Verses to the Memory of

Garrick.

Verses to the Memory of

Garrick.

Spoken as a Monody, at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane.

If dying excellence deserves a tear,
If fond remembrance still is cherished here,
Can we persist to bid your sorrows flow
For fabled suff'rers and delusive woe?
Or with quaint smiles dismiss the plaintive
strain,

Point the quick jest-indulge the comic vein

Ere yet to buried Roscius we assign
One kind regret-one tributary line!

His fame requires we act a tenderer part: His memory claims the tear you gave his art! The general voice, the mecd of mournful

verse,

The splendid sorrows that adorn'd his hearse, The throng that mourn'd as their dead favorite passed,

The graced respect that claim'd him to the last,

While Shakespeare's image from its hallow'd

base

Seem'd to prescribe the grave, and point the place,

Nor these-nor all the sad regrets that flow From fond fidelity's domestic woe

So much are Garrick's praise-so much his due

As on this spot-one tear bestow'd by you.

Amid the hearts which seek ingenious fame, Our toil attempts the most precarious claim! To him whose mimic pencil wins the prize, Obedient Fame immortal wreaths supplies; Whate'er of wonder Reynolds now may raise,

Raphael still boasts contemporary praise:— Each dazzling light and gaudier bloom subdued,

With undiminish'd awe his works are view'd; E'en Beauty's portrait wears a softer prime, Touch'd by the tender hand of mellowing Time.

The patient Sculptor owns an humbler part, A ruder toil, and more mechanic art; Content with slow and timorous stroke to

trace

The lingering line, and mould the tardy grace;

But once achieved-though barbarous wreck

o'erthrow

The sacred fane, and lay its glories low,

Yet shall the sculptured ruin rise to day,
Graced by defect, and worship'd in decay;
Th' enduring record bears the artist's name,
Demands his honors, and asserts his fame.
Superior hopes the Poet's bosom fire;
O proud distinction of the sacred lyre!
Wide as th' inspiring Phœbus darts his ray,
Diffusive splendor gilds his votary's lay.
Whether the song heroic woes rehearse,
With epic grandeur, and the pomp of verse;
Or, fondly gay, with unambitious guile,
Attempt no prize but favoring beauty's smile;
Or bear dejected to the lonely grove
The soft despair of unprevailing love-
Whate'er the theme through every age and
clime

Congenial passions meet th' according rhyme;
The pride of glory-pity's sigh sincere-
Youth's earliest blush-and beauty's virgin

tear.

Such is their meed-their honors thus secure,

Whose arts yield objects, and whose works endure.

The Actor, only, shrinks from Time's award;
Feeble tradition is his memory's guard;
By whose faint breath his merits must abide,
Unvouch'd by proof-to substance unallied!
E'en matchless Garrick's art, to heaven re-
sign'd,

No fix'd effect, no model leaves behind!