BURLESQUE

OF THE MODERN VERSIFICATIONS OF ANCIENT

LEGENDARY TALES.

AN IMPROMPTU.

The tender infant meek and mild,

Fell down upon the stone:
The nurse took up the squealing child,

But still the child squealid on.

FRIENDSHIP,

AN ODE.

[This Ode originally appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1743. See Boswell's Life of Johnson, under that year. It was afterwards printed in Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies, in 1766, with several variations which are pointed out below.–J. B.]

FRIENDSHIP, peculiar boon of Heaven,

The noble mind's delight and pride,
To men and angels only giv’n,

To all the lower world deny’d.
While Love, unknown among the blest,

Parent of thousand wild desires,"
The savage and the human breast

Torments alike with raging fires ;"
With bright, but oft destructive, gleam,

Alike o'er all, his lightnings fly;
Thy lambent glories only beam

Around the fav’rites of the sky.
Thy gentle flows of guiltless joys

On fools and villains ne'er descend;
In vain for thee the tyrant sighs,

And hugs a flatterer for a friend.

с

*Directress of the brave and just,

O guide us through life's darksome way!
And let the tortures of mistrust

On selfish bosoms only prey.''
Nor shall thine ardours cease to glow,

When souls to blissful climes remove :
What rais'd our virtue here below,

Shall aid our happiness above.

ON SEEING A BUST OF MRS. MONTAGUE.

Had this fair figure which this frame displays,
Adorn'd in Roman time the brightest days,
In every dome, in every sacred place,
Her statue would have breath'd an added

grace
And on its basis would have been enrolld,
“This is Minerva, cast in virtue's mould.”

IMPROVISO

ON A YOUNG HEIR'S COMING OF AGE.

Long expected one-and-twenty,

Ling’ring year, at length is flown;
Pride and pleasure, pomp and plenty,
Great

are now your own.
Loosen'd from the minor's tether,

Free to mortgage or to sell';
Wild as wind, and light as feather,

Bid the sons of thrift farewell.

This Stanza is omitted in Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies, and instead of it we have the following, which may be suspected from internal evidence not to have been Johnson's.

When virtues, kindred virtues meet,

And sister-souls together join,
Thy pleasures permanent, as great,

Are all transporting-all divine.
• O! shall thy flames then cease to glow.

Call the Betseys, Kates, and Jennies,

All the names that banish care ;
Lavish of your grandsire's guineas, 31 1

Shew the spirit of an heir.
All that prey on vice or folly.it

Joy to see their quarry fly:
There the gamester light and jolly,

There the lender grave and sly.
Wealth, my lad, was made to wander,

Let it wander as it will;
Call the jockey, call the pander,

Bid them come and take their fill.
When the bonny blade carouses,

Pockets full, and spirits high
What are acres? what are houses?

Only dirt or wet or dry.
Should the guardian friend, or mother

Tell the woes of wilful waste;
Scorn their counsel, scorn their pother,

You can hang or drown at last.

EPITAPHS.

AT LITCHFIELD.

H. S. E.

MICHAEL JOHNSON. Vir impavidus, constans, animosus, periculorum immemor, laborum patientissimus; fiduciâ Christianâ fortis, fervidusque; Paterfamilias apprimè strenuus; Bibliopola admodum peritus; mente et libris et negotiis exculta; animo ita firmo, ut, rebus adversis diu conflictatus, nec sibi nec suis defuerit; Lingua sic temperata, ut ei nihil quod aures vel pias vel castas læsisset, aut dolor vel voluptas unquam expresserit. i

Natus Cubleiæ in agro Derbiensi, anno MDCLVI, obijt MDCCXXXI.

Apposita est SARA Conjux! Antiqua FORDORUM gente oriunda : quam domi sedulam, foris paucis notam; nulli molestam, mentis acumine et judicii subtilitate præcellentem ; aliis multum, sibi parum indulgentem; Æternitati semper attentam, omne fere Virtutis nomen commendavit.

Nata Nortoniæ Regis, in agro Varvicensi, anno MDCLXIX; obijt MDCCLIX.

Cum NATHANAELE illorum filio, qui natus MDCCXII, cum vires et animi et corporis' multa pollicerentur, anno MDCCXXXVII, vitam brevem pia morte finivit." ".!

IN BROMLEY CHURCH
Hic conduntur reliquiæ

ELIZABETHAE
Antiqua JARVISIORUM gente
Peatlingæ, apud Leicestrenses, ortæ ;

Formosæ, cultæ, ingeniosæ, piæ ;

Uxoris, primis nuptiis, Henrici Porter,

secundis, SAMUELIS JOHNSON,
Qui multum amatam, diuque defletam,

Hoc lapide contexit.
Obijt Londini, mense Mart.

A. D. MDCCLIII.

IN WATFORD CHURCH.

In the vault below are deposited the remains of

JANE BELL, wife of John BELL, Esq.

who in the fifty-third year of her age,

surrounded with many worldly blessings, heard, with fortitude and composure truly great, the horrible malady, which had for some time begun to

afflict her pronounced incurable ;

and for more than three years, endured with patience and concealed with decency,

the daily tortures of gradual death; continued to divide the hours not allotted to devotion, between the cares of her family, and the converse of

her friends;
rewarded the attendance of duty,

and acknowledged the offices of affection;
and while she endeavoured to alleviate by cheerfulness

her husband's sufferings and sorrows, increased them by her gratitude for his care,

and her solicitude for his quiet.

To the testimony of these virtues,
more highly honoured as more familiarly known,

this monument is erected by

JOHN BELL.*

. She died in October 1771.