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SLENDER's GHOST.

Curae leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent.
[ed.] Seneca, Phaedra 607. (AH)
1 BENEATH a church-yard yew
2 Decay'd and worn with age,
3 At dusk of eve, methought I spy'd
4 Poor Slender's ghost, that whimpering cry'd,
5 O sweet, O sweet Anne Page!
6 Ye gentle bards, give ear!
7 Who talk of amorous rage,
8 Who spoil the lily, rob the rose;
9 Come learn of me to weep your woes:
10 O sweet! O sweet Anne Page!
11 Why should such labour'd strains
12 Your formal Muse engage?
13 I never dreamt of flame or dart,
14 That fir'd my breast, or pierc'd my heart,
15 But sigh'd, O sweet Anne Page!
16 And you, whose love-sick minds
17 No medicine can assuage!
18 Accuse the leech's art no more,
19 But learn of Slender to deplore;
20 O sweet! O sweet Anne Page!
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21 And you, whose souls are held,
22 Like linnets, in a cage!
23 Who talk of fetters, links, and chains,
24 Attend, and imitate my strains:
25 O sweet! O sweet Anne Page!
26 And you, who boast or grieve,
27 What horrid wars ye wage!
28 Of wounds receiv'd from many an eye,
29 Yet mean as I do when I sigh
30 O sweet! O sweet Anne Page!
31 Hence every fond conceit
32 Of shepherd, or of sage!
33 'Tis Slender's voice, 'tis Slender's way,
34 Expresses all you have to say
35 O sweet! O sweet Anne Page!

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): SLENDER's GHOST.
Themes: sex; relations between the sexes; supernatural
Genres: lament; refrain
References: DMI 27247

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Source edition

Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. V. London: printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1763 [1st ed. 1758], pp. 56-57. 6v.: music; 8⁰. (ESTC T131163; OTA K104099.005) (Page images digitized by the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive from a copy in the archive's library.)

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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.

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