[Page 90]
Consolatory Rhymes to Mrs. East, On the Death of her Canary Bird.
1 Since Kings, and Queens, and Duchesses must die,
2 And crowns and frokins undistinguish'd lie;
3 The Monarch justled by the saucy slave,
4 And next a Queen's perhaps a Milk-maid's grave;
5 Since all their flight to other climes must wing,
6 And even signor Boschi cease to sing;
7 Grieve not your Bird: for tho' no more his throat
8 Melodious swells the sweetly-tortur'd note;
[Page 91]9 Improperly we measure life by breath,
10 He ceases not to be, who tastes of death.
11 When life goes out, the Samian sages say,
12 We only change our tenement of clay.
13 The Quack, once fam'd for curing ev'ry ill,
14 Lurks in a bolus, or informs a pill.
15 The learned Dunce, whom science seem'd to shun,
16 Hums thro' his next dull stage a bagpipe's drone;
17 While Wits, more pert, the livelier notes become,
18 And teaze, and torture still the tuneless hum.
19 The wretch, who fatten'd on his neighbour's spoil,
20 Now crawls a spider, swoln with fraud and guile:
21 A softer form the gentle mind puts on,
22 While harden'd hearts are petrify'd to stone.
23 Perhaps your Captive now, on wings sublime,
24 Once more beholds his friends, and native clime;
25 Sees all his little race about him throng,
26 And tells his raptures in a sweeter song:
27 Or else his soul some Farinelli warms,
28 And crouded theatres confess his charms;
29 His cage, his silken wings, and untaught note,
30 (All but his Mistress 'favours) quite forgot.
[Page 92]31 So some poor Exile, long in bondage kept,
32 Dead to his friends, and ev'n by strangers wept,
33 Disdaining bondage, tho' in chains of gold,
34 Breaks thro' his prison, by resentment bold:
35 Yet if some gen'rous friend, of soul sincere,
36 Soften'd his fate, or smooth'd his bed of care,
37 Deep in his heart the grateful sense remains,
38 And when he thinks on him, forgets his chains.
39 Harmonious shade! what honours can atone
40 Thy music murder'd, and thy spirit gone!
41 By thy false guardian left to foes at large,
42 O most unworthy the important charge! —
43 What tho' no solemn mutes, of ghastly shape,
44 Croud silent round thee, and look sad in crape;
45 Yet shall thy Mistress 'tear adorn thy hearse,
46 And all the Muse can offer, Fame and Verse:
47 Fresh flow'rs shall deck thee with their earliest bloom,
48 And yearly roses blossom on thy tomb.
49 There too shall mournful Philomel complain,
50 And on thy stone these lasting notes remain;
[Page 93]51 "Beneath in silence sleeps, and ceas'd his song,
52 The Farinelli of the feather'd throng:
53 Of manners simple, uncorrupt of life,
54 A friend to harmony, a foe to strife.
55 This turf his Mistress to his mem'ry ow'd,
56 And for his songs the gen'rous tear bestow'd."
About this text
Author: Mary Jones
Themes:
animals; music; death
Genres:
heroic couplet; elegy
References:
DMI 23694
Text view / Document view
Source edition
Jones, Mary, d. 1778. Miscellanies in Prose and Verse. By Mary Jones. Oxford: Printed; and delivered by Mr. Dodsley in Pall-Mall, Mr. Clements in Oxford, and Mr. Frederick in Bath, MDCCL., 1750, pp. 90-93. vi,[1],xlv,[1],405p. (ESTC T115196) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [Harding C 1723].)
Editorial principles
Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized.
The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been
recorded in textual notes. 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.
Other works by Mary Jones
- After the Small Pox. ()
- ANOTHER. ()
- ANSWER to a LETTER From the Hon. Miss LOVELACE. ()
- The Author's Silence excus'd. ()
- BIRTH-DAY To the same, on Richmond-Green, Soon after her being Maid of Honour to Queen CAROLINE. ()
- BIRTH-DAY. ()
- BIRTH-DAY. ()
- ELEGY, On a favourite DOG, suppos'd to be poison'd. To Miss Molly Clayton. ()
- An EPISTLE to Lady BOWYER. ()
- EPISTLE, from Fern-Hill. To the same. ()
- EPITAPH On a Young NOBLEMAN, Kill'd in an ENGAGEMENT at SEA. ()
- EPITAPH On Brigadier General HILL. ()
- EXTEMPORE. ON A Drawing of the Countess of HERTFORD's, now Duchess of SOMERSET. ()
- The FALL. ()
- From New Lodge to Fern-Hill. In a very rainy Summer Season. ()
- [From the same Opera.] ()
- HEAVEN. To STELLA. ()
- The Heel-piece of her Shoe. (Stella requiring more rhymes, and the Author at a loss for a subject.) ()
- Her EPITAPH. (Which the Author hopes will live as long as she does.) ()
- HOLT WATERS. A Tale. Extracted from the Natural History of Berkshire. ()
- In Memory of the Right Hon. NEVIL Lord LOVELACE. ()
- In MEMORY of the Rt. Hon. Lord Aubrey Beauclerk, Who was slain at CARTHAGENA. ()
- The LASS of the HILL. Humbly inscribed to Her Grace the Dutchess of MARLBOROUGH. ()
- LIFE. (Occasion'd by some lines upon Death.) ()
- MATRIMONY. ()
- ODE To the Right Hon. Lady Henry Beauclerk. ()
- Of DESIRE. An Epistle to the Hon. Miss LOVELACE. ()
- On her Bed-Chamber's Chimney Being blown down at St. JAMES's. ()
- On her BIRTH-DAY, Being the 11th of December. ()
- On Her Birth-Day, December 11. ()
- On one of her Eyes. ()
- On the Reasonableness of Her coming to the Oxford Act. ()
- On the Right Honourable Lady Betty Bertie's Birth-Day. Inserted at the Request of Norris Bertie, Esq; ()
- PATIENCE. ()
- RHYMES to the Hon. Miss LOVELACE; now Lady HENRY BEAUCLERK. On her attending Miss CHARLOT CLAYTON In the SMALL-POX. ()
- Rhymes, to Miss Charlot Clayton. ()
- Soliloquy, on an empty Purse. ()
- [SONG from the Opera of ELPIDIA.] ()
- The SPIDER. ()
- The STORY of Jacob and Rachel attempted. To the same. ()
- SUBLIME STRAINS. On the Author's walking to visit Stella, in a windy morning, at Privy Garden. ()
- To Miss CLAYTON. Occasion'd by her breaking an appointment to visit the AUTHOR. ()
- To Mrs. CLAYTON, With a HARE. ()
- To the Prince of ORANGE, On his MARRIAGE. Written at the time of the OXFORD Verses. ()
- To the Same. On her desiring the Author to write a Satire upon her. ()
- To the same. On her parting with the first copy of Heaven, and sending for another. ()
- To the same. Written at Fern-Hill, while dinner was waiting for her. ()
- VERSES TO THE Memory of Miss CLAYTON. ()
- Written at her Apartment in Windsor-Castle. ()
- WRITTEN AT THE Request of a young Divine, TO BE SENT To his MISTRESS, with the Beggar's Opera. ()
- Written in an IVORY BOOK For the Honourable Miss HAMILTON; To be sent to her MAMMA. ()
- Written on some Ivory Leaves. ()