Stultifera Navis :: :: University of Virginia Library

What mighty spell pervades thy breast,
Canst thou caress and be caress'd;
By one in years grown old?
Canst thou from that pale shrivell'd lip,
The nectar strive of love to sip;
And all for baleful gold?

Canst thou invigorate that frame,
Gives age's ice youth's ardent flame;
Can blissful love be sold?
Canst thou before the altar kneel ,
And swear to what thou ne'er canst feel,
The wretched slave of gold.

Bid waters freeze in summer's glow,
Bid roses bloom 'mid Alpine snow,
When northern blasts blow cold;

As friends bid truth and falsehood meet,
So shall thy vows enraptur'd greet,
Connubial bliss for gold.

Let sanction'd priest the rites begin,
Let parents tolerate the sin,
By av'rice thou'rt inroll'd;
Yet ere one month thou'lt curse thy vow,
Thy parents—and too late allow,
Thy mis'ry's seal'd by gold.

L'ENVOY OF THE POET.

Nature this truth proclaims with clarion tongue,
Congenial years ne'er feel love's diminution;
But when the gold of age allures the young,
Such rite becomes a legal prostitution.

THE POET'S CHORUS TO FOOLS.

Come trim the boat, row on each Rara Avis,
Crowds flock to man my Stultifera Navis.

The following lines, so applicable to the point in question, are here introduced, in order to finish the picture of the poet.

Or now behold the man by fortune cross'd,
His vessel on the sea of mis'ry toss'd;
He for a competence will sell his youth,
And meanly vow the opposite to truth;
Ah, silly fool! how soon the vision flies,
That lately dazzled thy too eager eyes!
How loathsome the idea—O Heav'n! to feel
The skinny carcase tow'rd your person steal;
Seeking with wanton wish the marriage due,
Alas! how vainly claiming it from you!
From you, incompetent and cold as death,
Repulsive, loathing, peevish in a breath;
Cursing internally the marry'd state,
Repentant, when repentance comes too late.

However we may laugh, on viewing the effusions of the painter, we cannot but inwardly moralize on contemplating that plate in the series of the Rake's progress, which portrays the youthful spendthrift in the act of uniting himself with one old enough to be his grandmother—Let any individual but observe therein the liquorish eye of squinting age, blinking towards the visage of cool and passionless youth, and nothing more need be alleged on the subject of improper marriages.

A very melancholy fact is related by a French author, which, although not exactly analogous to the subject of this section, is nevertheless calculated to prove the misery of ill assorted unions. The parents of a very beautiful young lady, allured by the fascinations of superior wealth, bestowed the hand of their dejected Mariana on a very rich, but aged advocate; the unfortunate sufferer, who had solely yielded her acquiescence on the score of duty, brooded but for a day on the wretchedness of her situation; for on the morn which succeeded the nuptials, the melancholy bride, breaking an egg, mingled with the same a deadly poison unperceived; when leisurely eating the contents, she exclaimed—“My parents commanded the union, and by my obedience I have given them proofs of my devotion to their will—more they cannot require of me, for in obeying, I die for them!”