"This is a gift that I have, simple, simple; a foolish, extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, revolutions. These are begot in the ventricle of memory nourished in the womb of Pia Mater, and delivered upon the mellowing of occasion; but the gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it." Nathaniel. LOVE'S LABOUR LOST. LINES, READ BEFORE A SHAKESPEREAN SOCIETY, ASSEM BLED TO COMMEMORATE THE NATIVITY OF THE IMMORTAL BARD, APRIL 23, 1819. Written by an absent Member. HAVE I a heart that feels?-or, have the cares While memory pictures by-gone scenes and hours, Proclaim that feeling's fancy's friendship's powers Still live; and now from needful slumber leap, Yes there's a banquet I was wont to share, And there are friends, whose very names to hear There is a day when all these charms combine,Good friends,-sweet volumes,-temperate cups of wine, When sentient souls their annual tribute pay To wit and worth departed; and whose ray That day which gave IMMORTAL SHAKESPERE birth, And called him loved and honoured from the earth.* O! could I be where these rude lines are read, But absence cannot the free thought restrain; Nor time, nor distance end my Shakespeare's reign. Of one who loved me would the tale disclose, Of Hamlet's murdered Sire, or little Arthur's woes. • William Shakespere, born April 23, 1564.-Died April 23, 1616. |