Mr. Thomas Love Peacock, ladies and gentlemen!
Farewell to Matilda
Oui, pour jamais
Chassons l’image
De la volage
Que j’adorais. PARNY.
Chassons l’image
De la volage
Que j’adorais. PARNY.
Matilda, farewell! Fate has doom’d us to part,
But the prospect occasions no pang to my heart;
No longer is love with my reason at strife,
Though once thou wert dearer, far dearer than life.
As together we roam’d, I the passion confess’d,
Which thy beauty and virtue had rais’d in my breast;
That the passion was mutual thou mad’st me believe,
And I thought my Matilda could never deceive.
My Matilda! no, false one! my claims I resign:
Thou canst not, thou must not, thou shalt not be mine:
I now scorn thee as much as I lov’d thee before,
Nor sigh when I think I shall meet thee no more.
Though fair be thy form, thou no lovers wilt find,
While folly and falsehood inhabit thy mind,
Though coxcombs may flatter, though ideots may prize,
Thou art shunn’d by the good, and contemn’d by the wise.
Than mine what affection more fervent could be,
When I thought ev’ry virtue was center’d in thee?
Of the vows thou hast broken I will not complain,
For I mourn not the loss of a heart I disdain.
Oh! hadst thou but constant and amiable prov’d
As that fancied perfection I formerly lov’d,
Nor absence, nor time, though supreme their controul,
Could have dimm’d the dear image then stamp’d on my soul.
How bright were the pictures, untinted with shade,
By Hope’s glowing pencil on Fancy pourtray’d!
Sweet visions of bliss! which I could not retain;
For they, like thyself, were deceitful and vain.
Some other, perhaps, to Matilda is dear,
Some other, more pleasing, though not more sincere;
May he fix thy light passions, now wav’ring as air,
Then leave thee, inconstant, to shame and despair!
Repent not, Matilda, return not to me:
Unavailing thy grief, thy repentance will be:
In vain will thy vows or thy smiles be resum’d,
For love, once extinguish’d, is never relum’d.
Maria’s Return
The whit’ning ground
In frost is bound;
The snow is swiftly falling;
While coldly blows the northern breeze,
And whistles through the leafless trees,
In hollow sounds appalling.
On this cold plain,
Now reach’d with pain,
Once stood my father’s dwelling:
Where smiling pleasure once was found,
Now desolation frowns around,
And wintry blasts are yelling.
Hope’s visions wild
My thoughts beguil’d,
My earliest days delighting,
Till unsuspected treach’ry came,
Beneath affection’s specious name,
The lovely prospect blighting.
With many a wile
Of blackest guile
Did Henry first deceive me:
What winning words to him were giv’n!
He swore, by all the pow’rs of Heav’n,
That he would never leave me.
With fondest truth
I lov’d the youth:
My soul, to guilt a stranger,
Knew not, in those too simple hours,
That oft beneath the sweetest flow’rs
Is couch’d the deadliest danger.
With him to roam
I fled my home;
I burst the bonds of duty;
I thought my days in joy would roll;
But Henry hid a demon’s soul
Beneath an angel’s beauty!
Shall this poor heart
E’er cease to smart?
Oh never! never! never!
Did av’rice whisper thee, or pride,
False Henry! for a wealthier bride
To cast me off for ever?
My sire was poor:
No golden store
Had he, no earthly treasure:
I only could his griefs assuage,
The only pillar of his age,
His only source of pleasure.
With anguish wild,
He miss’d his child,
And long in vain he sought her:
The fiercest thunder-bolts of heav’n
Shall on thy guilty head be driv’n,
Thou Disobedient Daughter!
I feel his fears,
I see his tears,
I hear his groans of sadness:
My cruel falsehood seal’d his doom:
He seems to curse me from the tomb,
And fire my brain to madness!
Oh! keenly blow,
While drifts the snow,
The cold nocturnal breezes;
On me the gath’ring snow-flakes rest,
And colder grows my friendless breast;
My very heart-blood freezes!
‘Tis midnight deep,
And thousands sleep,
Unknown to guilt and sorrow;
They think not of a wretch like me,
Who cannot, dare not, hope to see
The rising light to-morrow!
An outcast hurl’d
From all the world,
Whom none would love or cherish,
What now remains to end my woes,
But here, amid the deep’ning snows,
To lay me down and perish?
Death’s icy dart
Invades my heart:
Just Heav’n! all-good! all-seeing!
Thy matchless mercy I implore,
When I must wake, to sleep no more,
In realms of endless being!
