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The works, in verse and prose, of William Shenstone, Esq

In two volumes. With Decorations. The fourth edition
Shenstone, William (1714-1763)

collapse sectionI. 
VOL. I.
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ELEGIES, WRITTEN ON Many different Occasions.
 I. 
ELEGY I. He arrives at his retirement in the country, and takes occasion to expatiate in praise of simplicity.
 II. 
ELEGY II. On posthumous reputation.
 III. 
ELEGY III. On the untimely death of a certain learned acquaintance.
 IV. 
ELEGY IV. Ophelia's urn. To Mr. G---.
 V. 
ELEGY V. He compares the turbulence of love with the tranquillity of friendship.
 VI. 
ELEGY VI. To a lady on the language of birds.
 VII. 
ELEGY VII. He describes his vision to an acquaintance.
 VIII. 
ELEGY VIII. He describes his early love of poetry, and its consequences. To Mr. G---. 1745.
 IX. 
ELEGY IX. He describes his disinterestedness to a friend.
 X. 
ELEGY X. To fortune, suggesting his motive for repining at her dispensations.
 XI. 
ELEGY XI. He complains how soon the pleasing novelty of life is over.
 XII. 
ELEGY XII. His recantation.
 XIII. 
ELEGY XIII. To a friend, on some slight occasion estranged from him.
 XIV. 
ELEGY XIV. Declining an invitation to visit foreign countries, he takes occasion to intimate the advantages of his own.
 XV. 
ELEGY XV. In memory of a private family in Worcestershire.
 XVI. 
ELEGY XVI. He suggests the advantages of birth to a person of merit, and the folly of a superciliousness that is built upon that sole foundation.
 XVII. 
ELEGY XVII. He indulges the suggestions of spleen: an elegy to the winds.
 XVIII. 
ELEGY XVIII. He repeats the song of Collin, a discerning shepherd; lamenting the state of the woollen manufactury.
 XIX. 
ELEGY XIX. Written in spring 1743.
 XX. 
ELEGY XX. He compares his humble fortune with the distress of others; and his subjection to Delia, with the miserable servitude of an African slave.
 XXI. 
ELEGY XXI. Taking a view of the country from his retirement, he is led to meditate on the character of the ancient Britons. Written at the time of a rumoured tax upon luxury, 1746.
 XXII. 
ELEGY XXII. Written in the year --- when the rights of sepulture were so frequently violated.
 XXIII. 
ELEGY XXIII. Reflections suggested by his situation.
 XXIV. 
ELEGY XXIV. He takes occasion from the fate of Eleanor of Bretagne , to suggest the imperfect pleasures of a solitary life.
 XXV. 
ELEGY XXV. To Delia, with some flowers; complaining how much his benevolence suffers on account of his humble fortune.
 XXVI. 
ELEGY XXVI. Describing the sorrow of an ingenuous mind, on the melancholy event of a licentious amour.
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ODES, SONGS, BALLADS, &c.
  
RURAL ELEGANCE. An ODE to the late Dutchess of Somerset.
  
ODE to MEMORY. 1748.
  
The Princess ELIZABETH: A Ballad alluding to a story recorded of her, when she was prisoner at Woodstock, 1554.
  
ODE to a young LADY, Somewhat too solicitous about her manner of expression.
  
NANCY of the VALE.
  
ODE to INDOLENCE. 1750.
  
ODE to HEALTH. 1730.
  
To a LADY of QUALITY,
  
UPON A VISIT to the same in Winter. 1748.
  
AN Irregular ODE after Sickness. 1749.
  
Written in a Flower Book of my own Colouring, designed for Lady Plimouth. 1753–4.
  
AN ACREONTIC. 1738.
  
ODE. Written 1739.
  
The DYING KID.
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SONGS, written chiefly between the Year 1737 and 1742.
 I. 
SONG I.
 II. 
SONG II. The Landskip.
 III. 
SONG III.
 IV. 
SONG IV. The Sky-Lark.
 V. 
SONG V.
 VI. 
SONG VI. The Attribute of Venus.
 VII. 
SONG VII.
 VIII. 
SONG VIII.
 IX. 
SONG IX.
 X. 
SONG X.
 XI. 
SONG XI.
 XII. 
SONG XII.
 XIII. 
SONG XIII. The Scholar's Relapse.
 XIV. 
SONG XIV. The Rose-Bud.
 XV. 
SONG XV.
 XVI. 
SONG XVI. Daphne's Visit.
 XVII. 
SONG XVII. Written in a Collection of Bacchanalian Songs.
 XVIII. 
SONG XVIII. Imitated from the French.
  
The HALCYON.
  
ODE.
  
A PASTORAL ODE,
  
VERSES written towards the close of the Year 1748, to William Lyttelton, Esq
  
JEMMY DAWSON. A Ballad; written about the Time of his Execution, in the Year 1745.
  
A Pastoral BALLAD, in Four Parts.
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LEVITIES;
  
FLIRT and PHIL;
  
Stanzas to the Memory of an agreeable Lady, buried in Marriage to a Person undeserving her.
  
COLEMIRA.
  
The Rape of the Trap.
  
On certain PASTORALS.
  
On Mr. C--- of Kidderminster's Poetry.
  
To the VIRTUOSOS.
  
The Extent of COOKERY.
  
The Progress of ADVICE.
  
A BALLAD.
  
Slender's Ghost. vid. Shakespear.
  
The INVIDIOUS.
  
The Price of an EQUIPAGE.
  
Hint from VOITURE.
  
INSCRIPTION.
  
To a FRIEND.
  
The POET and the DUN. 1741.
  
Written at an Inn at Henley.
  
A SIMILE.
  
The Charms of Precedence.
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ODE To be performed by Dr. Brettle, and a Chorus of Hales-owen Citizens.
  
AIR by the Doctor.
  
CHORUS of Citizens.
  
SOLO by the Doctor.
  
DUETTE.
  
EPILOGUE to the Tragedy of Cleone.
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MORAL PIECES.
  
THE Judgment of HERCULES.
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The Progress of TASTE.
 1. 
PART the FIRST.
 2. 
PART the SECOND.
 3. 
PART the THIRD.
 4. 
PART the FOURTH.
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OECONOMY, A RHAPSODY, addressed to young Poets.
 1. 
PART the FIRST.
 2. 
PART the SECOND.
 3. 
PART the THIRD.
  
The Ruin'd ABBY;
  
LOVE and HONOUR.
  
The SCHOOL-MISTRESS.
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VOL. II.
  
VERSES TO Mr. SHENSTONE.
  
To William Shenstone, Esq; at the Leasowes.
  
VERSES received by the post, from a LADY unknown, 1761.
  
On the discovery of an echo at Edgbaston. By ---/---
  
VERSES by Mr. Dodsley, on his first arrival at the LEASOWES, 1754.
  
To Mr. R. D. on the Death of Mr. Shenstone.
  
VERSES written at the Gardens of William Shenstone, Esquire, near Birmingham, 1756.
  
To William Shenstone, Esq; in his Sickness.
  
VERSES left on a Seat, the Hand unknown.
  
CORYDON, A PASTORAL.

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331

To Mr. R. D. on the Death of Mr. Shenstone.

“Thee, shepherd, thee, the woods and desart caves,
“With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown,
“And all their echoes mourn.”
Milt.

'Tis past! my friend; the transient scene is clos'd!
The fairy pile, th'enchanted vision rais'd
By Damon's magic skill, is lost in air!
What tho' the lawns and pendant woods remain,
Each tinkling stream, each rushing cataract,
With lapse incessant echoes thro' the dale?
Yet what avails the lifeless landskip now?
The charm's dissolv'd; the Genius of the wood,
Alas! is flown—for Damon is no more.
As when from fair Lyceum, crown'd with pines,
Or Mænalus, with leaves autumnal strew'd,
The tuneful Pan retires; the vocal hills
Resound no more, and all Arcadia mourns.
Yet here we fondly dreamt of lasting joys:
Here we had hop'd, from noisy throngs retir'd,
To drink large draughts of friendship's cordial stream;
In sweet oblivion wrapt, by Damon's verse,
And social converse, many a summer's day.
332

Romantic wish! In vain frail mortals trace
Th'imperfect sketch of human bliss—whilst yet
Th'enraptur'd sire his well-plann'd structure views,
Majestic rising 'midst his infant groves:
Sees the dark laurel spread its glossy shade,
Its languid bloom the purple lilack blend,
Or pale laburnum drop it's pensile chain:
Death spreads the fatal shaft, and bids his heir
Transplant the cypress round his father's tomb.
Oh! teach me then, like you, my friend, to raise
To moral truths my groveling song; for, ah!
Too long, by lawless fancy led astray,
Of nymphs and groves I've dreamt, and dancing fawns
Or Naïad leaning o'er her tinkling urn.
Oh! could I learn to sanctify my strains
With hymns, like those by tuneful Meyrick sung—
Or rather catch the melancholy sounds
From Warton's reed, or Mason's lyre—to paint
The sudden gloom that damps my soul—But see!
Melpomene herself has snatch'd the pipe,
With which sad Lyttelton his Lucia mourn'd;
And plaintive cries, my Shenstone is no more!
R. G.
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