The troubled pleasure foon chaftis'd by fear,
She mingled with the smile a tender tear.
The glorious chief refumes E
His tow'ry helmet, black with fhading plumes
His princefs parts with a prophetic figh,
Unwilling parts, and oft reverts her eye,
That ftream'd at every look; then, moving flow,
Sought her own palace, and indulg'd her woe.
TOUSES, churches, mixt together,
Streets unpleafant, in all weather;
Prifons, palaces contiguous,
Gates, a bridge, the Thames irriguous;
Gaudy things enough to tempt ye,
Showy outfides, infides empty;
Bubbles, trades, mechanic arts,
Coaches, wheelbarrows, and carts;
Warrants, bailiffs, bills unpaid,
Lords of laundresses afraid;
Rogues that nightly rob and fhoot men,
Hangmen, aldermen, and footmen;
Lawyers, poets, priefts, physicians,
Noble, fimple, all conditions;
Worth-beneath a threadbare cover,
Villany-bedaub'd all over;
Women, black, red, fair, and
Prudes, and fome that never pray;
Hand fome, ugly, noify ftill,"
Some that will not, fome that will;
Many a beau without a fhilling,
Many a widow not unwilling;
Many a bargain if you ftrike it,
This is London: How d'ye like it ?
THE WEARISOMENESS OF WHAT IS .
COMMONLY CALLED A LIFE OF
HE fpleen is feldom felt where Flora reigns ;'
The lowring eye, the petulance, the frown,
And fullen fadnefs, that o'erfhade, distort,
And mar the face of beauty, when no cause
For fuch immeasurable woe appears ;.
These Flora banishes, and gives the fair
Sweet fmiles and bloom, lefs tranfient than her own
It is the conftant revolution, flale
And taftelefs, of the fame repeated joys,
That palls and fatiates, and makes languid life
A pedlar's pack, that bows the bearer down,
Health fuffers, and the fpirits ebb; the heart
Recoils from its own choice-at the full feast
Is famifh'd-finds no mufic in the fong,
No fmartness in the jeft, and wonders why.
Yet thousands ftill defire to journey on,
Though halt and weary of the path they tread.
The paralytic, who can hold her cards,
But cannot play them, borrows a friend's hand
To deal and fhuffle, to divide and fort
Her mingled fuits and fequences, and fits
Spectatrefs both and spectacle, a fad
And filent cypher, while her proxy plays.
Others are dragg'd into the crowded room
Between fupporters; and, once feated, fit,
Through downright inability to rife,
Till the ftout bearer lift the corpfe again.
Thefe fpeak a loud memento.
Yet even these
Themfelves love life, and cling to it; as he
That overhangs a torrent, to a twig.
They love it, and yet loath it; fear to die,
Yet fcorn the purposes for which they live,
Then wherefore not renounce them? No-the dread,
The flavifh dread of folitude, that breeds
Reflection and remorfe, the fear of fhame,
And their invet'rate habits all forbid,
Whom call we gay? That honour has been long
The boaft of mere pretenders to the name,
The innocent are gay-the lark is
s gay,
That dries his feathers, faturate with dew,
Beneath the rofy cloud, while yet the beams
Of day-fpring overfhoot his humble neft.
The peafant too, a witness of his fong,
Himfelf a fongfter, is as gay as he.
But fave me from the gaiety of thofe
Whofe head-achs nail them to a noon-day bed;
And fave me too from theirs whofe haggard eyes.
Flash defperation, and betray their pangs
For property ftripp'd off by cruel chance;
From gaiety that fills the bones with pain,
The mouth with blafphemy, the heart with woe,
--་་་་་་་(:(((((2))Jpnt....
Infcription on a Grotto of Shells at Crux-Eafton, the Work of Nine young Ladies.*
ERE, fhunning idlenefs at once and praife,
The glittering emblem of each spotlefs dame.
Clear as her foul, and fhining as her frame;
Beauty, which nature only can impart,
And fuch a polifh as difgraces art;
But fate difpos'd them in his humble fort.
And hid in deferts what would charm a court.
*Mifs Lifles, daughters of Edward Lifle, Efq. and
fifters of Dr. Lifle.
Panting with eyes averted from the Day,
Prone helpless
on the Tangly beach he lay-
It is Palemon: oh! what tumults roll
With hope and terror in Arion's soul!
Published by J.Roach Woburn Street New Drury TheatreRoyal Dec." 31. 1794
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