nd graceful imagery; the
fertile fancy, the touching sentiment, and the "soul reviving" melody,
which characterize every line of these delightful lyrics? Well do we
remember, too, his "old buff waistcoat," his courteous manner, and his
gentlemanly pleasantry, long after this Nestor of song had retired to
enjoy the delights of rural life, despite the prayer of his racy verse:
"In town let me live, then, in town let me die;
For in truth I can't relish the country, not I.
If one must have a villa in summer to dwell;
Oh! give me the sweet, shady side of Pall Mall."
Captain Morris was born about the middle of the last century, and
outlived the majority of the _bon vivant_ society which he gladdened
with his genius, and lit up with his brilliant humour.
Yet, many readers of the present generation may ask, "Who was Captain
Morris?" He was born of good family, in the celebrated year 1745, and
appears to have inherited a taste for literary composition; for his
father composed the popular song of _Kitty Crowder_.
For more than half a century, Captain Morris moved in the first circles.
He was the "sun of the table" at Carlton House, as well as at Norfolk
House; and attaching himself politically, as well as convivially, to his
dinner companions, he composed the celebrated ballads of "Billy's too
young to drive us," and "Billy Pitt and the Farmer," which continued
long in fashion, as brilliant satires upon the ascendant politics of
their day. His humorous ridicule of the Tories was, however, but ill
repaid by the Whigs upon their accession to office; at least, if we may
trust the beautiful ode of "The Old Whig Poet to his Old Buff Waistcoat."
We are not aware of this piece being included in any edition of the
"Songs." It bears date "G. R., August 1, 1815;" six years subsequent to
which we saw it among the papers of the late Alexander Stephens.
Captain Morris's "Songs" were very popular. In 1830, we possessed a copy
of the 24th edition; we remember one of the ditties to have been "sung
by the Prince of Wales to a certain lady," to the air of "There's a
difference between a beggar and a queen." Morris's finest Anacreontic,
is the song _Ad Poculum_, for which he received the gold cup of the
Harmonic Society:
"Come thou soul-reviving cup!
Try thy healing art;
Stir the fancy's visions up,
And warm my wasted heart.
Touch with freshening tints of bliss
Memory's fading dream;
Give me, while thy l
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