, above control, While e'en the peasant boasts these rights to scan, Thine, Freedom, thine the blessings pictured here, 335 Thine are those charms that dazzle and endear! Too blest indeed were such without alloy; But, foster'd e'en by Freedom, ills annoy : That independence Britons prize too high, Keeps man from man, and breaks the social tie; 340 345 Nor this the worst. As Nature's ties decay, As duty, love, and honour fail to sway, 350 Fictitious bonds, the bonds of wealth and law, 355 1 These last ten lines were greatly admired by Dr. Johnson, vide Boswell's Life,' v. v. p. 85.--ED. 2 Var. This and the following line are wanting in the first edition; where follows: See, though by circling deeps together held, The second edition has : All kindred claims that soften life, &c. Where noble stems transmit the patriot flame, Where kings have toil'd, and poets wrote for fame,' And scholars, soldiers, kings, unhonour'd die. 360 2 Yet think not, thus when Freedom's ills I state, And thou, fair Freedom, taught alike to feel 365 By proud contempt, or favour's fostering sun Still may thy blooms the changeful clime endure, I only would repress them to secure! 370 That those who think must govern those that toil; And all that Freedom's highest aims can reach, 375 O, then, how blind to all that truth requires, To call it freedom when themselves are free; 380 1 Var. And monarchs toil, and poets pant for fame, &c.-First to fifth editions-except second, which has "paint for," &c. 2 Var.-After this the following couplet is inserted in the first edition : Perish the wish, for, inly satisfied, Above their pomp I hold my ragged pride. And the next eighteen lines, to "But when contending chiefs," &c., are wanting. 3 Var.-After this, in editions two to five,- Much on the low, the rest as rank supplies, Should in columnar diminution rise, &c. This doctrine was probably esteemed rather too aristocratic.-B. Each wanton judge new penal statutes draw, 385 390 I fly from petty tyrants to the throne. Yes, brother, curse with me that baleful hour, 395 400 405 410 E'en now, perhaps, as there some pilgrim strays Through tangled forests, and through dangerous ways, Where beasts with man divided empire claim, And the brown Indian marks with murderous aim; There, while above the giddy tempest flies, And all around distressful yells arise, 415 1 This passage is viewed by several editors as disclosing the same theme as that which inspired the Deserted Village, published five years later. Sir James Prior points to "Have not we" (the author addressing his brother) as evidence that Auburn was an Irish village.-ED. 2 Niagara, it will be observed. This, Prior says, was the old pronunciation of the name of the American river.-ED. The pensive exile, bending with his woe, * To stop too fearful, and too faint to go, Casts a long look where England's glories shine, : Vain, very vain, my weary search to find 420 425 * That part which laws or kings can cause or cure! 430 * Still to ourselves in every place consign'd, * Our own felicity we make or find: * With secret course, which no loud storms annoy, 1 Luke's iron crown, and Damien's 2 bed of steel, * To men remote from power but rarely known, * Leave reason, faith, and conscience, all our own.3 435 1 In 1514, two brothers, Luke and George Zeck, headed a desperate rebellion in Hungary. When it was quelled, George, not Luke, was punished by having his head encircled with a red-hot crown, in mockery of his supposed ambitious views.-B. The real name of the brothers seems to have been Dosa. Forster says they were of the race of the Szeklers, or Zecklers, of Transylvania. Bolton Corney has on this account substituted "Zeck's" for "Luke's" in the poem.-ED. 2 Robert Francis Damien, a mad fanatic, who, in 1757, made an attempt to assassinate Louis XV, of France. He was put to the most exquisite tortures, and at last torn to pieces by horses.-B. 3 The nine lines to which an asterisk is prefixed were written by Dr. Johnson, when the poem was submitted to his friendly revision, previous to publication.-B. [This is on the authority of Boswell, who states (Boswell's 'Life of Johnson,' Bohn's ed., v. ii., p. 308) that Johnson marked the above ten lines, and "added, "These are all of which I can be sure." In the original editions there are no asterisks, and no intimation of Johnson having contributed these lines; and Boswell's work of course was published after both Goldsmith and Johnson were dead. See also note at p. 45.-ED.] rare. EDWIN AND ANGELINA; A BALLAD. [SOMETIMES ENTITLED "THE HERMIT."] [The first publicly printed version of this ballad appeared in the Vicar of Wakefield' (1766). But a few copies of another version had been printed privately in 1764, or 1765, for the Countess of Northumberland, who having seen the MS. through Dr. Percy (then just bringing out his collection of similar ballads, the 'Reliques'), wished to see the poem in print. This version was titled Edwin and Angelina'; and as it differs somewhat from that in the Vicar of Wakefield' we give its text here, referring the reader to our edition of the Vicar' (chap. viii.) for the author's later adopted text. Mr. Forster has said that the care bestowed by Goldsmith in amending and again amending this ballad affords an example "that young writers should study and make profit of." We think also that a comparison of the first with the later versions of the poem, as shown in the following text, its variation notes, and the text of the Vicar of Wakefield,' cannot fail of being generally interesting. The privately printed edition of Edwin and Angelina' is now extremely Prior ascertained that in his day not even the Duke of Northumberland's library possessed a copy; while in the present day the British Museum library is also without a copy. The title of this edition runs : 'Edwin and Angelina; a Ballad: By Mr. Goldsmith: Printed for the Amusement of the Countess of Northumberland.' We here give the poem its original title, though The Hermit' has somewhat unaccountably become its most usual title. Goldsmith seems never to have titled it The Hermit'—though he is said to have spoken of it thus :-" As to my Hermit,' that poem, Cradock, cannot be amended." On the contrary his first, or Countess of Northumberland edition, is titled, as we have seen, Edwin and Angelina,' and he used the same title when he included the work in his 'Poems for Young Ladies,' 1767 (and again in 1770); while in the publication in the Vicar of Wakefield' the heading is simply 'A Ballad. Then, in the edition of the Essays and Poems ' of the year after Goldsmith's death, which seems to be the first collection of the author's chief poems into one volume, the ballad still figures as 'Edwin and Angelina.' Other reasons for reverting to the original title 6 6 |