Page images
PDF
EPUB

A chariot's rattling wheels are near,
The wand'rer flies with anxious fear,
But yet she flies too slow.

She falls! the chariot stops-poor Mary cries,

'William, is't you?'-screams, struggles, faints, and dies!

THE DELLA CRUSCA SCHOOL.

WE are favoured with a letter from

Correspondent, who professes to be a great admirer of that beautiful, just, and forcible poetry for which the world is indebted to the profound genius, correct taste, virtuous, patriotic, and loyal sentiments of Mrs. Robinson, and other modish poetesses and poets, who excel in that species of literary effort known by the name of NAMBY PAMBY. The cruel censure of Mr. William Gifford has driven many writers of the DELLA CRUSCA School from verse to prose. They still, however, retain a hankering after their former occupation, and love to hear the chink of their own rhymes. Debarred by the Baviad and Maviad from lengthened poems, they now contract, their fancies into sonnets, rebusses, riddles, and charades, retaining in their versified vagaries that abundance of expletive epithets, that ardour of alliteration, that studied selection of phantastical phraseology, those liquid lullabies and melodious madrigals, which heretofore distinguished the sentimental sweetness and innocent inanity of LAURA MARIA and ANNA MATILDA.

Our Correspondent, admiring these exquisite effusions, has imitated them, we think, with considerable success, in an Address to a Pig; not the Learned Pig, LAURA MARIA'S compositions not being relished by the learned, whether quadrupeds or bipeds.

SENTIMENTAL SONNET

ТО А

PRETTY PIG.

*

WHITHER, poor bristly wandrer, dost thou stray?
Adown my cheek I feel the trickling tear,
For much, poor bristly wand'rer, I fear,
Short in this world of cares will be thy stay!
Ah! soon, to all devouring man a prey,
No longer grunting, shalt thou grub about,
Thrust on each dunghill thine intrusive snout,
Or tranquil bask thee in the sunny ray!
Hung in thy slaught'ring shop, a mangled corse,
In vain the much lov'd partner of thy stye
Shall for her faithful piggy wiggy cry!
In vain in thrilling accents mourn thy loss!

We mark in Italics those expletives, alliterations, repetitions, and other beauties which distinguish the Namby Pamby Poets and Poetesses.

Farewell! thy race no more shall bleed for me,
My carcass shall no more be fed with thine,
Tho' oft! too oft my dinner us'd to be
Pease-pudding and the pickled flesh of swine.

April.]

ELEGIAC STANZAS

ON

THE DEATH OF AN ONLY SON.

BY S. LEWIS.

THE task is o'er!-Sweet babe, thou'rt fled,

And left thy fragile earthly home!—

Yet still my mournful yearly lays

Shall deck thy early infant tomb.
With thee is fled each airy scheme

Thy fond, thy doating father drew;
With thee is fled each dawning hope
Which future time can ne'er renew!
In Fancy's eye, I saw my child

Progressive rise to manhood's day;
Methought I saw his mind illum'd
With Wisdom's potent, piercing ray.
I fondly dreamt, when hoary age

Had strew'd my head with silver hair,
My boy might then have been my prop,
And smooth'd my wrinkl'd brow of care.
Illusive dreams, alas!-You're fled-
Remov'd is every promis'd joy!

My last bright gleam of hope's interr'd
With thee, my darling infant boy!
Frail man! how futile are thy views!

How transient are thy prospects gay!
Thy brighest schemes of bliss oft fade,
Quick as the meteor's radiant ray!
In youth's gay morn, how bright the scene
That sanguine Fancy then pourtrays;

But ah! in Life's maturer stage,

How alter'd seems the landscape's blaze
Farewell, ye fleeting, cheating dreams!
Adieu, each vain terrestrial joy!
My joys, my hopes, are now interr'd

With thee, my darling infant boy!

BIOGRAPHICAL, LITERARY, AND SCIENTIFIC

MAGAZINE

FOR

MAY 1799.

CONDUCTED BY

ROBERT BISSET, LL. D.

WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF OTHER LITERARY GENTLEMEN.

THIS NUMBER IS EMBELLISHED WITH A PORTRAIT OF

SIR THOMAS BOULDEN THOMPSON,

LATE CAPTAIN Of the leander, BUT NOW OF THE BELLONA FRIGATE;

AND A SKETCH OF THAT CELEBRATED PIECE OF GRECIAN SCULPTURE,
THE LAOCOON.

LONDON:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY

G. CAWTHORN, BRITISH LIBRARY, NO. 132, STRAND; SOLD ALSO BY MESSRS. RICHARDSON, ROYAL-EXCHANGE; W. WEST, PATERNOSTERROW; J. HATCHARD AND J. WRIGHT, PICCADILLY; P. HILL, EDINBURGH; AND ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN TOWN AND COUNTRY.

TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS.

THE subject of Biography for our Magazine for June will be the Right Hon. WILLIAM PITT. We shall therein attempt a Sketch of the intellectual, moral, literary, oratorical, and political Character of that Personage; and shall endeavour particularly to investigate the causes, in the constitution of his mind, the discipline it has received, bis habits, and the circumstances of the times, which have produced its formation and exertions. It will be accompanied by a Portrait, engraved by Heath.

Facts or observations on this subject will be thankfully received.

To the anonymous Correspondent who subscribes himself Senex we recom mend Entick's Spelling Dictionary.

Several favours are under consideration.

BIOGRAPHY.

SKETCH OF THE LIFE

OF

SIR THOMAS BOULDEN THOMPSON,

CAPTAIN OF THE BELLONA;

(LATE OF THE LEANDER, UNDER ADMIRAL NELSON IN THE BATTLE OF THE NILE.)

THO

HOMAS BOULDEN, the subject of this memoir, is a native of Kent. His father, Mr. Boulden, a gentleman of that part of England, married Miss Thompson, sister of Edward Thompson, Esq. then a Lieutenant in the Navy. Boulden, when a very young boy, gave indications of spirit, vigour, and ability. A cause, howevers existed which might have confined the exertion of his talents and virtues to a much less extensive, honourable, and beneficial a theatre;→→→ res angusta domi. The narrow finances of his parents must have prevented them from fostering the genius of their son by such an éducation as they would naturally bestow on a child of so high promise. But this deficiency was most amply and usefully supplied by the affections and talents of his Uncle, Captain Thompson, an Officer whose general merit, both of head and heart, enhanced the high value of his professional qualifications.

Captain Thompson, during part of the peace that preceded the American war, lived in Kew-Lane, and, in a very comfortable house, enjoyed himself in a retirement sufficiently sequestered to prevent disturbance from the bustle of the capital; and sufficiently near to be within immediate call, when the service of his country should require his active exertions. He was not only an intrepid and skilful officer, but a man of acute abilities, lively fancy, and a great taste for literature. These qualities would have alone powerfully contributed to ward off that languor which so often overwhelms men accustomed to active life, when precluded from the habitual exercise of their bodies and minds; but he added an employment, in its principle most meritorious, in its consequences most honourable and beneficial to its object, and to the country to which he belongs.

Captain Thompson, after bestowing on his nephew Thomas the first rudiments of his education at school, as soon as he was so far advanced as to be able to profit from his instructions, took him entirely under his own care; taught him, with the greatest accuracy, strictness, and success, navigation, and the various subsidiary branches

VOL. 1.

« PreviousContinue »