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Alive or dead be by the muse adorn'd." RUINS OF TIME. It is thought Lord Burleigh, who withheld the bounty intended by Queen Elizabeth, is here meant. But he is more clearly stigmatized in these remarkable lines, where the misery of dependence on court favour is painted in colours which must recall several strokes of the Lusiad to the mind of the reader:-- "Full little knowest thou that hast not tried, What hell it is, in suing long to bide; To lose good days, that might be better spent, To waste long nights in pensive discontent; To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow, To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow; To have thy princess' grace, yet want her peers'; To have thy asking, yet wait many years. To fret thy soul with crosses and with cares, To eat thy heart thro' comfortless despairs; To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run, To spend, to give, to want, to be undone." MOTHER HUBBERD'S TALE. These lines exasperated still more the inelegant, illiberal Burleigh. So true is the observation of Mr. Hughes, that, "even the sighs of a miserable man are sometimes resented as an affront by him that is the occasion of them." [497] Kotwal, a sort of superintendent or inspector of police.--FORBES' Hindustani Dictionary. [498] Lusus. [499] _His cluster'd bough, the same which Bacchus bore._--Camoens immediately before, and in the former book, calls the ensign of Lusus a bough; here he calls it the green thyrsus of Bacchus:-- _O verde Tyrso foi de Bacco usado._ The thyrsus, however, was a javelin twisted with ivy-leaves, used in the sacrifices of Bacchus. [500] _In those fair lawns the bless'd Elysium feign'd._--In this assertion our author has the authority of Strabo. a foundation sufficient for a poet. Nor are there wanting several Spanish writers, particularly Barbosa, who seriously affirm that Homer drew the fine description of Elysium, in his fourth Odyssey, from the beautiful valleys of Spain, where, in one of his voyages, they say, he arrived. Egypt, however, seems to have a better title to this honour. The fable of Charon, and the judges of hell, are evidently borrowed from the Egyptian rites of burial, and are older than Homer. After a ferryman had conveyed the corpse over a lake, certain judges examined the life of the deceased, particularly his claim to the virtue of loyalty, and, according to the report, decreed or
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