 | The works, in verse and prose, of the late Robert Treat Paine, Jun. Esq |  |
206
ADDRESS
Delivered on the occasion of Master John H. Payne's first appearance on the Boston Stage, in the character of Young Norval.
Friends of the mimick world! our scenes this night
An age of fame has sanctioned to delight!
Oft to their aid the Fabling Muse has come,
And called up Roscius, from his shroud at Rome!
We, loath to wake again the classick ghost,
A native Roscius on our boards can boast.
An age of fame has sanctioned to delight!
Oft to their aid the Fabling Muse has come,
And called up Roscius, from his shroud at Rome!
We, loath to wake again the classick ghost,
A native Roscius on our boards can boast.
A shepherd boy, in Celtick fiction drest,
The fire of Nature struggling in his breast,
Forsook his cottage to atchieve a name,
And found a mother, where he sought for Fame!
Proud from her hand, the laurel he receives,
While tears of rapture glitter on its leaves!
The fire of Nature struggling in his breast,
Forsook his cottage to atchieve a name,
And found a mother, where he sought for Fame!
Proud from her hand, the laurel he receives,
While tears of rapture glitter on its leaves!
This night, a brother champion will advance,
In Thespian tournament to break the lance!
He throws no gauntlet at a critick age,
Nor dares with wits a rude encounter wage;
Yet, like the Norval of a sterner clime,
He hopes a boy's ambition is no crime!
Like him, he dares aspire to earn a name,
Your heart, his mother, your applause, his fame!
Blest, if your eyes with beams of Pleasure burn;
And humbly proud, if they correct, to learn!
In Thespian tournament to break the lance!
He throws no gauntlet at a critick age,
Nor dares with wits a rude encounter wage;
Yet, like the Norval of a sterner clime,
He hopes a boy's ambition is no crime!
Like him, he dares aspire to earn a name,
Your heart, his mother, your applause, his fame!
207
And humbly proud, if they correct, to learn!
Thus, would he preface, with ingenuous tongue,
That manly worth, which should not pass unsung.
Though o'er his head Life's spring has scarcely smiled,
A classick actor cannot be a child!
The rays of Fancy youthful bosoms warm,
Learning and Life, maturer minds inform!
Yet here, in manhood's dawn, he dares to raise
The torch of Science, to the shrine of Praise!
By Genius fired, he yields to Passion's glow;
Nor rules by verse the prosody of woe!
The tear of feeling Art can ne'er supply;
The heart must moisten, e'er it melts the eye!
That manly worth, which should not pass unsung.
Though o'er his head Life's spring has scarcely smiled,
A classick actor cannot be a child!
The rays of Fancy youthful bosoms warm,
Learning and Life, maturer minds inform!
Yet here, in manhood's dawn, he dares to raise
The torch of Science, to the shrine of Praise!
By Genius fired, he yields to Passion's glow;
Nor rules by verse the prosody of woe!
The tear of feeling Art can ne'er supply;
The heart must moisten, e'er it melts the eye!
His caves of voice no measured thunders roll;
He speaks from nature, and he looks from soul!
In all the Drama's technick lore untaught,
He reads by sentiment, and moves by thought.
When love-lorn Pathos pours its melting moan,
Truth's fibre trembles at his touching tone!
When o'er the scene contending Passions fly,
He groups the shadows with a Poet's eye.
And when his brows the hero's plumes erect,
“The blood of Douglas, can itself protect;”
Through Fiction's range, he gives, with skill profound,
Genius to Grace, and eloquence to Sound!
The tragick code of artificial speech
Taste may reject, or discipline may teach;
But, as the eye the trackless ridge explores,
Genius o'erleaps the cliff, where Labour never soars!
He speaks from nature, and he looks from soul!
In all the Drama's technick lore untaught,
He reads by sentiment, and moves by thought.
When love-lorn Pathos pours its melting moan,
Truth's fibre trembles at his touching tone!
When o'er the scene contending Passions fly,
He groups the shadows with a Poet's eye.
And when his brows the hero's plumes erect,
“The blood of Douglas, can itself protect;”
Through Fiction's range, he gives, with skill profound,
Genius to Grace, and eloquence to Sound!
The tragick code of artificial speech
Taste may reject, or discipline may teach;
But, as the eye the trackless ridge explores,
Genius o'erleaps the cliff, where Labour never soars!
208
A humble weed transplanted from the waste,
Formed the proud chapiter of Grecian taste.
Chance dropped the weight its yielding foliage twined,
And drooped, with graceful negligence inclined.
Sculpture a model saw, to Art unknown,
Copied the form, and turned the plant to stone!
The chiselled weed adorned the Temple's head,
And gods were worshipped, where its branches spread!
If in our Norval, candid judges find
Some kindred flower, to grace the stage designed;
If, to the pressure, Fortune has imposed,
You owe those talents, Art had ne'er disclosed;
If, like the graced Acanthus he appear,
Be you Callymachus, be Corinth here!
Formed the proud chapiter of Grecian taste.
Chance dropped the weight its yielding foliage twined,
And drooped, with graceful negligence inclined.
Sculpture a model saw, to Art unknown,
Copied the form, and turned the plant to stone!
The chiselled weed adorned the Temple's head,
And gods were worshipped, where its branches spread!
If in our Norval, candid judges find
Some kindred flower, to grace the stage designed;
If, to the pressure, Fortune has imposed,
You owe those talents, Art had ne'er disclosed;
If, like the graced Acanthus he appear,
Be you Callymachus, be Corinth here!
| The works, in verse and prose, of the late Robert Treat Paine, Jun. Esq | |