The priests knew not that country-folks Gave pigs the name of friars ; But startled, witless of the joke, As if they trod on briers. Meanwhile, as they perspired with dread, The hair of either craven Had stood erect upon his head, But that their heads were shaven. For water and a crust they crave, Those mouths that, even on Lent days, Scarce knew the taste of water, save When watering for dainties. Quoth Jacquez, “ That were sorry cheer For men fatigued and dusty ; You'd go to bed but crusty." Wine fit to feast Silenus, They laugh'd like two hyenas. Regaled each pardon-gauger, And lied as for a wager With aëronautic martyrs; Had only dipt her garters. With jaws three inch asunder, 'T was partly out of weariness, And partly out of wonder, Then striking up duets, the frères Went on to sing in matches, From psalms to sentimental airs, From these to glees and catches. Like a baboon and tame bear, And shown them to their chamber. The mom was high, the host's was nigh: Had wife or he suspicion Of chinks in the partition ?- Their holy ears outreaching Almost as their own preaching? Shame on you, friars of orders grey, That peeping knelt, and wriggling, And when ye should have gone to pray, Betook yourselves to giggling! And hark! what information Look black with consternation, The farmer on a hone prepares His knife, a long and keen one ; And talks of killing both the frères, The fat one and the lean one. To-morrow by the break of day, He orders, too, saltpetre And pickling tubs_But, reader, stay, Our host was no man-eater. What! pickle and smoke us limb by limb? God curse him and his larders! St. Peter will bedevil him If he saltpetre friars. Idea shakes one oddly; Beginning to be godly. Of all our sins and cogging, We had a whip to give and take A last kind mutual flogging, “O Dominick! thy nether end Should bleed for expiation, A glorious flagellation.” They bow'd like weeping willows, Of all their peccadilloes. A thought their fancies tickled ; Than be at morning pickled. Both under breath imploring Their host and hostess snoring, The lean one 'lighted like a cat, Then scamper'd off like Jehu, Nor stopp'd to help the man of fat, Whose cheek was of a clay hue-Who, being by nature more design'd For resting than for jumping, Fell heavy on his parts behind, That broadend with the plumping. There long beneath the window's sconce His bruises he sat pawing, Upon a Chinese drawing. The pigs, you'd thought for game-sake, Came round and nosed him lovingly, As if they'd known their namesake. Meanwhile the other flew to town, And with short respiration Bray'd like a donkey up and down, Ass-ass-ass-assination!" Men left their beds, and night-capp'd heads Popp'd out from every casement; The cats ran frighten'd on the leads ; Dijon was all amazement. Doors bang'd, dogs bay'd, and boys hurra'd, Throats gaped aghast in bare rows, Till soundest sleeping watchmen woke, And even at last the mayor roseWho, charging him before police, Demands of Dominick surly, What earthquake, fire, or breach of peace Made all this hurly-burly? “Ass” quoth the priest, “ ass-assins, sir, Are (hence a league, or nigher) And barrel up a friar." A troop from the gens-d'armes' house To storm the bloody farm's house. As they were cantering toward the place, Comes Jacquez to the swine-yard, But started when a great round face Cried, “ Rascal! hold thy whinyard." 'Twas Boniface, as mad's King Lear, Playing antics in the piggery: You mountain of a friar, eh?" And blubber'd with the vapors, That frantic capuchin began To cut fantastic capers Crying, “ Help! hollo! the bellows blow, The pot is on to stew me; I am a pretty pig—but no! They shall not barbacue me." In truth he was hysterical, And that wrought like a miracle. Crying, “ Murderer, stop, ohoy, oh!" With a good glass of noyau- A row; but waxing mellow, Said, “ You're a damn'd good fellow." Explaining lost but little breath Here ended all the matter; So God save Queen Elizabeth, And long live Henri Quatre ! Into horse-fits of laughter, Their horses neigh'd thereafter. Yawn'd weary, worn, and moody; So may my readers' 100, perhaps, And thus I wish 'em good day. 178 THE END OF CAMPBELL'S WORKS. Page MEMOIR OF JAMES MONTGOMERY. V THE WANDERER OF SWITZERLAND. 1 THE WEST INDJES... 10 THE WORLD BEFORE THE FLOOD 21 GREENLAND.... 48 SONGS OF ZION 70 THE PELICAN ISLAND.. 88 PRISON AMUSEMENTS: Verses to a Robin-Redbreast .. 113 Moonlight ib. The Captive Nightingale 114 The Evening Star 115 Soliloquy of a Water. Wagtail 116 The Pleasures of Imprisonment, Epistle I. ib. Epistle II. ... 118 Extract from "The Bramin" 119 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS: The Grave.... 120 The Lyre 121 Remonstrance to Winter... 122 Song, "Round Love's Elysian Bowers". 123 Lines written under a drawing of Yardley Oak ib. Song, “When Friendship, Love, and Truth abound" ib. Religion ib. “The Joy of Grief”. 194 The Battle of Alexandria ib. The Pillow..... 125 To the Memory of Joseph Browne The Thunder-Storm ib. Ode to the Volunteers 128 The Vigil of St. Mark 129 Hannah .... 130 A Field Flower 131 The Snow-Drop. ib. The Ocean ... 132 The Common Lot 133 The Harp of Sorrow 134 Pope's Willow.. ib. A Walk in Spring 135 A Deed of Darkness.. 136 The Swiss Cowherd's Song 137 The Oak ib. The Dial ib. The Roses 138 To Agnes ib. An Epitaph ib. The Old Man's Song. ib. "The Glow-Worm 139 Bolehill Trees .. ib. The Mole hill ib. The Cast-away Ship. 141 The Sequel. 142 M.S. ib. The Peak Mountains. 144 To Anne and Jane 145 Ode on the British System of Education .... 146 A Daughter to her Mother... ib. Stanzas on Chatterton... 147 The Wild Rose... ib. On Finding the Feathers of a Linnet. 148 Sonnet, from P. Salandri 149 from Petrarch.. ib. from Gaetana Passerinj. ib. from Benedetto dall'Uva ib. Departed Days... Hope 150 A Mother's Love 151 The Time Piece ib. Stanzas to the Meinory of the Rev. T. Spencer 132 Human Life. 133 The Visible Creation from Giambatista Cotta.. The Crucifixion, from Crescembini. 154 The Bible Instruction The Christian Soldier On the Royal Infant.. A Midnight Thought A Night in a Stage-Coach. The Reign of Spring. 156 The Reign of Summer 157 Incognita .... 150 The Little Cloud. 160 Abdallah and Sabat 162 To Britain. The Alps, a Reverie 165 Questions and Answers 166 Youth Renewed...... The Bridal and the Burial. Friends .... 167 A Mother's Lament on the Death of her Infant Daughter 168 13 Robert Burns... A Theme for a Poet 170 Night.... 171 Meet again! Via Crucis, Via Lucis The Pilgrim...... German War-Song Reminiscences The Ages of Man.. Aspirations of Youth. A Hermitage .. The Falling Leaf On planting a Tulip-Root. The Adventure of a Star .. 174 A Word with Myself . 175 Inscription under the Picture of an aged Negro Woman 178 The Climbing Boy's Soliloquies . * Thou, God, seest me," Gen. xvi. 13... 184 Sonnet; Christ Crucified, from Gabriele Fiamma id. Sonnet; Christ laid in the Sepulchre, from the same...... A Retrospect IAS Make Way for Liberty!.. Stanzas.-A Race, a race on earth we run ...... 186 The Retreat "Lovest thou me?" I hear my Savior say. 187 A Simile on a Lady's Portrait A Poet's Benediction .... IAS For the First Leaf of a Lady's Album The First Leaf of an Album.... To a Friend, on his return to Ceylon 189 Short-hand ih. Bridal Greetings id. Epitaph on a Gnat......... A Riddle Time Employed, Time Enjoyed 190 The Laurustinus ib, Mottos for Albums. A Voyage round the World 191 The Tombs of the Fathers 193 ib. Memoir of James Montgomery. Tur little port of Irvine in the county of Ayr.Jown faith. His instruction was, however, carefully shire, North Britain, was the place where James attended to, and he was taught assiduously the MONTGOMERY first saw the day. He was born on Greek, Latin, French, and German languages, the 4th of November, 1771. His father was one independently of the common and inferior acof that singular and exemplary body of Christians quirements deemed necessary to pupils in every denominated Moravians, a sect by no means nu- station of life. merous in Great Britain, and least of all in Scot. Before Montgomery had attained his tenth land: the religious tenets with which the subject year, he exhibited his inclination for poetry. of the present memoir was thus impressed in his The peculiar opinions and discipline of the Moearliest youth, have linged his writings, and been ravians were calculated to cherish his propensity reflected in his subsequent conduct through life. for the Muse. The monotony of his life, the He did not long remain in his native town, for, well-nigh cloistered seclusion of the scholars, and at four years of age, his father took him over the system which inculcated the doctrines of the to Ireland, his parents having fixed their resi. brethren, nurtured that sombre and melancholy dence at Gracehill in the county of Antrim. He bias which is always inherent in the poetical kojonrned, however, but a short time in Ireland, temperament. The indulgence of the imagination for his father, most probably with the view of under such circumstances tends to render the affording him the benefits either of a better edu- mind exquisitely susceptible of external impres. cation, or one more consistent with his own re- sions. The love of Jesus Christ, to which every ligious tenets, sent him to England, and he was instruction of the Moravian brethren directs placed at a Moravian seminary at Fulnick in the mind of the pupil, and which is the chief Yorkshire, where he remained ten years. awakener of their feelings, they making the Soon after the establishment of Montgomery at second Person of the Trinity the object of broFulnick, his father and mother left Ireland for the therly affection as well as of adoration, was a West Indies. The elder Montgomery had under-captivating theme for the young poet. The hymns taken the duty of a missionary to instruct the of the Moravians were the seducers of Montnegroes in the doctrines of Christianity. Both gomery into the flowery paths of poesy. Religious father and mother fell victims to that pestilential aspirations, the tender affection, the beauty of climate, the one in Barbadoes, and the other in holiness, kindled the love of sacred song in his Tobago. To their fate it is the poet so beautifully callow bosom. A little volume was soon filled alludes when he writes with the effusions of his young imagination, and My father-mother-parents, are no more! first developed that genius to which the virtuous Beneath the Lion star they sleep part of mankind have since not hesitated to do Beyond the western deep; the justice it merits. He knew nothing at this And when the sun's noon glory crests the waves, He shines without a shadow on their graves : time of the English poets, for they were carefully kept out of sight by his instructors, lest some Montgomery was not the only offspring thus dangerous passage should give a pruriency for left to the wide world; his parents had two other unhallowed and contagious principles. The little children, who were, it is said, placed under the volume was therefore wholly his own. The father guardianship of the benevolent body of Christians of one of the boys had sent a volume of selected to which their parents had belonged. During poems from Milton, Thomson, and Young, to the time the subject of the present memoir was his son, yet, though the choicest and most moral at Fulnick, he was carefully excluded from the passages only were selected, it was clipt and world. The institutions of the Moravian brethren mangled by the good brethren before it was de. are almost monastically rigid. For ten years that livered to its owner. The natural consequence he was in this seminary, he scarcely saw or con- ensued, — Montgomery clandestinely borrowed versed with any individual who was not of their books, and read them by stealth. |
0 Reviews Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified Write review |