The Rolliad Part 31

RECITATIVE _for the celebrated Female Singer from Manchester.

Symphony of Flutes--pianissimo._

Now in cotton robe array'd, Poor Manufacture, tax-lamenting maid, Thy story heard by her devoted wheel, Each busy-sounding spindle hush'd--

FUGUE.

Now, dreading Irish rape, Quick shifting voice and shape--

DEEP Ba.s.s, _from Birmingham._ With visage hard, and furnace flush'd, And black-hair'd chest, and nerve of steel, The s.e.x-chang'd listner stood In surly pensive mood.

AIR, _accompanied with double Ba.s.soons, &c._ While the promise-maker spoke The anvil miss'd the wonted stroke; In air suspended hammers hung, While _Pitt_'s own frauds came mended from that tongue.

PART OF CHORUS REPEATED.

Renown'd Divine, &c.

AIR.

Sooth'd with the sound the Priest grew vain, And all his tales told o'er again, And added hundreds more; By turns to this, or that, or both, He gave the sanction of an oath, And then the whole forswore.

"Truth," he sung, "was toil and trouble, Honour but an empty bubble"-- _Glo'ster_'s aged--_London_ dying-- Poor, too poor, is simple lying!

If the lawn be worth thy wearing, Win, oh! win it, by thy swearing!

FULL CHORUS REPEATED.

Grand deluder! arch-impostor, &c.[7]

PART II.

RECITATIVE _accompanied_.

Enough the parents praise--see of Deceit The fairer progeny ascends!

_Evasion_, nymph of agile feet, With half-veil'd face; _Profession_, whispering accents sweet And many a kindred _Fraud_ attends; Mutely dealing courtly wiles, Fav'ring nods, and hope-fraught smiles, A fond, amusive, tutelary race, That guard the home-pledg'd faith of Kings-- Or flitting, light, on paper wings; Speed Eastern guile across this earthly ball, And waft it back from _Windsor_ to _Bengal_.

But chiefly thee I woo, of changeful eye, In courts y'clept _Duplicity!_ Thy fond looks on mine imprinting, Vulgar mortals call it squinting-- Baby, of Art and Int'rest bred, } Whom, stealing to the back-stairs head } in fondling arms--with cautious tread, } [8]Wrinkle-twinkle _Jenky_ bore, To the baize-lin'd closet door.

AIR.

Sweet nymph, that liv'st unseen Within that lov'd recess-- Save when the Closet Councils press, And junto's speak the thing they mean; Tell me, ever-busy power, Where shall I trace thee in that vacant hour?

Art thou content, in the sequester'd grove, To play with hearts and vows of love!

Or emulous of prouder sway, Dost thou to list'ning Senates take thy way?

Thy presence let me still enjoy, With _Rose_, and the lie-loving boy.

AIR.

[9]No rogue that goes Is like that _Rose_, Or scatters such deceit: Come to my breast-- There ever rest a.s.sociate counterfeit!

_PART III._

LOUD SYMPHONY.

But lo! what throngs of rival bards!

More lofty themes! more bright rewards!

See Sal'sbury, a new Apollo sit!

Pattern and arbiter of wit!

The laureate wreathe hangs graceful from his wand; Begin! he cries, and waves his whiter hand.

'Tis _George_'s natal day-- Parna.s.sian Pega.s.sus away-- Grant me the more glorious steed Of royal _Brunswick_ breed[10]---- I kneel, I kneel; And at his snowy heel, Pindarick homage vow;-- He neighs; he bounds; I mount, I fly-- The air-drawn crosier in my eye, The visionary mitre on my brow-- Spirit of hierarchy exalt thy rhyme, And dedicate to George the lie sublime.

AIR _for a Bishop._ [11]Hither, brethren, incense bring, To the mitre-giving king; Praise him for his first donations; } Praise him for his blest translations, } Benefices, dispensations. } By the powers of a crown; By the many made for one; By a monarch's awful distance, Rights divine, and non-resistance, Honour, triumph, glory give-- Praise him in his might!

Praise him in his height!

The mighty, mighty height of his prerogative!

RECITATIVE _by an Archbishop._ Orchestras, of thousands strong, With Zadoc's zeal each note prolong-- Prepare!

Prepare!

_Bates_ gives the animating nod-- Sudden they strike--unnumber'd strings Vibrate to the best of Kings-- Eunuchs, Stentors, double ba.s.ses, Lab'ring lungs, inflated faces, Bellows working, Elbows jerking, Sc.r.a.ping, beating, Roaring, Sweating.

Thro' the old Gothic roofs be the chorus rebounded, 'Till Echo is deafen'd, and thunder dumb-founded: And now another pause--and now another nod --All proclaim a present G.o.d!

[12]_Bishops and Lords of the Bedchamber_, George submissive Britain sways; _Heavy_ Hanover obeys.

Proud Ierne's volunteers, Abject Commons, prostrate Peers-- All proclaim a present G.o.d-- (On the necks of all he trod) A present G.o.d!

A present G.o.d!

_Hallelujah!_

[1] Hail to the LYAR!] It was suggested to me, that my friend the Doctor had here followed the example of Voltaire, in deviating from common orthography.--_Lyar_, instead of _Lyre_, he conceives to be a reading of peculiar elegance in the present instance, as it puts the reader in suspence between an inanimate and a living instrument. However, for my own part, I am rather of opinion, that this seeming mis-spelling arose from the Doctor's following the same well-known circ.u.mspection which he exercised in the case of Mr. Wedgewood, and declining to give his Ode _under his hand_; preferring to repeat it to Mr. Delpini's Amanuensis, who very probably may have committed that, and similar errors in orthography.

[2] Winds its sly way, &c.] A line taken in great part from Milton.

The whole pa.s.sage (which it may not be unpleasing to recall to the recollection of the reader) has been closely imitated by my friend Prettyman, in a former work.

"I, under fair pretence of friendly ends, And well-placed words of glozing courtesy, Baited with reasons not unplausible, _Wind me into the easy-hearted man,_ And hug him into snares." COMUS.

[3] Golden tone, &c.] The epithet may seem at first more proper for the instrument, but it applies here with great propriety to the sound. In the strictest-sense, what is golden sound but the sound of gold? and what could arise more naturally in the writer's mind upon the present occasion?

[4] Phrenzy-rapt, &c.] Auditis? An me ludit amabilis Insania?----

[5] By thee inspir'd, &c.] In the first ma.n.u.script: "While yet a cradled child, he conquer'd shame, And lisp'd in fables, for the fables came." See POPE.

[6] Sin from his forehead sprung.]

"A G.o.ddess armed Out of thy head I sprung."

See MILTON's Birth of Sin.

[7] The quick transition of persons must have struck the reader in the first part of this Ode, and it will be observable throughout: Now Poet, now Muse, now Chorus; then Spinner, Blacksmith, &c. &c. The Doctor, skips from point to point over Parna.s.sus, with a nimbleness that no modern imitator of Pindar ever equalled.--Catch him, even under a momentary shape, who can. I was always an admirer of tergiversation (and as my flatterers might say), no bad pract.i.tioner; but it remained for my friend to shew the sublimity to which the figure lam alluding to (I do not know the learned name of it) might be carried.

[8] Wrinkle-twinkle, &c.] It must have been already observed by the sagacious reader, that our author can coin an epithet as well as a fable. Wrinkles are as frequently produced by the motion of the part as by the advance of age. The head of the distinguished personage here described, though in the prime of his faculties, he had more exercise in every sense than any head in the world.

Whether he means any illusion to the worship of the rising sun, and imitates the Persian priests, whose grand act of devotion is to turn round; or whether he merely thinks that the working of the head in circles will give a.n.a.logous effect to the species of argument in which he excels, we must remain in the dark; but certain it is, that whenever he reasons in public, the _capital_ and wonderful part of the frame I am alluding to, is continually revolving upon its axis: and his eyes, as if dazzled with rays that dart on him exclusively, twinkle in their orbs at the rate of sixty twinks to one revolution. I trust I have given a rational account, and not far-fetched, both of the wrinkle and twinkle in this ingenious compound.

[9] No rogue that goes, &c.] The candid reader will put no improper interpretation on the word rogue. Pretty rogue, dear rogue, &c.

are terms of endearment to one s.e.x; pleasant rogue, witty rogue, apply as familiar compliments to the other: Indeed _facetious rogue_ is the common table appellation of this gentleman in Downing-street.

[10] It will be observed by the attentive reader, that the thought of mounting the Hanoverian Horse, as a Pegasus, has been employed by Mr. Dundas, in his Ode preserved in this collection. It is true, the Doctor has taken the reins out of his hands, as it was time somebody should do. But I hereby forewarn the vulgar Critic, from the poor joke of making the Doctor a horse-stealer.

[11] Hither, brethren, &c.] When this Ode is performed in Westminster Abbey (as doubtless it will be) this Air is designed for the Reverend, or rather the Right Reverend Author. The numerous bench (for there will hardly be more than three absentees) who will begin to chaunt the subsequent chorus from their box at the right hand of his most sacred Majesty, will have fine effect both on the ear and eye.

[12] Lords of the bed-chamber, &c.] Candour obliges us to confess, that this designation of the performers, and in truth the following stanza, did not stand in the original copy, delivered into the Lord Chamberlain's Office. Indeed, Signor Delpini had his doubts as to the legality of admitting it, notwithstanding Mr. Rose's testimony, that it was actually and _bona fide_ composed with the rest of the Ode, and had only accidentally fallen into the same drawer of Mr. Pitt's bureau in which he had lately mislaid Mr. Gibbins's note. Mr. Banks's testimony was also solicited to the same effect; but he had left off vouching for the present session. Mr. Pepper Arden, indeed, with the most intrepid liberality, engaged to find authority for it in the statutes at large; on which Signor Delpini, with his usual terseness of repartee, instantly exclaimed, Ha! ha! ha!

However, the difficulty was at length obviated by an observation of the n.o.ble Lord who presided, that in the case of the King versus Arkinson, the House of Lords had established the right: of judges to amend a record, as Mr. Quarme had informed his Lordship immediately after his having voted for that decision.

_Here end Mr. Robinson's notes._ "A present G.o.d, Heavy Hanover, Abject Commons," &c.

The imitation will be obvious to the cla.s.sical reader, ------Praesens divus habebitur Augustus, _ab_jectis Britannis, Imperio, _gravibusque_ Persis. HOR.

All the editors of Horace have hitherto read _ad_jectis Britannis.

Our author, as sound a critic as a divine, _suo periculo_, makes the alteration of a single letter, and thereby gives a new and peculiar force to the application of the pa.s.sage.----N.B. _Abject_, in the author's understanding of the word, means that precise degree of submission due from a free people to monarchy. It is further worthy remark, that Horace wrote the Ode alluded to; before Britain was subjected to absolute sway; and consequently the pa.s.sage was meant as a prophetic compliment to Augustus. Those who do not think that Britain is yet sufficiently _abject_, will regard the imitation in the same light. We shall close this subject by observing, how much better GRAVIBUS applies in the imitation than in the original; and how well the untruth of Ierne's volunteers joining in the deification, exemplifies the dedicatory address of the lie SUBLIME!