And, in the last verse she puts the pardon of her husband before that of Heaven. I shall not raise my eyes to heaven, Nor mercy ask for me; My soul despairs to be forgiven, In the next song, "There is one dark and silent hour", (p. 136.) "fate decrees" and Almighty power", are mentioned. Whether fate is the Almighty power does not exactly appear, but, in any light, the expression, or the mixture, is reprehensible. In the song "Can loving father ever prove", (p. 137.) a dutiful and affectionate daughter mentions the feelings she has towards her father and mother, and says, But still, I own with conscious shame, She adds, Oh, Henry, say, my only pride! Now, if her love was pure, and there is no reason to think the contrary, there was not necessarily any shame in her loving another dearer than them: "A man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife", (Genesis II. 24. and Matt. xix. 5.) And indeed, in the conclusion, she expresses no doubt of the rectitude of making a choice, if sanctioned by her parents. Yet would the soft paternal voice To him for whom indeed I live Than father-mother-dearer name Nor heart could wish, nor tongue could frame. She had said before of her love for her mother, Saints above Feel not the fervour of my love. By which I suppose she means that the love of saints in heaven to God, or to each other, is not equal to her's for her mother. This is going too far. In "Fair, and soft, and gay, and young,' (p. 138.) the lover says of his love, Like heaven's, too mighty to express, My joys could but be known by guess! this is profane, and what he says about his mistress being made for one", and then that she is "faithless" and "not made for one" is a picture of so serious a crime as faithlessness, drawn with levity, and mixed with indecent insinuation. In "Tho' cruel you seem to my pain," (p. 139.) Phyllis, who is not married, loves a false swain, who has other nymphs in his view: the other lover, the writer of the song, says, Enjoyment's a trifle to him, To me what a heaven 't would be! To him but a woman you seem, But, ah! you're an angel to me. Too much is expressed in the remainder of the song. In "Ye shepherds and nymphs that adorn the gay plain," (p. 140.) we have a swain dying for love. "Ye happy swains, whose hearts are free", (p. 142.) are advised to avoid love, and to "fly the fair sex", which, as general advice, I hold to be wrong and unnatural. "When your beauty appears", by Parnel, (p. 143.) is too light throughout, and especially in the idea about the angel and woman in the last verse. The strain of the Song (p. 145.) is discreditable to true love, and to the human race: Can love be control'd by advice? Can madness and reason agree? O MOLLY who'd ever be wise, If madness is loving of thee? He afterwards says: "Dull wisdom but adds to our care", on which subject see before, p. 146. This Song is also of that species which perversely represents pleasure as the only or principal consequence to be drawn from the shortness of life. The next Song (p. 146.) "Think no more, my gentle maid," signed J. A. besides the introducing Cupid, is, to my mind, much too warm and sensually descriptive in its expressions, particularly in the last four lines. "Why, cruel creature, why so bent", (p. 147.) is not on the whole a bad song; but the saying (verse 3) that "Kings are themselves too poor" and "a thousand worlds too few" to pay the value of her "endless charms," is very extravagant. The next, "Forever, Fortune, wilt thou prove", (p. 148.) is a Prayer to Fortune, and is therefore, I think, profane and idolatrous. The Ignorant (says Stanhope, in his Paraphrase and Comment on the Epistles and Gospels, Third Sunday after Easter, Vol. III. p. 38, Eighth Edit.) the "Ignorant have called that the Tyranny and Blindness of Fortune, which Christians are taught to believe, is the Disposition of an infinitely Wise, and Just, and Good Being." Respecting the merits of the next Song, Sir, Darby and Joan, "Dear Chloe, while thus beyond measure", (p. 149.) attributed to Prior, I intirely agree with you; and only wonder, that, having a relish for such a portrait of humble life," (see before Letter II. p. 36, &c.) you can admire the extravagant rants, and forced and false sentiments which prevail in the generality of Songs in your Collection. This is given in the first of my volumes. The Song "Away! let nought to love displeasing," (p. 151.) is given in the second Volume of my Collection, but with the four last lines altered. I thought the sentiment contained in them too poor for so worthy a character. "O Nancy, wilt thou go with me," (p. 152.) is a beautiful picture of chaste and disinterested love. That likewise is in my second volume. "In vain, fond youth, thy tears give o’er”. (p. 154.) In this song the lady says, "Should heaven and earth with thee combine, "Twere all in vain". I feel an unwillingness to notice the Song beginning "The wretch O never let me know" p. 155. as it is in some respects both beautiful and morally good. But nothing is hinted of Colin being the husband of the woman, but rather otherwise. There is frequently an obscurity or ambiguity in amatory songs whether the love mentioned be lawful or unlawful, which I consider as very objectionable; it leaves an opening for bad application by readers that way inclined. This objection appears to me to apply in some measure also to the Songs, p. 112. 146. 182. |