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GILDEROY.
1 THE last, the fatal hour is come
2 That bears my love from me;
3 I bear the dead note of the drum,
4 I mark the gallows tree!
5 The bell has toll'd; it shakes my heart;
6 The trumpet speaks thy name;
7 And must my Gilderoy depart
8 To bear a death of shame!
9 No bosom trembles for thy doom;
10 No mourner wipes a tear;
11 The gallows' foot is all thy tomb,
12 The sledge is all thy bier!
13 Oh, Gilderoy! bethought we then
14 So soon, so sad, to part,
15 When first in Roslin's lovely glen
16 You triumph'd o'er my heart!
17 Your locks they glitter'd to the sheen,
18 Your hunter garb was trim;
19 And graceful was the ribbon green
20 That bound your manly limb!
21 Ah! little thought I to deplore
22 These limbs in fetters bound;
23 Or hear, upon thy scaffold floor,
24 The midnight hammer sound.
25 Ye cruel, cruel, that combin'd
26 The guiltless to pursue;
27 My Guilderoy was ever kind,
28 He could not injure you!
29 A long adieu! but where shall fly
30 Thy widow all forlorn;
31 When every mean and cruel eye
32 Regards my woe with scorn.
33 Yes! they will mock thy widow's tears,
34 And hate thine orphan boy:
35 Alas! his infant beauty wears
36 The form of Gilderoy!
37 Then will I seek the dreary mound,
38 Where sleeps thy mouldering clay;
39 And weep and linger on the ground,
40 And sigh my heart away!
Source edition
Campbell, Thomas, 1777-1844. Anderson, Robert, 1750-1830, dedicatee. The pleasures of hope, with other poems. By Thomas Campbell. [New York]: Edinburgh, printed: New-York, re-printed by John Furman, opposite the City-Hall, for Jones Bull, 1800, pp. []-117. 120p.; 17cm. (12mo) (ESTC W27677; OTA N27834)
Editorial principles
The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.