Ballad. WHILE Scott was engaged in writing the life of Napoleon, Mr. Lockhart says, "The rapid accumulation of books and MSS. was at once flattering and alarming; and one of his notes to me, about the middle of June, had these rhymes by way of postscript: When with Poetry dealing Too small for a novel: How my fancy could prance But my house I must swap With some Brobdignag chap, Ere I grapple, God bless me ! with Emperor Now, ye wild blades, that make loose inns your Of the remorse-stirr'd fancy, or the vision, stage, To vapor forth the acts of this sad age, Distinct and real, of unearthly being, All ages witness, that beside the couch Stout Edgehill fight, the Newberries and the Of the fell homicide oft stalks the ghost West, And northern clashes, where you still fought best; Legend of Captain Jones. Old Play. (7.)-CHAP. XVII. We do that in our zeal, (8.)-CHAP. XXIV. "So much for oblivion, my dear Sir C.; and The deadliest snakes are those which, twined now, having dismounted from my Pegasus, who is 'mongst flowers, rather spavined, I charge a-foot, like an old dra Blend their bright coloring with the varied blos- goon as I am," &c. &c.-Life of Scott, vol. ix. p. 165. soms, Their fierce eyes glittering like the spangled dew drop; In all so like what nature has most harmless, That sportive innocence, which dreads no danger, From Chronicles of the Canongate. Is poison'd unawares. Old Play. 1827. 1 An allusion to the enthusiastic reception of the Duke of composition, to say nothing of her singing, might make any Wellington at Sunderland.-ED. This lay has been set to beautiful music by a lady whose poet proud of his verses, Mrs. Robert Arkwright, born Miss Kemble. |