From flaming hearts to catch a flame, And bid the bosom swell. Then catch the shadow of a heart, A rev'rend cully-mully puff 'Tis vanity, 'tis impudence Through which to fame I trod; TO MR. HOLLAND.1 WHAT numbers, Holland, can the muses find, Majestic as the eagle on the wing, Or the young sky-helm'd, mountain-rooted tree; Pleasing as meadows blushing with the spring, Loud as the surges of the Severn sea. In terror's strain, as clanging armies drear: In all, superior to my feeble lays. Black Anger's sudden rise, extatic pain; 1 This person was an actor of some provincial celebrity, whose performance of various characters at Bristol was for some time the engrossing subject of conversation among the friends of Chatterton. Whatever passions gall the human breast, So just thy action with thy part agrees, Each feature does the office of the tongue; Such is thy native elegance and ease, By thee the harsh line smoothly glides along. At thy feign'd woe we're really distrest, AN ELEGY, ON THE MUCH-LAMENTED DEATH OF WM. BECKFORD, ESQ., LATE LORD MAYOR OF AND REPRESENTATIVE IN PARLIAMENT FOR THE CITY OF LONDON.1 I. WEEP on, ye Britons! give your gen'ral Tear; But hence, ye venal-hence each titled Slave! An honest pang should wait on Beckford's Bier, And patriot Anguish mark the Patriot's Grave. 1 To the Editor of Felix Farley's Journal. SIR,-As the columns of your Paper gave the earliest effu II. When like the Roman to his Field retired, With soul impell'd by Virtue's Sacred Flame, came, And nobly in his Country's Service died. sions of the highly-gifted Chatterton to the public eye, it may form a ground for claiming a space for an entire copy of an Elegy by him, of which only the first twelve stanzas, gathered from a contemporary review, are to be found in any edition of his works. It was advertised in the Middlesex Journal, (the patriotic paper of that period, to which Chatterton made many communications,) on the 3d July, 1770, and was published in quarto, by Mr. Kearsley of Fleet-street, price one shilling. It is probable the author received for this production two guineas, according to his current account, inserted in his life, of the balance in favour of the Lord Mayor's death. The obtainment of a copy of the original publication was an object of search for above ten years. The punctuation, capital letters, numerals, &c., are followed as printed in Kearsley's edition. [For a complete copy of this celebrated Elegy-the first ever included in an edition of Chatterton's Works-the present Editor is indebted to the good services of Mr. Tyson, of Bristol.] IV. In the last awful, the departing Hour, When life's poor Lamp more faint and fainter grew; As Mem'ry feebly exercis'd her pow'r, He only felt for Liberty and you. V. He view'd Death's Arrow with a Christian Eye, VI. Thou breathing Sculpture, celebrate his fame, VII. The Sword of Justice cautiously he sway'd, VIII. He knew, when flatterers besiege a Throne, Knew, IF OPPRESS'D A LOYAL PEOPLE GROAN, HEAR. |