Must needs express his love's excess (0 sorrow and shame should this be true!) YOUTH AND AGE. VERSE, a breeze 'mid blossoms straying, Like those trim skiffs, unknown of yore, Naught cared this body for wind or weather, Flowers are lovely; love is flower-like; Friendship is a sheltering tree; O the joys, that came down shower-like, Of friendship, love, and liberty, Ere I was old! Ere I was old? Ah woful Ere, THE DEVIL'S THOUGHTS. FROM his brimstone bed at break of day A-walking the DEVIL is gone, To visit his little snug farm of the earth, And see how his stock went on. 72 Over the hill and over the dale And he went over the plain, And backward and forward he swish'd his long tail As a gentleman swishes his cane. And how then was the Devil drest? O! he was in his Sunday's best: His jacket was red and his breeches were blue, And there was a hole where the tail came through. He saw a LAWYER killing a viper On a dung-heap beside his stable, And the Devil smiled, for it put him in mind Of Cain and his brother, Abel. A POTHECARY on a white horse And the Devil thought of his old friend He saw a cottage with a double coach-house, And the Devil did grin, for his darling sin He went into a rich bookseller's shop, Quoth he! we are both of one college; For I myself sate like a cormorant once, Fast by the tree of knowledge.* Down the river there plied with wind and tide, A pig, with vast celerity; * And all amid them stood the Tree of Life High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit Of vegetable gold (query paper money?); and next to Life Our Death, the Tree of Knowledge, grew fast by.— So clomb this first grand thief Thence up he flew, and on the tree of life The allegory here is so apt, that in a catalogue of various readings obtained from collating the MSS. one might expect to find it noted, that for "Life" Cod. quid habent, "Trade." Though indeed the trade, i. e. the bibliopolic, so called, kär' εóxŋy, may be regarded as life sansu eminentiori: a suggestion, which I owe to a young retailer in the hosiery line, who on hearing a description of the net profits, dinner parties, country houses, etc. of the trade, exclaimed, "Ay! that's what I call life now!" -This "Life, our Death," is thus happily contrasted with the fruits of authorship.-Sic nos non nobis mellificamus Apes. Of this poem, with which the Fire, Famine, and Slaughter first appeared in the Morning Post, the three first stanzas, which are worth all the rest, and the ninth, were dictated by Mr. Southey. Between the ninth and the concluding stanza, two or three are omitted as grounded on subjects that have lost their interest-and for better II. "Ah," replied my gentle fair; "Dear one, what are names but air?— SLY Beelzebub took all occasions But Heaven, that brings out good from evil, His servants, horses, oxen, cows- HOARSE Mævius reads his hobbling verse And finds them both divinely smooth, But folks say Mævius is no ass; THERE comes from old Avaro's grave SWANS sing before they die-'twere no bad thing Did certain persons die before they sing. THE GARDEN OF BOCCACCIO. Of late, in one of those most weary hours, A dreary mood, which he who ne'er has known I sate and cower'd o'er my own vacancy! I but half saw that quiet hand of thine The love, the joyance, and the gallantry! Gazed by an idle eye with silent might In selfless boyhood, on a new world tost Or fateful hymn of those prophetic maids, And, like a gift from heaven, in lifeful glee, Fair cities, gallant mansions, castles old, Prattled and play'd with bird, and flower, and stone, See! Boccace sits, unfolding on his knees As with elfin playfellows well known, Thanks, gentle artist! now I can descry With old Boccaccio's soul I stand possest, The brightness of the world, O thou once free, The new-found roll of old Mæonides ;* But from his mantle's fold, and near the heart, Still in thy garden let me watch their pranks, * Boccaccio claimed for himself the glory of having first introduced the works of Homer to his country. + I know few more striking or more interesting proofs of the overwhelming influence which the study of the Greek and Roman classics exercised on the judgments, feelings, and imaginations of the literati of Europe at the commencement of the restoration of literature, than the passage in the Filocopo of Boccaccio: where the sage instructer, Racheo, as soon as the young prince and the beautiful girl, Biancafiore had learned their letters, sets them to study the Holy Book, Ovid's Art of Love. "Incominciò Racheo a mettere il suo officio in essecuzione con intera sollecitudine. E loro, in breve tempo, insegnato a conoscer le lettere, fece legere il santo libro d' Ovvidio, nel quale il sommo poeta mostra, come i santi fuochi di Venere si debbano ne freddi cuori occendere." JAMES MONTGOMERY. JAMES MONTGOMERY was born in Irvine, Ayrshire, in 1771. His parents belonged to the church of the United Brethren, commonly called Moravians, a sect by no means numerous in England, and still more limited in Scotland. Having previously sojourned for a short time at a village in the Irish county of Antrim, they placed the future poet at the school of their society at Fulnick, near Leeds, and embarked for the West Indies as missionaries among the negro slaves. They were the victims of their zeal and humanity; the husband died in Barbadoes, and the wife in Tobago. by the upright and unimpeachable tenor of his life— Wanderer of Switzerland was published in 1806; the West Indies, in 1810; the World before the Flood, in 1813; Greenland in 1819; the Pelican Island, in 1827: he has since contented himself with the production of occasional verses. After remaining two years at Fulnick, and, like other men of genius, disappointing the expectations of his friends as a student, "from very indolence," he was placed by them in a retail shop at Mirfield near Wakefield. This ungenial employment he considered himself-not being under indentures-among my contemporaries have manifested." The at liberty to relinquish at the end of two years, with a view to try his fortune in the great world. After spending other two years at a village near Rotherham, and a few months with a bookseller in London, he engaged as an assistant with Mr. Joseph Gales of Sheffield, who, published a news- Those who can distinguish the fine gold from the paper;-to the management of which, in 1794, he" sounding brass" of poetry, must place the name succeeded. This, though conducted with compara- of James Montgomery high in the list of British tive moderation, exposed him to much enmity-poets; and those who consider that the chiefest rather inherited from his predecessor than actually incurred by himself. The liberty of the press in those days was, like faith," the substance of things hoped for ;" a sentence of condemnation, or even a word of reproach, against men in "high places," was punished as libellous. Montgomery did not indeed share the fate of some of his stern sectarian forefathers; but in lieu of maiming and pillory, he had to endure fine and imprisonment. Within eighteen months, and when he had scarcely arrived at manhood, his exertions in the cause of rational freedom had twice consigned him to a jail. During the thirty years that followed, however, he was permitted to publish his opinions, without being the object of open persecutions. Wearied out, at length, he relinquished his newspaper, in 1825. Recently one of the government grants to British worthies has been conferred upon him; and-it must be recorded to his honour-by Sir Robert Peel. The poet continues to reside in Sheffield, esteemed, admired, and beloved: a man of purer mind, or more unsuspected integrity, never existed. He is an honour to the profession of letters; and duty of such is to promote the cause of religion, virtue, and humanity, must acknowledge in him one of their most zealous and efficient advocates. He does not, indeed, often aim at bolder flights of imagination; but if he seldom rises above, he never sinks beneath, the object of which he desires the attainment. If he rarely startles us, he still more rarely leaves us dissatisfied; he does not attempt that to which his powers are unequal, and therefore is at all times successful. To the general reader, it will seem as if the early bias of his mind and his first associations had tinged-we may not say tainted-the source from whence he drew his inspirations, and that his poems are "sicklied o'er" with peculiar impressions and opinions which fail to excite the sympathy of the great mass of mankind. We should, however, recollect, that, although he has chiefly addressed himself to those who think with him, his popularity is by no means confined to them; but that those who read poetry for the delight it affords them, and without any reference to his leading design, acknowledge his merit, and contribute to his fame. 572 THE WANDERER OF SWITZER LAND. IN SIX PARTS. ADVERTISEMENT. THE historical facts alluded to in The Wanderer of Switzerland may be found in the supplement to Coxe's Travels, in Planta's History of the Helvetic Confederacy, and in Zschokke's Invasion of Switzerland by the French, in 1798, translated by Dr. Aikin. PART I. A Wanderer of Switzerland and his family, consisting of his wife, his daughter, and her young children, emigrating from their country, in consequence of its subjugation by the French, in 1798, arrive at the cottage of a shepherd, beyond the frontiers, where they are hospitably entertained. SHEPHERD. "WANDERER, whither dost thou roam? Weary wanderer, old and gray; Wherefore hast thou left thine home In the sunset of thy day ?" WANDERER. "In the sunset of my day, Stranger! I have lost my home: Fainting in their weak embrace; SHEPHERD. "Switzerland, then, gave thee birth?" WANDERER. "Ay-'twas Switzerland of yore; But, degraded spot of earth, Thou art Switzerland no more: "O'er thy mountains sunk in blood, Are the waves of ruin hurl'd; Like the waters of the flood Rolling round a buried world." SHEPHERD. "Yet will time the deluge stop; WANDERER. "No!-irreparably lost, On the day that made us slaves, Freedom's ark, by tempest tost, Founder'd in the swallowing waves." *St. Gothard is the name of the highest mountain in the canton of Uri, the birthplace of Swiss independence. SHEPHERD. "Welcome, wanderer as thou art, All my blessings to partake; Yet thrice welcome to my heart, For thine injured country's sake. "On the western hills afar Evening lingers with delight, While she views her favourite star Brightening on the brow of night. "Here, though lowly be my lot, Enter freely, freely share All the comforts of my cot, Humble shelter, homely fare. "Spouse, I bring a suffering guest, With his family of grief; Give the weary pilgrims rest, Yield the exiles sweet relief." SHEPHERD'S WIFE. "I will yield them sweet relief: Weary pilgrims! welcome here; Welcome, family of grief, Welcome to my warmest cheer." WANDERER. "When in prayer the broken heart SHEPHERD. "Haste, recruit the failing fire, High the winter-fagots raise; See the crackling flames aspire; O how cheerfully they blaze! "Mourners, now forget your cares, And, till supper-board be crown'd, Closely draw your fireside chairs; Form the dear domestic round." WANDERER. "Host, thy smiling daughters bring, Bring those rosy lads of thine; Let them mingle in the ring With these poor lost babes of mine." SHEPHERD. "Join the ring, my girls and boys; This enchanting circle, this Binds the social loves and joys: 'Tis the fairy ring of bliss!" WANDERER. "O ye loves and joys! that sport "Bountiful my former lot As my native country's rills; The foundations of my cot Were her everlasting hills. "But those streams no longer pour Rich abundance round my lands; And my father's cot no more On my father's mountain stands. |