[Page 95]

ODE TO TRAGEDY.

TO MRS. SIDDONS.

1 O HALLOW'D source of fancy'd woe,
2 Around thy shrine the streams that flow,
3 From Pity's sacred source arise,
4 Now lost in horror, chill'd we gaze,
5 And see thy hand the dagger raise;
6 The fated victim dies!
7 Where the pale body lifeless lies,
8 Sweet Pity yields her throbbing sighs,
9 And though deserving of the doom,
10 Yet falls he not without a tear,
11 Which, shed by Virtue o'er his bier,
12 Bids hope dispel the gloom.
[Page 96]
13 When first the Muse in Grecia sung,
14 To comic strains her shell she strung,
15 Then pleas'd alone with shepherd lays;
16 But O! when Genius pour'd her light
17 Along the gloom of early night,
18 To thee belongs the praise.
19 By ev'ry tragic bard of old,
20 Of whom th' historic page hath told;
21 By every dear departed shade,
22 By mighty Shakspeare's honour'd dust,
23 And by thy Otway's laurel'd bust;
24 Descend to earth, sweet maid.
25 Still Britons feel thy glowing rage,
26 Illum'd by Shakespeare's magic page;
27 Still o'er thy Otway's verse we mourn
[Page 97]
28 When impious Cawdor's guilty queen
29 With murder stains the horrid scene.
30 O! how our bosoms burn.
31 When fair Monimia weeping pleads,
32 And when her hapless husband bleeds,
33 Whilst tears bedim her radiant eyes,
34 Sweet Pity's self descending there,
35 Attempts to soothe the hopeless fair
36 With sympathetic sighs.
37 When, catching frenzy from thy page,
38 Immortal Siddons treads the stage,
39 The Fairies stern awhile refrain,
40 A while their scorpion lust restrain,
41 And, pleas'd, behold the scene of woe.
[Page 98]
42 Uncertain, if our tears and sighs,
43 From true, or fancied ills arise;
44 But, ah! the sweet delusion o'er,
45 Again they steep their snakes in gore,
46 And bid our sorrows flow.

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Title (in Source Edition): ODE TO TRAGEDY. TO MRS. SIDDONS.
Themes: theatre
Genres: ode

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Berkeley, George Monck, 1763-1793. Poems: by the late George-Monck Berkeley, Esq. ... With a preface by the editor, consisting of some anecdotes of Mr. Monck Berkeley and several of his friends. London: printed by J. Nichols; and sold by Messrs. Leigh and Sotheby; Mr. Edwards; Mr. Cooke, Oxford; Mr. Todd, York; Messrs. Simmons and Co.; Messrs. Flackton, Marrable, and Claris; and Mr. Bristow, Canterbury, 1797, pp. 95-98. viii,DCXXXII,212p.,plate: port.; 4⁰. (ESTC T142950; OTA K111746.000) (Page images digitized by the University of California Libraries.)

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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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