AN ELEGY ON THAT GLORY OF HER SEX,

MRS. MARY BLAIZE.'

GOOD people all, with one accord,
Lament for Madam Blaize,

Who never wanted a good word

From those who spoke her praise.

The needy seldom pass'd her door,
And always found her kind;
She freely lent to all the poor —

Who left a pledge behind.

--

From The Bee, 1759. No. 4. Anonymous. The verses were reprinted, with the name of the author, in the Companion for a leisure hour, 1769. The admirable Elegy of Gray, first published in 1751, gave rise to a mass of inferior imitations; and it seems to have been the design of Goldsmith, in his various burlesque elegies, to satirize this fashionable species of sentimentalism. He chose as his model Le fameux La Golisse-a noted French song of fifty stanzas, each of which ends with a ludicrous truism. La Monnoye, who sometimes exercised his critical powers with more than just severity, printed this song in 1715 as an illustration of the style niais!

She strove the neighborhood to please, With manners wondrous winning; And never follow'd wicked waysUnless when she was sinning.

Her love was sought, I do aver,

By twenty beaux and more:

The king himself has follow'd her
When she has walk'd before.

But now her wealth and finery fled,
Her hangers-on cut short all;

The doctors found, when she was dead

Her last disorder mortal.

Let us lament, in sorrow sore,

For Kent-street well may say,

That, had she liv'd a twelvemonth more She had not died to-day.

M

DESCRIPTION

OF

AN AUTHOR'S BEDCHAMBER.'

WHERE the Red-lion, flaring o'er the way,

Invites each passing stranger that can pay-
Where Calvert's butt, and Parsons' black champagne,
Regale the drabs and bloods of Drury-lane -

From The Citizen of the World, 1762.-The Chinese philosopher, the character which Goldsmith assumes, is introduced to a club of authors at The Broom, near Islington. He finds them in loud debate. A "poet, in shabby finery, holding a manuscript in his hand, is earnestly endeavoring to persuade the company to hear him read the first book of an heroic poem, which he had composed the day before." The other members warmly object. The rules of the club are therefore read; and the poet, after paying the established fine, recites as above - but becomes so much elated that he is " unable to proceed.”. Line 3. Calvert Calvert and Seward, of White-cross-street. Parsons Lady Parsons, now Hoare and Co. Line 7. A widow, etc. Our author had projected an heroi-comic poem, and has preserved the memory of his hero in these six couplets. Line 14. Prince William William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, of whom there are numerous engraved portraits. Ob. 1765.

=

There, in a lonely room, from bailiffs snug,

The muse found Scroggen, stretch'd beneath a rug.
A window, patch'd with paper, lent a ray

That dimly show'd the state in which he lay:
The sanded floor that grits beneath the tread;
The humid wall with paltry pictures spread:
The royal game of goose was there in view,
And the twelve rules the royal martyr drew;

The seasons, fram'd with listing, found a place,

And brave Prince William show'd his lamp-black face.

The morn was cold-he views with keen desire

The rusty grate, unconscious of a fire;

With beer and milk arrears the frieze was scor'd,
And five crack'd tea-cups dress'd the chimney-board;

A night-cap deck'd his brows instead of bay,
A cap by night—a stocking all the day!