.

Th' untoward creatures to the sty I drove, The boding raven on her cottage sate,
And whistled all the way or told my love. And with hoarse croaking warnd us of her fate;

If by the dairy's hatch I chance to hie, The lambkin, which her wonted tendance bred,
I shall her goodly countenance espy ;

Dropp'd on the plains that fatal instant dead; For there her goodly countenance I've seen, Swarm'd on a rotten stick the bees I spied, Set off with kerchief starch'd and pinners clean; Which erst I saw when Goody Dobson died. Sometimes, like wax, she rolls the butter round, How shall I, void of tears, her death relate, Or with the wooden lily prints the pound. 60 When on her darling's bed her mother sate! 110 Whilom I've seen her skim the clouted cream, These words the dying Blouzelinda spoke, And press from spungy curds the milky stream: And of the dead let none the will revoke : But now, alas! these ears shall hear no more " Mother," quoth she, “let not the poultry need, The whining swine surround the dairy door; And give the goose wherewith to raise her breed : No more her care shall fill the hollow tray, Be these my sister's care—and every morn To fat the guzzling hogs with floods of whey, Amid the ducklings let her scatter corn; Lament, ye swine, in grunting spend your grief, The sickly calf that's hous'd be sure to tend, For you, like me, have lost your sole relief.

Feed him with milk, and from bleak colds defend. When in the barn the sounding fail I ply,

Yet ere I die-see, mother, yonder shelf, Where from her sieve the chaff was wont to fly; 70 There secretly I've hid my worldly pell. 120 The poultry there will seem around to stand, Twenty good shillings in a rag I laid ; Waiting upon her charitable hand.

Be ten the parson's, for my sermon paid. No succor meet the poultry now can find.

The rest is yours-my spinning-wheel and rake For thev, like me, have lost their Blouzelind. Let Susan keep for her dear sister's sake; Whenever by yon barley-mow I pass,

My new straw hat, that's trimly lin'd with green, Before my eyes will trip the tidy lass.

Let Peggy wear. for she's a damsel clean. I pitch'd the sheaves, (oh, could I do so now!) My leathern bottle, long in harvests tried, Which she in rows pil'd on the growing mow.

Be Grubbinol's—this silver ring beside : There every deale my heart by love was gain'd, Three silver pennies, and a nine-pence bent, There the sweet kiss my courtship has explain'd. 80 A token kind to Bumkinet is sent."

130 Ah, Blouzelind! that mow I ne'er shall see, Thus spoke the maiden, while the mother cried; But thy memorial will revive in me.

And peaceful, like the harmless lamb, she died. Lament, ye fields, and rueful symptoms show; To show their love, the neighbors far and near Henceforth let not the smelling primrose grow;

Follow'd with wistful look the damsel's bier. Let weeds, instead of butter-flowers, appear,

Sprig'd rosemary the lads and lasses bore, And meads, instead of daisies, hemlock bear; While dismally the parson walk'd before. For cowslips sweet let dandelions spread;

Upon her grave the rosemary they threw, For Blouzelinda, blithesome maid, is dead!

The daisy, butter-flower, and endive blue. Lament, ye swains, and o'er her grave bemoan, | After the good man warn'd us from his text, 139 And spell ye right this verse upon her stone: 90 That none could tell whose turn would be the next; “ Here Blouzelinda lies—Alas, alas!

He said, that Heaven would take her soul, no Weep, shepherds—and remember flesh is grass."

doubt, And spoke the hour-glass in her praise-quite out.

To her sweet memory, flowery garlands strung, GRUBBINOL.

O'er her now empty seal aloft were hung.

With wicker rods we fenc d her tomb around, Albeit thy songs are sweeter to mine ear, To ward from man and beast the hallow'd ground; Than to the thirsty cattle rivers clear;

Lest her new grave the parson's cattle raze, Or winter porridge to the laboring youth,

For both his horse and cow the church-yard graze. Or buns and sugar to the damsel's tooth;

Now we trudg'd homeward to her mother's farm, Yet Blouzelinda's name shall tune my lay,

To drink new cider mulld with ginger warm. 150 of her I'll sing for ever and for aye.

For Gaffer Treadwell told us, by the by, When Blouzelind expir'd, the wether's bell

* Excessive sorrow is exceeding dry.”
Before the drooping flock toll'd forth her knell ; 100 While bulls bear horns upon their curled brow,
The solemn death-watch click'd the hour she died. Or lasses with soft strokings milk the cow;
And shrilling crickets in the chimney cried !

While paddling ducks the standing lake desire,
Or battening hogs roll in the sinking mire ;

While moles the crumbled earth in hillocks raise ; Ver. 84.

So long shall swains tell Blouzelinda's praise. Pro molli viola, pro purpureo narcisso,

Thus wail'd the louts in melancholy strain, Carduus et spinis surgit paliurus acutis.

Till bonny Susan sped across the plain. 160 Virg.

They seiz'd the lass in apron clean array'd, Ver. 90.

And to the ale-house forc'd the willing maid ;
Et tumulum tacite, et tumulo superaddite carmen, In ale and kisses they forget their cares,

| And Susan Blouzelinda's loss repairs.
Ver. 93.
Tale tuum carmen nobis, divine poeta,
Quale sopor fessis in gramine; quale per æstum
Dulcis aque saliente sitim restinguere rivo.

Ver. 153.
Nos tamen hæc quocunque modo tibi nostra vicissim, Dum juga montis aper, fluvios dum piscis amabit,
Dicemus, Daphninque tuum tollemus ad astra.

Dumque thymo pascentur apes, dum rore cicada,

Virg. Semper honos, nomenque tuum, laudesque manebunt. Ver. 96. An imitation of Theocritue.

Virg.

For owls, as swains observe, detest the light, SATURDAY; OR, THE FLIGHTS. And only sing and seek their prey by night.

How turnips hide their swelling heads below: BOWZYBEUS.

| And how the closing coleworts upwards grow;

How Will-o-wisp misleads night-faring clowns SUBLIMER strains, O rustic Muse! prepare ;

O'er hills, and sinking bogs, and pathless dous ais. Forget a while the barn and dairy's care ;

of stars he told, that shoot with shining trail, Thy homely voice to loftier numbers raise,

And of the glow-worm's light that gilds his tail. 60 The drunkard's flights require sonorous lays;

He sung where woodcocks in the Summer feed, With Bowzy beus' songs exalt thy verse,

And in what climates they renew their breed. While rocks and woods the various notes rehearse.

(Some think to northern coasts their flight they tend 'Twas in the season when the reapers' toil

Or to the Moon in midnight hours ascend); Of the ripe harvest 'gan to rid the soil ;

Where swallows in the Winter's season keep, Wide through the field was seen a goodly rout,

| And how the drowsy bat and dormouse sleep; Clean damsels bound the gather'd sheaves about; 10

How Nature does the puppy's eyelid close The lads, with sharpen'd hook and sweating brow,

Till the bright Sun has nine times set and rose; Cut down the labors of the winter plow.

|(For huntsmen by their long experience find. To the near hedge young Susan steps aside,

That puppies still nine rolling suns are blind) 70 She feign'd her coat or garter was untied ;

Now he goes on, and sings of fairs and shows, Whate'er she did, she stoop'd adown unseen,

For still new fairs before his eyes arose. And merry reapers what they list will ween.

How pedlars' stalls with glittering toys are laid, Soon she rose up, and cried with voice so shrill,

The various fairings of the country maid. That Echo answer'd from the distant hill;

Long silken laces hang upon the twine, The youths and damsels ran to Susan's aid,

And rows of pins and amber bracelets shine; Who thought some adder had the lass dismay'd. 20

How the tight lass knives, combs, and scissors spies, When fast asleep they Bowzy beus spied,

And looks on thimbles with desiring eyes. His hat and oaken staff lay close beside ;

Of lotteries next with tuneful note he told, That Bowzy beus who could sweetly sing,

Where silver spoons are won, and rings of gold. 30 Or with the rosin'd bow torment the string;

The lads and lasses trudge the street along, That Bowzy beus who, with fingers speed,

And all the fair is crowded in his song. Could call soft warblings from the breathing reed ;)

" The mountebank now treads the stage, and sells That Bowzy beus who, with jocund tongue,

His pills, his balsams, and his ague-spells; Ballads and roundelays and catches sung :

Now o'er and o'er the nimble tumbler springs, They loudly laugh to see the damsel's fright,

on And on the rope the venturous maiden swings; And in disport surround the drunken wight. 30 “Ah, Bowzy bee, why didst thou stay so long ?

Jack Pudding in his party-color'd jacket The mugs were large, the drink was wond'rous

Tosses the glove, and jokes at every packet.

Of raree-shows he sung, and Punch's feats, strong! Thou shouldst have left the fair before 'twas night;l

JOf pockets pick'd in crowds, and various cbeats. 90

"I Then sad he sung the Children in the Wood : But thou sat'st toping till the morning light.”

|(Ah, barbarous uncle, stain'd with infant blood) Cicely, brisk maid, steps forth before the rout,

How blackberries they pluck'd in deserts wild, And kiss'd with smacking lip the snoring lout:

And fearless at the glittering falchion smild; (For custom says, “Whoe'er this venture proves,

| Their little corpse the robin-red-breasts found, For such a kiss demands a pair of gloves.")

And strow'd with pious bill the leaves around. By her example Dorcas bolder grows,

J(Ah, gentle birds! if this verse lasts so long, And plays a tickling straw within his nose. 40

Your names shall live for ever in my song.)
He rubs his nostril, and in wonted joke
The sneering swains with stammering speech be-

For Buxom Joan he sung the doubtful strife,

How the sly sailor made the maid a wife. 100 spoke :

To louder strains he rais'd his voice, to tell "To you, my lads, I'll sing my carols o'er,

| What woful wars in Chevy-chace befell, As for the maids—I've something else in store."

When Percy drove the deer with hound and horn, No sooner 'gan he raise his tuneful song, But lads and lasses round about him throng.

Wars to be wept by children yet unborn!

Ah, Witherington ! more years thy life had crown'd. Not ballad-singer plac'd above the crowd

If thou hadst never heard the horn or hound ! Sings with a note so shrilling sweet and loud; Nor parish-clerk, who calls the psalm so clear,

Yet shall the 'squire, who fought on bloody stumps Like Bowzybeus soothes th' attentive ear.

By future bards be wail'd in doleful dumps. 50

All in the land of Essex next he chants, 109 Of Nature's laws his carols first begun, Why the grave owl can never face the Sun.

How to sleek mares starch Quakers tur gallants :

Ver. 22
Serta procul tantum capiti delapsa jacebant. Virg.

Ver. 40.
Sanguineis frontem moris et tempora pingit. Virg.

Ver. 43.
Carmina, quæ vultis, cognoscite! carmina vobis;
Huic aliud mercedis erit.

Ver 47.
Nec tantum Phæbo gaudet Parnassia rupes:
Noc tantum Rhodope mirantur et Ismarus Orphea.

Virg.

Ver. 51. Our swain had possibly read Tusser, from
whence he might have collected these philosophical ob
servations:
Namque canebat, uti magnum per inane coacta, &c.

Vér. 97.
Fortunati ambo, si quid mea carmina possunt,
Nulla dies unquam memori vos eximet avo. Virg.

Ver. 99. A song in the comedy of Love for Love, be
ginning “ A soldier and a sailor," &c.
| Ver. 109. A song of Sir J. Denham's. See his poems.

MATTHEW GREEN.

Matthew GREEN, a truly original poet, was born, is further attested, that he was a man of great probably at London, in 1696. His parents were re- probity and sweetness of disposition, and that his spectable Dissenters, who brought him up within conversation abounded with wit, but of the most irthe limits of the sect. His learning was confined to offensive kind. He seems to have been subject to a little Latin; but, from the frequency of his clas- low-spirits, as a relief from which he composed his sical allusions, it may be concluded that what he principal poem, “ The Spleen.” He passed has read when young, he did not forget. The austerity life in celibacy, and died in 1737, at the early age in which he was educated had the effect of inspiring of forty-one, in lodgings in Gracechurch-street. him with settled disgust; and he fed from the The poems of Green, which were not male pab gloom of dissenting worship when he was no longer lic till after his death, consist of “The Spleen;" compelled to attend it. Thus set loose from the “The Grotto;" “ Verses on Barclay's Apology;" opinions of his youth, he speculated very freely “ The Seeker," and some smaller pieces, all combion religious topics, and at length adopted the sys-prised in a small volume. In manner and subject tem of outward compliance with established forms, they are some of the most original in our language. and inward laxity of belief. He seems at one They rank among the easy and familiar, but are time to have been much inclined to the principles replete with uncommon thoughts, new and striking of Quakerism; but he found that its practice would images, and those associations of remote ideas by not agree with one who lived "by pulling off the some unexpected similitudes, in which wit prihat." We find that he had obtained a place in the cipally consists. Few poems will bear more reCustom-house, the duties of which he is said to have peated perusals; and, with those who can fully enter discharged with great diligence and fidelity. It into them, they do not fail to become favorites.

School-helps I want, to climb on high,
THE SPLEEN.*

Where all the ancient treasures lie,

And there unseen commit a theft AN EPISTLE TO MR. CUTHBERT JACKSON.

On wealth in Greek exchequers left.

Then where? from whom? what can I steal, This motley piece to you I send,

Who only with the moderns deal ? Who always were a faithful friend ;

This were attempting to put on Who, if disputes should happen hence,

Raiment from naked bodies won :f Can best explain the author's sense ;

They safely sing before a thief, And, anxious for the public weal,

They cannot give who want relief; Do, what I sing, so often feel.

Some few excepted, names well known, The want of method pray excuse,

And justly laureld with renown, Allowing for a vapor'd Muse :

Whose stamps of genius mark their ware, Nor to a narrow path confin'd,

And theft detects: of theft beware ; Hedge in by rules a roving mind.

From More V so lasb’d, example fit, The child is genuine, you may trace

Shun petty larceny in wit.
Throughout the sire's transmitted face.

First know, my friend, I do not mean
Nothing is stol'n: my Muse, though mean, To write a treatise on the spleen;
Draws from the spring she finds within ;
Nor vainly buys what Gildont sells,
Poetic buckets for dry wells.

† A painted vest Prince Vortiger had on, *“In this poem,” Mr. Melmoth says, “there are more