TO MR. HOLLAND.1

WHAT numbers, Holland, can the muses find,
To sing thy merit in each varied part,
When action, eloquence, and ease combin'd,
Make nature but a copy of thy art?

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 love, as Jove, too great for mortal praise;

In pity, gentle as the falling tear;

In all, superior to my feeble lays.

Black Anger's sudden rise, extatic pain;
Tormenting Jealousy's self-cank'ring sting;
Consuming Envy, with her yelling train;

Fraud closely shrouded with the turtle's wing:

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,
Play in thy features, and await thy nod;
In thee, by art, the demon stands confest,
But nature on thy soul has stamp'd the god.

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,
At thy feign'd tears we let the real fall;
By every judge of nature 'tis confest,
No single part is thine, thou'rt all in all.

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 genʼral 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,
'Twas you (surrounded by unnumber'd Foes)
Who call'd him forth, his Services required,
And took from Age the Blessing of Repose.

III.

With soul impell'd by Virtue's Sacred Flame,
To stem the Torrent of corruption's Tide,
He came, heav'n fraught with Liberty! he

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 editionof 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,
With firmness only to a Christian known ;
And nobly gave your Miseries that sigh
With which he never gratified his own.

VI.

Thou breathing Sculpture, celebrate his fame,
And give his Laurel everlasting Bloom;
Record his worth while Gratitude has name,
And teach succeeding ages from his Tomb.

VII.

The Sword of Justice cautiously he sway'd,
His hand for ever held the balance right;
Each venial Fault with Pity he survey'd,
But MURDER found no MERCY in his sight.

VIII.

He knew, when flatterers besiege a Throne,
Truth seldom reaches to a Monarch's Ear;

Knew, IF OPPRESS'D A LOYAL PEOPLE GROAN,
'Tis not the COURTIER'S Interest HE SHOULD

HEAR.

IX.

Hence honest to his Prince his manly Tongue The PUBLIC WRONG and LOYALTY convey'd, While TITLED tremblers, ev'ry Nerve unstrung, Look'd all around, confounded and dismay'd;

X.

Look'd all around, astonish'd to behold

(Train'd up to Flatt'ry from their early Youth) An ARTLESS, FEARLESS Citizen unfold TO ROYAL Ears a MORTIFYING Truth.

XI.

Titles to him no pleasures could impart,
No bribes his rigid Virtue could controul;
The Star could never gain upon his Heart,
Nor turn the Tide of Honour in his soul.

XII.

For this his Name our Hist'ry shall adorn,
Shall soar on Fame's wide pinions all sublime,
'Till Heaven's own bright and never-dying morn
Absorbs our little particle of Time.

13.

Far other Fate the Venal Crew shall find,
Who sigh for pomp, or languish after strings;
And sell their native probity of mind,

For Bribes from Statesmen, or for Smiles from
Kings.