The rural pipe and merry lay O baneful cause, O fatal morn, The pious mother doom'd to death, While the warm blood bedews my veins, TOBIAS SMOLLETT The Vicar of Bray. IN good King Charles's golden days, To teach my flock I never missed: When royal James possessed the crown, And read the declaration; The church of Rome I found would fit Full well my constitution; And I had been a Jesuit But for the revolution. When William was our king declared, To ease the nation's grievance; With this new wind about I steered, And swore to him allegiance; Old principles I did revoke, Set conscience at a distance; Passive obedience was a joke, When royal Anne became our queen, Another face of things was seen, And I became a Tory; Occasional conformists base, When George in pudding-time came o er, My principles I changed once more, The illustrious house of Hanover, I nevermore will falter, And George my lawful king shall be— And this is law that I'll maintain Until my dying day, sir, That whatsoever king shall reign, ANONYMOUS Cumnor Hall. THE dews of summer night did fall; And many an oak that grew thereby. Now naught was heard beneath the skies, Save an unhappy lady's sighs, That issued from that lonely pile. "Leicester," she cried, "is this thy love "No more thou com'st with lover's speed, Thy once beloved bride to see; But be she alive, or be she dead, I fear, stern Earl, 's the same to thee. "Not so the usage I received When happy in my father's hall; No faithless husband then me grieved, No chilling fears did me appal. "I rose up with the cheerful morn, No lark more blithe, no flower more ga And like the bird that haunts the thorn, So merrily sung the livelong day. "If that my beauty is but small, Among court ladies all despised, Why didst thou rend it from that hall, Where, scornful Earl, it well was prized? "And when you first to me made suit, How fair I was, you oft would say! And proud of conquest, plucked the fruit, Then left the blossom to decay. "Yes! now neglected and despised, The rose is pale, the lily's dead; But he that once their charms so prized, Is sure the cause those charms are fled. "For know, when sick'ning grief doth prey, And tender love 's repaid with scorn, The sweetest beauty will decay,— 66 What floweret can endure the storm? At court, I'm told, is beauty's throne, Then, Earl, why didst thou leave the beds Where roses and where lilies vie, To seek a primrose, whose pale shades Must sicken when those gauds are by? "Mong rural beauties I was one, Among the fields wild flowers are fair; Some country swain might me have won, And thought my beauty passing rare. "But, Leicester, (or I much am wrong,) Or 't is not beauty lures thy vows; Rather ambition's gilded crown Makes thee forget thy humble spouse. "Then, Leicester, why, again I plead, (The injured surely may repine,)— Why didst thou wed a country maid, When some fair princess might be thine? "Why didst thou praise my humble charms. And, oh! then leave them to decay? Why didst thou win me to thy arms, Then leave to mourn the livelong day? "The village maidens of the plain Salute me lowly as they go; |