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Poems and Essays

By the late William Caldwell Roscoe. (Edited with a Prefatory Memoir, by his Brother-in-law, Richard Holt Hutton)
Roscoe, William Caldwell (1823-1859)

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MINOR POEMS.
  
[Clouds and mists and vapours dim]
  
THE FALSE FONTANLEE.
  
F. M.
  
AD PYRRHAM.
  
TO LAURA R.,
  
ARIADNE.
  
A NIGHTINGALE IN EASTBURY WOODS.
  
AFTER THE HUNGARIAN WAR.
  
OPPORTUNITY.
  
LINES AFTER MY FATHER'S DEATH.
  
TO THE PLANET VENUS,
  
[Rarely to our mortal eyes]
  
TO THE MARCH SUN.
  
A DREAM AND NO DREAM.
  
VENIT.
  
[When I asked her, “Wilt thou kiss me?’]
  
THE GOLDEN DAYS.
  
LOVE'S CREED.
  
[On many an English lady's face]
  
EXCUSE.
  
[A presence! a glory celestial!]
  
SONG.
  
OVER THE WEST.
  
“FREI IST DER BURSCH!”
  
TO LITTLE A. C. IN THE GARDEN AT EASTBURY.
  
FOR EVER.
  
AFTER MY SISTER'S DEATH.
  
AT THE SAME TIME.
  
AT NIGHT, AFTER MY SISTER'S DEATH.
  
[Why fear that the departed grieves]
  
FORD GREY OF WERKE TO HIS MISTRESS.
  
[I have a thought that fain would speak]
  
“IF IT DIE, IT BRINGETH FORTH MUCH FRUIT.”
  
MUSIC.
  
A BLIND GIRL'S QUESTIONINGS.
  
BEFORE DAWN.
  
BY THE SEASHORE.
  
A VISION.
  
[Lord, at thy feet we do not kneel]
  
THE YEAR OF LOVE.
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SONNETS.
  
A WET AUTUMN.
  
AT THE CHESHIRE POINT, LINLEY WOOD.
  
[Like a musician that with flying finger]
  
AT NIGHT.
  
MY FATHER'S DEATH.
  
TO MY MOTHER.
  
GIBSON'S STATUE OF AURORA.
  
TO M. S.
  
M. S.
  
TO THE REV. JOHN HAMILTON THOM.
  
[O Muse the Comforter! that in this vale]
  
TO A LADY PREFERRING CALM TO PASSIONATE POETRY.
  
LAUDATRIX TEMPORIS ACTI.
  
MIDNIGHT ON NEW YEAR'S EVE.
  
THE TWO NIGHTS.
  
A CHRISTMAS SONNET.
  
[Sad is my lot; among the shining spheres]
  
TO A FRIEND IN GRIEF.
  
TO A FRIEND.
  
IN DEJECTION. I.
  
IN DEJECTION II.
  
I
  
II
  
III
  
DAYBREAK IN FEBRUARY.
  
SYMBOLS OF VICTORY.
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ELIDUKE, COUNT OF YVELOC.
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ACT I
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Scene I.
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Scene II.
 III. 
Scene III.
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ACT II.
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Scene I.
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Scene II.
 III. 
Scene III.
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ACT III.
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Scene I.
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Scene II.
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Scene III.
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ACT IV.
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Scene I.
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Scene II.
 III. 
Scene III.
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ACT V.
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Scene I.
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Scene II.
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Scene III.
 IV. 
Scene IV.
 V. 
Scene V.
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VIOLENZIA.
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ACT I.
 I. 
Scene I.
 II. 
Scene II.
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Scene III.
 IV. 
Scene IV.
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ACT II.
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Scene I.
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Scene II.
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Scene III.
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Scene IV.
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Scene V.
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Scene VI.
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Scene VII.
 VIII. 
Scene VIII.
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ACT III.
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Scene I.
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Scene II.
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Scene III.
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ACT IV.
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Scene I.
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Scene II.
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Scene III.
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Scene IV.
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Scene V.
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Scene VI.
 VII. 
Scene VII.
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ACT V.
 I. 
Scene I.
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Scene II.
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Scene III.
  
[The bubble of the silver-springing waves]

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Scene VIII.

Night. A Corridor in the Palace.
Enter King and Malgodin.
King.
The air's cold, Malgodin.

Mal.
Tis the fitter, then,
For a bedfellow.

269

King.
Hell! hell! May kings be damned?

Mal.
Doubtless, your majesty.

King.
I hate you deadly!
Look you continue necessary, for sometimes
I have a madness nothing will assuage
But to see you dead and earthed.

Mal.
Ingratitude
Is a common vice of kings.

King.
Ingratitude!
Such gratitude I owe thee as lost souls
Owe to the devil. And grant it be a vice,
Is't the worse for that, old mischief-maker? ha?

Mal.
A good and sober night to your majesty.
I'll in, and pray to Heaven that your repentance
May be as sound as sudden.

King.
Where's the key?

Mal.
I beseech your majesty, forego this act.
The lady's of a fiery temperament,
And the brothers quick and bloody.

King.
Where's the key?
I am likely to be angry.

Mal.
Here it is.
You know the trick of the lock. The busy world
Is drowned in sleep, and no one lies so near
As to hear her shrieks, though they be louder than
Those that ghosts vent in hell. Go, if you dare;
But go not, if the passion of a girl,
Weak fears of another world, or such diseases,
Eat up your trembling will.

270

King.
To bed! to bed!
[Exit Mal.
The flaring candle backward bends its beams;
My passion backward bends, but fiercelier burns.
I love and loathe. Proud girl—that didst invite
War and not peace, rude storm for soft surrender—
Yet, oh, forgive me, sweet—no more—Again
The passionate fever surges in my veins.
Out, curious spy of day! And, oh, dark night,
[Extinguishing the light.
Be deaf and patient, like a wicked slave,
That watches while his master fills a grave.

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