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"Now let thy pity hear the maid "Thy love refus'd to fave.

"This is the dumb and dreary hour
"When injur'd ghofts complain;
"When yawning graves give up their dead,
"To haunt the faithlefs fwain.

"Bethink thee, William, of thy fault,
Thy pledge and broken oath ;
"And give me back my maiden voW,
"And give me back my troth.

Why did you promise love to me,
"And not that promise keep?"
"Why did you fwear my eyes were bright,
"Yet leave thofe eyes to weep?

"How could you fay my face was fair,
"And yet that face forfake?
"How could you win my virgin heart
"Yet leave that heart to break ?

"Why did you fay my lip was fweet,
"Ánd made the scarlet pale?
"And why did I young witlefs maid,
"Believe the flatt'ring tale?

"That face, alas! no more is fair,
"Those lips no longer red;

"Dark are my eyes, now clos'd in death,

"And every charm is fled.

"The hungry worm my fifter is;

"The winding-fheet I wear;

"And cold and weary lafts our night,

"Till the laft morn appear.

"But, hark! the cock has warn'd me hence;

"A long and late adieu !

"Come fee, falfe man! how low the lies "Who dy'd for love of you !"

The lark fung loud, the morning fmil'd

With beams of rofy red;

Pale

Pale William quak'd in every limb,!
And raving left his bed.

He hied him to the fatal place
Where Margret's body lay,

And ftretch'd him on the green grafs turf
That wrapp'd her breathlefs clay,

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THE

WEEKLY ENTERTAINER.

For MONDAY, March 17, 1783.

ANECDOTES of the CELEBRATED IGNATIUS SANCHO. GNATIUS SANCHO was born A. D. 1729, on board a

coaft of Guinea for the Spanish Weft-Indies, and, at Carthagena, received baptifm from the hand of the bishop, and the name of Ignatius.

A difeafe of the new climate put an early period to his mother's exiftence; and his father defeated the miseries of slavery by an act of fuicide.

At little more than two years old, his mafter brought him to England, and gave him to three maiden fifters, refident at Greenwich; whofe prejudices had unhappily taught them, that African ignorance was the only fecurity for his obedience; and that, to enlarge the mind of their flave, would go near to eman cipate his pericn. The petulance of their difpofition furnamed him Sancho, from a fancied resemblance to the 'fquire of Don Quixote.

But a patron was at hand, whom Ignatius Sancho had merit enough to conciliate at a very early age.

The late duke of Montagu lived on Blackheath he accidentally faw the little negro, and admired in him a native frankness of manner, as yet unbroken by fervitude, and unrefined by education. He brought him frequently home to the dutchefs, in-. dulged his turn for reading with prefents of books, and strongly recommended to his miftreffes the duty of cultivating a genius of fuch apparent fertility.

VOL. I. 11.

2 H

His

His miftreffes, however, were inflexible, and even threatened, on angry occafions, to return Ignatius Sancho to his African flavery. The love of freedom had encreased with years, and began to beat high in his bofom. -Indignation, and the dread of conftant reproach, arifing from the detection of an amour, infinitely criminal in the eyes of three maiden ladies, finally determined him to abandon the family.

His noble patron was recently dead.-Ignatius flew to the dutchefs for protection, who difmiffed him with reproof.-He retired from her prefence in a flate of defpondency and stupefaction.

Enamoured ftill of that liberty, the fcope of whofe enjoyment was now limited to his last five fhillings, and refolute to maintain it with his life, he procured an old piftol for purposes which his father's example had suggested as familiar, and had fanctified as hereditary.

In this frame of mind, the futility of remonftrance was obvious. The dutchefs fecretly admired his character, and at length confented to admit him into her household, where he remained as butler 'till her death; when he found himself, by her grace's bequest and his own economy, poffeffed of 70l. in money, and an annuity of 3cl.

Freedom, riches, and leifure, naturally led a difpofition of African texture into indulgences; and that which diffipated the mind of Ignatius, completely drained the purfe. In his attachment to women, he difplayed a profufenefs which not unusually characterizes the excefs of the paffion.-Cards had formerly feduced him; but an unfuccefsful conteft at cribbage with a Jew, who won his cloaths, had determined him to abjure the propenfity which appears to be innate among his countrymen.

A French writer relates, that in the kingdoms of Ardra, Whydah, and Benin, a negro will stake at play his fortune, his children, and his liberty.

Ignatius loved the theatre to fuch a point of enthusiasm, that his laft fhilling went to Drury-Lane, on Mr. Garrick's reprefentation of Richard. He had even been induced to confider the ftage as a refource in the hour of adverfity, and his complexion fuggefted an offer to the manager of attempting Othello and Oroonoko; but a defective and incorrigible articulation ren

dered it abortive.

He turned his mind once more to fervice, and was retained a few months by the chaplain at Montague-houfe. That roof had been ever aufpicious to him; and the prefent duke foon placed him about his perfon, where habitual regularity of life led him to think of a matrimonial connexion, and he formed

one

one accordingly with a very deserving young woman of WestIndian origin.

Towards the close of the year 1773, repeated attacks of the gout, and a conftitutional corpulence, rendered him incapable of farther attendance in the duke's family.

At this crifis, the munificence which had protected him thro' various viciffitudes, did not fail to exert itself: with the refult of his own frugality, it enabled him and his wife to fettle themfelves in a shop of grocery, where mutual and rigid industry decently maintained a numerous family of children, and where a life of domeftic virtue engaged private patronage, and merited public imitation.

In December, 1780, a series of complicated disorders des ftroyed him.

Óf a negro, a butler, and a grocer, there are but flender anecdotes to animate the page of the biographer; but it has been held neceffary to give fome sketch of the very fingular man, whofe letters, with all their imperfections on their head, have been offered to the public.

The display thofe writings exhibit of epistolary talent, of rapid and juft conception, of wild patriotifm, and of univerfal philanthropy, may weil apologise for the protection of the great, and the friendship of the literary.

The late dutcheffes of Queenfberry and Northumberland preffed forward to serve the author of them. The former entrufted to his reformation a very unworthy favourite of his own complexion. Garrick and Sterne were well acquainted with Ignatius Sancho.

A commerce with the mufes was fupported amidst the trivial and momentary interruptions of a fhop; the poets were ftudied, and even imitated with fome fuccefs; two pieces were conAructed for the ftage; the theory of mufic was difcuffed, publifhed, and dedicated to the princefs royal; and painting was fo much within the circle of Ignatius Sancho's judgement and criticism, that Mortimer came often to confult him.

DESCRIPTION of the ISLAND of NANTUCKET, in
NORTH AMERICA.

W

[From St. John's American Farmer's Letters.]

OULD you believe that a fandy spot, of about 23,000 acres, affording neither ftones nor timber, meadows nor arable, yet can boast of an handsome town, confifting of more 2 H 2

than

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