The Poetical Works of Percival Stockdale In two volumes |
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ON SEEING MR. GARRICK IN DON JOHN,
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 | The Poetical Works of Percival Stockdale |  |
261
ON SEEING MR. GARRICK IN DON JOHN,
AND HIS AGE IN THE PUBLIC PAPERS.
Nature her sons of genius rare,
Those matchless men we style divine,
Sometimes protects with partial care,
And long they live, and long they shine.
Those matchless men we style divine,
Sometimes protects with partial care,
And long they live, and long they shine.
Last night confirmed I saw this truth,
When England's Roscius played Don John,
With all the activity of youth,
With all the fire of twenty-one.
When England's Roscius played Don John,
With all the activity of youth,
With all the fire of twenty-one.
Yet time with rigour turns his glass
And men and empires are no more;
Garrick by him is doomed to pass
The bourne his Shakespeare passed before.
And men and empires are no more;
Garrick by him is doomed to pass
The bourne his Shakespeare passed before.
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Then let the generous youth, too warm
To read the moral system's page,
Whom Shakespeare's nobler ethics charm,
And all the magic of the stage;—
To read the moral system's page,
Whom Shakespeare's nobler ethics charm,
And all the magic of the stage;—
Yet knows not our first actor's power—
Let him lay hold on fleeting time;
A transient privilege is ours;
We yet see Garrick in his prime.
Let him lay hold on fleeting time;
A transient privilege is ours;
We yet see Garrick in his prime.
Capricious man! we oft neglect
The good we can with ease acquire,
Too late our folly recollect,
And sigh, and pine with vain desire.
The good we can with ease acquire,
Too late our folly recollect,
And sigh, and pine with vain desire.
Fancy our judgment still misleads—
The hero must resign his breath
Before we justly prize his deeds;
His fame is ratified by death.
The hero must resign his breath
Before we justly prize his deeds;
His fame is ratified by death.
The poet's bays are in full bloom,
When he no more enjoys the light;
Nought like the verdict of his tomb,
Proves how divinely he could write.
When he no more enjoys the light;
Nought like the verdict of his tomb,
Proves how divinely he could write.
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I, too, adopt, like other men,
All this extravagance of thought:
What would I give to touch a pen,
With which my favourite Dryden wrote!
All this extravagance of thought:
What would I give to touch a pen,
With which my favourite Dryden wrote!
How strongly such attractions draw!
Tully through brambles urged his way,
To visit, with religious awe,
The grave where Archimedes lay.
Tully through brambles urged his way,
To visit, with religious awe,
The grave where Archimedes lay.
Thus, in that venerable fane,
Where monarchs, heroes, bards repose,
When the strong monumental strain
Thy talents, Garrick, faintly shows;—
Where monarchs, heroes, bards repose,
When the strong monumental strain
Thy talents, Garrick, faintly shows;—
Should One, who has thy friendship, live
With streaming eye the verse to see,
To him thy shade a wreath would give,
Thy glory would reflect on me.
With streaming eye the verse to see,
To him thy shade a wreath would give,
Thy glory would reflect on me.
And envy's lyes I'd then defeat;
The poet's monument I'd raise;
I'd sing thy virtues, and complete
The epitaph's deficient praise;
The poet's monument I'd raise;
I'd sing thy virtues, and complete
The epitaph's deficient praise;
264
Thy zeal for every liberal art,
To misery's tale thy listening ear—
I'd paint thee, through life's arduous part,
As great in Garrick as in Lear.
To misery's tale thy listening ear—
I'd paint thee, through life's arduous part,
As great in Garrick as in Lear.
| The Poetical Works of Percival Stockdale | |