Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

'THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE,

IN DAUPHINY, AUGUST 1741.

everi Religio loci,

gaudes nomine (non leve m certè fluenta

habet, veteresque sylvas; n & conspicimus Deum pes, fera per juga,

præruptos, sonantes

quas, nemorumque noctem;

-òstus sub trabe citreâ

o, & Phidiacâ manu)

anti ritè, fesso et

idam juveni quietem.

Horas senectæ ducere li Tutumque vulgari tu Surripias, hominum

Thas imitated by a Gentlen

Hear, awful genius of
And say what title
Those age-struck woo
No common genius

The trackless rocks, th
The broken cliff, in
The deep-brown gro
And sounding wat
In glory more than i
And Phidian art it
Or high-wrought go
To deck the fane
Hear then, dread ge
Now be thy migh
Propitious to thy su
And give him to

But, if stern Fortun

To taste the swee
Shou'd she recal m
And dash amid t

senectæ ducere liberas; tumque vulgari tumultu Surripias, hominumque curis. [1]

Thus imitated by a Gentleman of Sunderland:

Hear, awful genius of the solemn grove,

(And say what title best can please thine ear; Those age-struck woods and native rivers prove No common genius bears dominion here.

The trackless rocks, the mountain's savage height,
The broken cliff, inviting fell despair,
The deep-brown grove where reigns eternal night,
And sounding water-falls, the God declare.

In glory more than if the Citrean beam,
And Phidian art its nicest aid bestow'd,
Or high-wrought gold had shed its richest gleam,
To deck the fane of the recumbent God;)
Hear then, dread genius of the solemn grove!
Now be thy mighty power on me confest,
Propitious to thy suppliant's wishes prove,
And give him to the placid joys of rest:

But, if stern Fortune shou'd forbid my flight,

To taste the sweets of sacred Silence' reign,
Shou'd she recal me from the darling sight,
And dash amid the storms of life again;

I

mius of this hallow'd place
at of sanctity and grace,)
er name shall greet thy ear,
=, reverend, or severe,

! no common power pervades

acred streams, these antique glades ;)
re we more conspicuous see
esence of the Deity

s abrupt, in foaming floods,
e meridian night of woods*!
, on throne of ivory plac❜d,
old and gems profusely grac❜d,
of Tyrian purple dress'd,
dias' magic hand confess'd.
s invok❜d, propitious Power,
st of one, one short-liv'd hour
poor suppliant bestow,
'rer through this wild of woe.
! him cruel fate impels
thy calm and peaceful cells,
Solitude and Silence reign,
11 the Virtues in their train
= Contemplation, nymph serene,
entle step and placid mien,
aints and Confessors of old
cred converse seem to hold;
Piety, with up-cast eyes,
es in holy ecstasies:

* Mr. Merry.

If the vast aby And thro' the wind

Some pitying porti

And thro' the winds and waters roar

Some pitying port in vain implore.”

IGNED IN 1742, BY MR. GRAY,

ON THE SUBJECT OF

EATH OF AGRIPPINA. [1]

nt of this Fragment is as follows: "The Britannicus know, was one of Mr. Gray's most favourite plays; ble manner in which I have heard him say that he ed at Paris, seems to have led him to choose the bina for this his first and only effort in the drama. of it also, as far as it goes, is so very much in Racine's pect, if that great poet had been born an Englishhave written precisely in the same style and man, as there is at present in this nation a general preleclamatory plays, I agree with a learned friend, e manuscript, that this fragment will be little reany; yet the admirable strokes of nature and chach it abounds, and the majesty of its diction, preithholding from the few, who I expect will relish iosity (to call it nothing more) as part of a tragedy Gray. These persons well know, that till style and ittle more regarded, mere action and passion will putation to the Author, whatever they may do to the business of the one "to strut and fret his hour ' and if he frets and struts enough, he is sure to find

ee Tacitus' Annals, Book xiii. xiv.

that

pursued, is the best for dra nedion between the Fren ❝to either; and yet this med fall of success on our theat Actors (I speak of the troo well as act, in order to do But let me hasten to give the "Gray's plan, as I find, and Title and Dramatis Person

AG

A

DRAMA

Agrippina, the Emp Nero, the Emperor. Poppaa, believed to Orho, a young man Seneca, the Empero Anicetus, Captain o Demetrius, the Cyn Aceronia, Confidan SCENE, the

"The argument drawn out "of a plot and under-plo "that the action itself wa

« AnteriorContinuar »