wood roar,
The damsel paces along the shore;
The billows they tumble with might, with might;
And she flings out her voice to the darksome night;
Her bosom is swelling with sorrow;
The world it is empty, the heart will die,
There's nothing to wish for beneath the sky:
Thou Holy One, call thy child away!
I've lived and loved, and that was to-day--
Make ready my grave-clothes to-morrow.
Barry Cornwall, in his memoir of Lamb, says: "Lamb used to boast that he
supplied one line to his friend in the fourth scene [Act IV., Scene i]
of that tragedy, where the description of the Pagan deities occurs. In
speaking of Saturn, he is figured as 'an old man melancholy.' 'That was
my line,' Lamb would say, exultingly." The line did not reach print in
this form.
Lamb printed his translation twice--in 1802 and 1818.
Page 29. _Hypochondriacus_.
* * * * *
Page 30. _A Ballad Noting the Difference of Rich and Poor_.
These two poems formed, in the _John Woodvil_ volume, 1802, portions of
the "Fragments of Burton," which will be found in Vol. I. Lamb
afterwards took out these poems and printed them separately in the
Works, 1818, in the form here given. Originally "Hypochondriacus" formed
Extract III. of the "Fragments," under the title "A Conceipt of
Diabolical Possession." The body of the verses differed very slightly
from the present state; but at the end the prayer ran: "_Jesu Mariae!
libera nos ab his tentationibus, oral, implorat, R.B. Peccator_"--R.B.
standing for Robert Burton, the anatomist of melancholy, the professed
author of the poem.
"The Old and Young Courtier" may be found in the _Percy Reliques_. Lamb
copied it into one of his Commonplace Books.
* * * * *
Page 32. THE _WORKS_ OF CHARLES LAMB, 1818.
This book, in two volumes, was published by C. & J. Ollier in 1818: the
first volume containing the dedication to Coleridge that is here printed
on page 1, all of Lamb's poetry that he then wished to preserve, "John
Woodvil," "The Witch," the "Fragments of Burton," "Rosamund Gray" and
"Recollections of Christ's Hospital;" the second volume, dedicated to
Martin Charles Burney in the sonnet on page 45, containing criticisms,
essays and "Mr. H."
The scheme of the present volume makes it impossible to keep together
the poetical portion of Lamb's _Works_. In order, however, to present
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