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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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72

ELEGY XVII. He indulges the suggestions of spleen: an elegy to the winds.

Æole, namque tibi divum pater atque hominum rex
Et mulcere dedit mentes & tollere vento.

Stern monarch of the winds, admit my pray'r!
Awhile thy fury check, thy storms confine!
No trivial blast impells the passive air;
But brews a tempest in a breast like mine.
What bands of black ideas spread their wings!
The peaceful regions of content invade!
With deadly poison taint the crystal springs!
With noisome vapour blast the verdant shade!
I know their leader, spleen; and dread the sway
Of rigid Eurus, his detested sire;
Thro' one my blossoms and my fruits decay;
Thro' one my pleasures, and my hopes expire,
Like some pale stripling, when his icy way
Relenting yields beneath the noontide beam,
I stand aghast; and chill'd with fear survey
How far I've tempted life's deceitful stream!
73

Where by remorse impell'd, repuls'd by fears,
Shall wretched fancy a retreat explore?
She flies the sad presage of coming years,
And sorr'wing dwells on pleasures now no more!
Again with patrons, and with friends she roves;
But friends and patrons never to return!
She sees the nymphs, the graces, and the loves,
But sees them, weeping o'er Lucinda's urn.
She visits, Isis! thy forsaken stream,
Oh ill forsaken for Bœotian air!
She deems no flood reflects so bright a beam,
No reed so verdant, and no flow'rs so fair.
She dreams beneath thy sacred shades were peace,
Thy bays might ev'n the civil storm repel;
Reviews thy social bliss, thy learned ease,
And with no chearful accent cries, farewel!
Farewel, with whom to these retreats I stray'd!
By youthful sports, by youthful toils ally'd!
Joyous we sojourn'd in thy circling shade,
And wept to find the paths of life divide.
She paints the progress of my rival's vow;
Sees ev'ry muse a partial ear incline;
Binds with luxuriant bays his favour'd brow,
Nor yields the refuse of his wreath to mine.
74

She bids the flatt'ring mirror, form'd to please,
Now blast my hope, now vindicate despair;
Bids my fond verse the love-sick parley cease;
Accuse my rigid fate, acquit my fair.
Where circling rocks defend some pathless vale,
Superfluous mortal, let me ever rove!
Alas! there echo will repeat the tale—
Where shall I find the silent scenes I love?
Fain would I mourn my luckless fate alone;
Forbid to please, yet fated to admire;
Away my friends! my sorrows are my own!
Why should I breathe around my sick desire?
Bear me ye winds, indulgent to my pains,
Near some sad ruin's ghastly shade to dwell!
Here let me fondly eye the rude remains,
And from the mould'ring refuse, build my cell!
Genius of Rome! thy prostrate pomp display!
Trace ev'ry dismal proof of fortune's pow'r;
Let me the wreck of theatres survey,
Or pensive sit beneath some nodding tow'r.
Or where some duct, by rolling seasons worn,
Convey'd pure streams to Rome's imperial wall,
Near the wide breach in silence let me mourn;
Or tune my dirges to the water's fall.
75

Genius of Carthage! paint thy ruin'd pride;
Tow'rs, arches, fanes in wild confusion strewn;
Let banish'd Marius, low'ring by thy side,
Compare thy fickle fortunes with his own.
Ah no! thou monarch of the storms! forbear;
My trembling nerves abhor thy rude controul;
And scarce a pleasing twilight soothes my care,
Ere one vast death like darkness shocks my soul.
Forbear thy rage—on no perennial base
Is built frail fear, or hope's deceitful pile;
My pains are fled—my joy resumes its place,
Shou'd the sky brighten, or Melissa smile.
 

Inopemque vitam in tugurio ruinarum Carthaginensium toleravit, cum Marius inspiciens Carthaginem, illa intuens Marium, alter alteri possent esse solatio. Liv.

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