COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM BLAKE:

THE period between 1768 and 1783 may be described as one of utter stagnation in poetry — the low-water mark of the eighteenth century, in no part of it very fruitful in verse of a high order. With Mason, Hayley, and Darwin installed as the high priests of the Muses, and a host of satellites of the Charlotte Smith and Jerningham order, pouring forth volumes of mediocre verses, tolerable now neither to gods nor men nor columns — feeble echoes of a school which, at its best, drew but little of its inspiration from Nature, how welcome to the ear are the fresh notes of William Blake, recalling here the grand Elizabethan melodies, anticipating now the pathos and simplicity of Wordsworth, now the subtlety and daring of Shelley.

 

 

The “Poetical Sketches,” though not printed till 1783, a year after Cowper’s first volume made its appearance, were written, it appears, between 1768 and 1777 — the earliest in the author’s twelfth and the latest in his twentieth year. They lay in manuscript for six years, before, by the good offices of Flaxman and other friends, they could get into print. The little volume, which extended to only seventy pages, cannot, indeed, be said to have been published. The whole impression seems to have fallen into the hands of Blake’s personal friends: certain it is that it attracted no notice whatever from the critics. The book has now become so scarce that no copy is to be found even in the British Museum; and as Mr. Rossetti has confined himself to a few selections, we have thought that a faithful reprint of the whole from a copy that has luckily fallen into our hands, might be an acceptable present to the numerous body of readers now awakening gradually to a sense of the rare merit and originality of the artist-poet, and form a fitting companion volume to the “Songs of Innocence and Experience.”

Before closing the bibliographical portion of our remarks, we must say a final word respecting the principle adopted by Mr. Rossetti in his reprint of some of these poems in the second volume of Gilchrist’s “Life of Blake.” Once for all, while rendering due homage to his genius and rare critical perception, as well as to the great services he has rendered to the fame of Blake, we must firmly protest against the dangerous precedent he has established of tampering with his author’s text. Much ruggedness of metre and crudeness of expression he has doubtless removed or toned down by this process : but, however delicately and tastefully done, we contend that the doing of it was unwarrantable — nay, that it destroys to a certain extent the historical value of the poems. It was the growth of this mischievous system which prevented the readers of the eighteenth century from enjoying a pure text of Shakespeare ; which to this day, in nine editions out of ten, gives us a corrupt and mutilated text of such writers as Bunyan, Walton, and De Foe, and which has spoilt some of the finest hymns in our language. For where is the process, once admitted as legitimate, to stop? It is not every emendator who possesses the taste and judgment of Mr. Rossetti, and, in a case like the present one, where the original edition is almost inaccessible as a check, what protection has the reader against the caprice or vanity of an editor who does not adhere religiously to his author’s text? Mr. Rossetti (though sanctioned by Mr. Swinburne) has no more right to alter William Blake’s poems than Mr. Millais would have to paint out some obnoxious detail of medievalism in a work of Giotto or Cimabue; or Mr. Leighton to improve some flaw in the flesh-colour of Correggio. The duty of an editor, in such a case as that of Blake’s “Poetical Sketches,” is confined to the silent correction of obvious clerical errors, and to the rectification of faulty orthography or punctuation, due either to the lax and uncertain spelling of the time, or to the ignorance and carelessness of the printer.

Having spoken this word in season, we pass on to the pleasanter duty of examining these poems separately.

Of the opening poems addressed to the four Seasons, we may say that the first three, though marred here and there by irregularities of metre, have a wealth of imagery and felicity of expression worthy of some of the finest things in Keats and Shelley and Tennyson. There are lines too in them which stand out rememberable for ever, and haunt the ear with their melody. The “Winter,” though it opens vigorously, soon falls into the pseudo-Ossianic grandiloquence, of which there is also a taint in several other pieces, and the last three lines, stumbling and staggering, remind us irresistibly of the same incongruous blending of sublime and ludicrous images (going on halting feet) in Turner’s unfortunate “Fallacies of Hope.”

The lines to the “Evening Star” are almost Tennysonian in happily-chosen epithet and perfect cadence of music:

“Smile on our loves; and while thou drawest the

“Blue curtains of the sky, scatter thy silver dew

“On every flower that shuts its sweet eyes

“In timely sleep. Let thy west wind sleep on

“The lake; speak silence with thy glimmering eyes,

“And wash the dusk with silver.”

“Fair Eleanor” — a sort of blank-verse ballad of the Radcliffe type of crime and mystery and horror — is a somewhat abortive attempt, much in the style of some of Shelley’s early poetry of the St. Irvyne and Margaret Nicholson period — not without lines of singular beauty that stand out in relief to the dulness and insipidity of the rest.

But what fitting tribute can we pay to the marvellous beauty of the six lyrics which follow, and of the lines “To the Muses?” We must go back to apology for the less happy efforts of a poet who in his best things has hardly fallen short of the large utterance of the Elizabethan dramatists, the pastoral simplicity of Wordsworth, the subtlety and fire of Shelley, and the lyrical tenderness of Tennyson.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE following Sketches were the production of untutored youth, commenced in his twelfth, and occasionally resumed by the author till his twentieth year; since which time, his talents having been wholly directed to the attainment of excellence in his profession, he has been deprived of the leisure requisite to such a revisal of these sheets, as might have rendered them less unfit to meet the public eye.

Conscious of the irregularities and defects to be found in almost every page, his friends have still believed that they possessed a poetical originality, which merited some respite from oblivion. These their opinions remain, however, to be now reproved or confirmed by a less partial public.

 

 

O THOU with dewy locks, who lookest

down

Thro’ the clear windows of the morning,

turn

Thine angel eyes upon our western isle,

Which in full choir hails thy approach, O Spring!

The hills tell each other, and the listening

Valleys hear; all our longing eyes are turn’d

Up to thy bright pavilions: issue forth,

And let thy holy feet visit our clime.

Come o’er the eastern hills, and let our winds

Kiss thy perfumed garments; let us taste

Thy morn and evening breath; scatter thy pearls

Upon our lovesick land that mourns for thee.

O deck her forth with thy fair fingers; pour

Thy soft kisses on her bosom; and put

Thy golden crown upon her languish’d head,

Whose modest tresses were bound up for thee!

O THOU who passest thro’ our valleys in

Thy strength, curb thy fierce steeds, allay the heat

That flames from their large nostrils! thou, O Summer,

Oft pitchedst here thy golden tent, and oft

Beneath our oaks hast slept, while we beheld

With joy, thy ruddy limbs and flourishing hair.

Beneath our thickest shades we oft have heard

Thy voice, when noon upon his fervid car

Rode o’er the deep of heaven: beside our springs

Sit down, and in our mossy valleys, on

Some bank beside a river clear, throw thy

Silk draperies off, and rush into the stream:

Our valleys love the Summer in his pride.

Our bards are famed who strike the silver wire:

Our youth are bolder than the southern swains:

Our maidens fairer in the sprightly dance:

We lack not songs, nor instruments of joy,

Nor echoes sweet, nor waters clear as heaven,

Nor laurel wreaths against the sultry heat.

O AUTUMN, laden with fruit, and stain’d

With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit

Beneath my shady roof, there thou mayst rest,

And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe,

And all the daughters of the year shall dance!

Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers.

“The narrow bud opens her beauties to

“The sun, and love runs in her thrilling veins;

“Blossoms hang round the brows of morning, and

“Flourish down the bright cheek of modest eve,

“Till clustering Summer breaks forth into singing,

“And feather’d clouds strew flowers round her head.

“The spirits of the air live on the smells

“Of fruit; and joy, with pinions light, roves round

“The gardens, or sits singing in the trees.”

Thus sang the jolly Autumn as he sat;

Then rose, girded himself, and o’er the bleak

Hills fled from our sight; but left his golden load.

O WINTER! bar thine adamantine doors:

The north is thine; there hast thou built thy dark

Deep-founded habitation. Shake not thy roofs

Nor bend thy pillars with thine iron car.

He hears me not, but o’er the yawning deep

Rides heavy; his storms are unchain’d, sheathed

In ribbed steel; I dare not lift mine eyes;

For he hath rear’d his sceptre o’er the world.

Lo! now the direful monster, whose skin clings

To his strong bones, strides o’er the groaning rocks:

He withers all in silence, and in his hand

Unclothes the earth, and freezes up frail life.

He takes his seat upon the cliffs, the mariner

Cries in vain. Poor little wretch! that deal’st

With storms, till heaven smiles, and the monster

Is driven yelling to his caves beneath Mount Hecla.

THOU fair-hair’d angel of the evening,

Now, whilst the sun rests on the mountains, light

Thy bright torch of love — thy radiant crown

Put on, and smile upon our evening bed!

Smile on our loves; and, while thou drawest the

Blue curtains of the sky, scatter thy silver dew

On every flower that shuts its sweet eyes

In timely sleep. Let thy west wind sleep on

The lake; speak silence with thy glimmering eyes,

And wash the dusk with silver. Soon, full soon,

Dost thou withdraw; then the wolf rages wide,

And the lion glares thro’ the dun forest:

The fleeces of our flocks are cover’d with

Thy sacred dew: protect them with thine influence.

O HOLY virgin! clad in purest white,

Unlock heaven’s golden gates and issue forth;

Awake the dawn that sleeps in heaven; let light

Rise from the chambers of the east, and bring

The honey’d dew that cometh on waking day.

O radiant morning, salute the sun,

Roused like a huntsman to the chase, and with

Thy buskin’d feet appear upon our hills.

THE bell struck one and shook the silent tower;

The graves give up their dead: fair Eleanor

Walk’d by the castle-gate, and looked in:

A hollow groan ran thro’ the dreary vaults.

She shriek’d aloud, and sunk upon the steps,

On the cold stone her pale cheek. Sickly smells

Of death, issue as from a sepulchre,

And all is silent but the sighing vaults.

Chill death withdraws his hand, and she revives;

Amazed she finds herself upon her feet,

And, like a ghost, thro’ narrow passages

Walking, feeling the cold walls with her hands.

Fancy returns, and now she thinks of bones

And grinning skulls, and corruptible death

Wrapt in his shroud; and now fancies she hears

Deep sighs, and sees pale sickly ghosts gliding.

At length, no fancy, but reality

Distracts her. A rushing sound, and the feet

Of one that fled, approaches. — Ellen stood,

Like a dumb statue, froze to stone with fear.

The wretch approaches, crying, “The deed is done;

“Take this, and send it by whom thou wilt send;

“It is my life — send it to Eleanor: —

“He’s dead, and howling after me for blood!

“Take this,” he cried; and thrust into her arms

A wet napkin, wrapt about; then rush’d

Past, howling: she received into her arms

Pale death, and follow’d on the wings of fear.

They pass’d swift thro’ the outer gate; the wretch,

Howling, leap’d o’er the wall into the moat,

Stifling in mud. Fair Ellen pass’d the bridge,

And heard a gloomy voice cry, “Is it done?”

As the deer wounded Ellen flew over

The pathless plain; as the arrows that fly

By night; destruction flies, and strikes in darkness.

She fled from fear, till at her house arrived.

Her maids await her; on her bed she falls,

That bed of joy where erst her lord hath press’d:

“ Ah, woman’s fear! “ she cried, “ Ah, cursed duke!

“ Ah, my dear lord! ah, wretched Eleanor!

“ My lord was like a flower upon the brows

“ Of lusty May! Ah, life as frail as flower!

“ O ghastly death! withdraw thy cruel hand,

“ Seek’st thou that flower to deck thy horrid temples?

“ My lord was like a star in highest heaven

“ Drawn down to earth by spells and wickedness;

“ My lord was like the opening eyes of day,

“ When western winds creep softly o’er the flowers.

“ But he is darken’d; like the summer’s noon

“ Clouded; fall’n like the stately tree, cut down;

“ The breath of heaven dwelt among his leaves.

“ O Eleanor, weak woman, fill’d with woe!”

Thus having spoke, she raised up her head,

And saw the bloody napkin by her side,

Which in her arms she brought; and how, tenfold

More terrified, saw it unfold itself.

Her eyes were fix’d; the bloody cloth unfolds,

Disclosing to her sight the murder’d head

Of her dear lord, all ghastly pale, clotted

With gory blood; it groan’d, and thus it spake:

“O Eleanor, behold thy husband’s head

“Who, sleeping on the stones of yonder tower,

“Was ‘reft of life by the accursed duke!

“A hired villain turn’d my sleep to death!

“O Eleanor, beware the cursed duke,

“O give not him thy hand, now I am dead;

“He seeks thy love; who, coward, in the night,

“Hired a villain to bereave my life.”

She sat with dead cold limbs, stiflen’d to stone;

She took the gory head up in her arms;

She kiss’d the pale lips; she had no tears to shed;

She hugg’d it to her breast, and groan’d her last.

HOW sweet I roam’d from field to field

And tasted all the summer’s pride,

Till I the Prince of Love beheld

Who in the sunny beams did glide.

He shew’d me lilies for my hair,

And blushing roses for my brow;

He led me thro’ his gardens fair

Where all his golden pleasures grow.

With sweet May-dews my wings were wet,

And Phœbus fired my vocal rage;

He caught me in his silken net,

And shut me in his golden cage.

He loves to sit and hear me sing,

Then, laughing, sports and plays with me;

Then stretches out my golden wing

And mocks my loss of liberty.

MY silks and fine array,

My smiles and languish’d air

By love are driven away;

And mournful lean Despair

Brings me yew to deck my grave:

Such end true lovers have.

His face is fair as heaven

When springing buds unfold;

O why to him was’t given,

Whose heart is wintry cold?

His breast is love’s all-worshipp’d tomb,

Where all love’s pilgrims come.

Bring me an axe and spade,

Bring me a winding sheet;

When I my grave have made

Let winds and tempests beat:

Then down I’ll lie, as cold as clay.

True love doth pass away!

LOVE and harmony combine

And around our souls entwine,

While thy branches mix with mine

And our roots together join.

Joys upon our branches sit

Chirping loud and singing sweet;

Like gentle streams beneath our feet

Innocence and virtue meet.

Thou the golden fruit dost bear,

I am clad in flowers fair;

Thy sweet boughs perfume the air,

And the turtle buildeth there.

There she sits and feeds her young,

Sweet I hear her mournful song;

And thy lovely leaves among

There is love; I hear his tongue.

There his charming nest doth lay,

There he sleeps the night away;

There he sports along the day

And doth among our branches play.

I LOVE the jocund dance,

The softly-breathing song,

Where innocent eyes do glance

And where lisps the maiden’s tongue.

I love the laughing vale,

I love the echoing hill,

Where mirth does never fail,

And the jolly swain laughs his fill.

I love the pleasant cot,

I love the innocent bower,

Where white and brown is our lot

Or fruit in the mid-day hour.

I love the oaken seat,

Beneath the oaken tree,

Where all the old villagers meet,

And laugh our sports to see.

I love our neighbours all,

But, Kitty, I better love thee;

And love them I ever shall,

But thou art all to me.

MEMORY, hither come

And tune your merry notes:

And while upon the wind

Your music floats

I’ll pore upon the stream

Where sighing lovers dream,

And fish for fancies as they pass

Within the watery glass.

I’ll drink of the clear stream

And hear the linnet’s song,

And there I’ll lie and dream

The day along:

And, when night comes, I’ll go

To places fit for woe

Walking along the darken’d valley

With silent Melancholy.

THE wild winds weep,

And the night is a-cold;

Come hither, Sleep,

And my griefs enfold:

But lo! the morning peeps

Over the eastern steeps,

And the rustling beds of dawn

The earth do scorn.

Lo! to the vault

Of paved heaven,

With sorrow fraught

My notes are driven:

They strike the ear of night,

Make weep the eyes of day;

They make mad the roaring winds,

And with tempests play.

Like a fiend in a cloud

With howling woe,

After night I do crowd

And with night will go;

I turn my back to the east

From whence comforts have increased;

For light doth seize my brain

With frantic pain.

FRESH from the dewy hill, the merry year

Smiles on my head and mounts his flaming car;

Round my young brows the laurel wreathes a shade

And rising glories beam around my head.

My feet are wing’d while o’er the dewy lawn

I meet my maiden risen like the morn.

Oh bless those holy feet, like angels’ feet;

Oh bless those limbs, beaming with heavenly light!

Like as an angel glittering in the sky

In times of innocence and holy joy;

The joyful shepherd stops his grateful song

To hear the music of an angel’s tongue.

So when she speaks, the voice of Heaven I hear;

So when we walk, nothing impure comes near;

Each field seems Eden, and each calm retreat;

Each village seems the haunt of holy feet.

But that sweet village, where my black-eyed maid

Closes her eyes in sleep beneath night’s shade,

Whene’er I enter, more than mortal fire

Burns in my soul, and does my song inspire.

WHEN early morn walks forth in sober gray,

Then to my black-eyed maid I haste away,

When evening sits beneath her dusky bower

And gently sighs away the silent hour,

The village bell alarms, away I go,

And the vale darkens at my pensive woe.

To that sweet village, where my black-eyed maid

Doth drop a tear beneath the silent shade,

I turn my eyes; and pensive as I go

Curse my black stars, and bless my pleasing woe.

Oft when the summer sleeps among the trees,

Whispering faint murmurs to the scanty breeze,

I walk the village round; if at her side

A youth doth walk in stolen joy and pride,

I curse my stars in bitter grief and woe,

That made my love so high, and me so low.

O should she e’er prove false, his limbs I’d tear,

And throw all pity on the burning air;

I’d curse bright fortune for my mixed lot,

And then I’d die in peace, and be forgot.

 

 

WHETHER on Ida’s shady brow

Or in the chambers of the East,

The chambers of the Sun, that now

From ancient melody have ceased;

Whether in heaven ye wander fair

Or the green corners of the earth,

Or the blue regions of the air,

Where the melodious winds have birth;

Whether on crystal rocks ye rove,

Beneath the bosom of the sea

Wandering in many a coral grove,

Fair Nine, forsaking Poetry;

How have you left the ancient love

That bards of old enjoy’d in you!

The languid strings do scarcely move,

The sound is forced, the notes are few!

COME, Kings, and listen to my song:

When Gwin, the son of Nore,

Over the nations of the North

His cruel sceptre bore;

The Nobles of the land did feed

Upon the hungry poor;

They tear the poor man’s lamb, and drive

The needy from their door!

The land is desolate; our wives

And children cry for bread;

Arise, and pull the tyrant down,

Let Gwin be humbled.

Gordred the giant roused himself

From sleeping in his cave;

He shook the hills, and in the clouds

The troubled banners wave.

Beneath them roll’d, like tempests black,

The numerous sons of blood;

Like lions’ whelps, roaring abroad,

Seeking their nightly food.

Down Bleron’s hills they dreadful rush,

Their cry ascends the clouds;

The trampling horse and clanging arms

Like rushing mighty floods!

Their wives and children, weeping loud,

Follow in wild array,

Howling like ghosts, furious as wolves

In the bleak wintry day.

“Pull down the tyrant to the dust,

”Let Gwin be humbled,”

They cry, “ and let ten thousand lives

”Pay for the tyrant’s head.”

From tower to tower the watchmen cry,

”O Gwin, the son of Nore,

“Arouse thyself! the nations black

”Like clouds, come rolling o’er!”

Gwin rear’d his shield, his palace shakes,

His chiefs come rushing round;

Each, like an awful thunder-cloud

With voice of solemn sound:

Like reared stones around a grave

They stand around the King;

Then suddenly each seized his spear,

And clashing steel does ring.

The husbandman does leave his plough

To wade thro’ fields of gore;

The merchant binds his brows in steel,

And leaves the trading shore;

The shepherd leaves his mellow pipe,

And sounds the trumpet shrill,

The workman throws his hammer down

To heave the bloody bill.

Like the tall ghost of Barraton

Who sports in stormy sky,

Gwin leads his host as black as night,

When pestilence does fly,

With horses and with chariots —

And all his spearmen bold,

March to the sound of mournful song,

Like clouds around him roll’d.

Gwin lifts his hand — the nations halt;

”Prepare for war,” he cries —

Gordred appears! — his frowning brow

Troubles our northern skies.

The armies stand, like balances

Held in the Almighty’s hand; —

“Gwin, thou hast fill’d thy measure up,

”Thou’rt swept from out the land.”

And now the raging armies rush’d

Like warring mighty seas;

The Heavens are shook with roaring war,

The dust ascends the skies!

Earth smokes with blood, and groans, and shakes,

To drink her children’s gore,

A sea of blood; nor can the eye

See to the trembling shore.

And on the verge of this wild sea

Famine and death doth cry;

The cries of women and of babes

Over the field doth fly.

The king is seen raging afar,

With all his men of might;

Like blazing comets scattering death

Thro’ the red feverous night.

Beneath his arm like sheep they die,

And groan upon the plain;

The battle faints, and bloody men

Fight upon hills of slain.

Now death is sick, and riven men.

Labour and toil for life;

Steed rolls on steed, and shield on shield,

Sunk in this sea of strife!

The god of war is drunk with blood,

The earth doth faint and fail;

The stench of blood makes sick the heavens,

Ghosts glut the throat of hell!

O what have Kings to answer for

Before that awful throne!

When thousand deaths for vengeance cry

And ghosts accusing groan!

Like blazing comets in the sky

That shake the stars of light,

Which drop like fruit unto the earth

Thro’ the fierce burning night;

Like these did Gwin and Gordred meet,

And the first blow decides;

Down from the brow unto the breast

Gordred his head divides!

Gwin fell: the Sons of Norway fled,

All that remain’d alive;

The rest did fill the vale of death,

For them the eagles strive.

The river Dorman roll’d their blood

Into the northern sea;

Who mourn’d his sons, and overwhelm’d

The pleasant south country.

GOLDEN Apollo, that thro’ heaven wide

Scatter’st the rays of light, and truth his beams,

In lucent words my darkling verses dight

And wash my earthy mind in thy clear streams,

That wisdom may descend in fairy dreams:

All while the jocund hours in thy train

Scatter their fancies at thy poet’s feet;

And when thou yield’st to night thy wide domain,

Let rays of truth enlight his sleeping brain.

For brutish Pan in vain might thee assay

With tinkling sounds to dash thy nervous verse,

Sound without sense; yet in his rude affray,

(For Ignorance is Folly’s leasing nurse,

And love of Folly needs none other’s curse;)

Midas the praise hath gain’d of lengthen’d ears,

For which himself might deem him ne’er the worse

To sit in council with his modern peers

And judge of tinkling rhymes and elegances terse.

And thou, Mercurius, that with winged bow

Dost mount aloft into the yielding sky,

And thro’ Heaven’s halls thy airy flight dost throw,

Entering with holy feet to where on high

Jove weighs the counsel of futurity;

Then, laden with eternal fate, dost go

Down, like a falling star, from autumn sky,

And o’er the surface of the silent deep dost fly:

If thou arrivest at the sandy shore

Where nought but envious hissing adders dwell,

Thy golden rod, thrown on the dusty floor,

Can charm to harmony with potent spell;

Such is sweet Eloquence, that does dispel

Envy and Hate, that thirst for human gore;

And cause in sweet society to dwell

Vile savage minds that lurk in lonely cell.

O Mercury, assist my labouring sense

That round the circle of the world would fly,

As the wing’d eagle scorns the towery fence

Of Alpine hills round his high aëry,

And searches thro’ the corners of the sky,

Sports in the clouds to hear the thunder’s sound

And see the winged lightnings as they fly;

Then, bosom’d in an amber cloud, around

Plumes his wide wings, and seeks Sol’s palace high.

And thou, O warrior Maid invincible,

Arm’d with the terrors of Almighty Jove.

Pallas, Minerva, maiden terrible,

Lovest thou to walk the peaceful solemn grove,

In solemn gloom of branches interwove?

Or bear’st thy Ægis o’er the burning field,

Where, like the sea, the waves of battle move?

Or have thy soft piteous eyes beheld

The weary wanderer thro’ the desert rove?

Or does th’ afflicted man thy heavenly bosom move?

WHEN silver snow decks Susan’s clothes,

And jewel hangs at th’ shepherd’s nose,

The blushing bank is all my care,

With hearth so red, and walls so fair.

“Heap the sea-coal, come, heap it higher,

“The oaken log lay on the fire:”

The well-wash’d stools, a circling row,

With lad and lass, how fair the show!

The merry can of nut-brown ale,

The laughing jest, the love-sick tale,

Till, tired of chat, the game begins,

The lasses prick the lads with pins;

Roger from Dolly twitch’d the stool,

She falling, kiss’d the ground, poor fool!

She blush’d so red, with side-long glance

At hobnail Dick, who grieved the chance.

But now for Blind-man’s Buff they call;

Of each incumbrance clear the hall —

Jenny her silken kerchief folds,

And blear-eyed Will the black lot holds,

Now laughing, stops, with “Silence, hush!”

And Peggy Pout gives Sam a push. —

The Blind-man’s arms, extended wide,

Sam slips between: — ”O woe betide

Thee, clumsy Will! — ”but tittering Kate

Is penn’d up in the corner strait!

And now Will’s eyes beheld the play,

He thought his face was t’other way.

“Now, Kitty, now; what chance hast thou,

“Roger so near thee trips, I vow!”

She catches him — then Roger ties

His own head up — but not his eyes;

For thro’ the slender cloth he sees,

And runs at Sam, who slips with ease

His clumsy hold; and, dodging round,

Sukey is tumbled on the ground! —

“See what it is to play unfair!

“Where cheating is, there’s mischief there”

But Roger still pursues the chace, —

“He sees! he sees!” cries softly Grace;

“O Roger, thou, unskill’d in art

“Must, surer bound, go thro’ thy part!”

Now Kitty, pert, repeats the rhymes

And Roger turns him round three times,

Then pauses ere he starts; but Dick

Was mischief-bent upon a trick;

Down on his hands and knees he lay

Directly in the Blind-man’s way,

Then cries out, “Hem!” Hodge heard, and ran

With hood-wink’d chance — sure of his man;

But down he came. — Alas, how frail

Our best of hopes, how soon they fail!

With crimson drops he stains the ground,

Confusion startles all around!

Poor piteous Dick supports his head,

And fain would cure the hurt he made;

But Kitty hasted with a key

And down his back they straight convey

The cold relief — the blood is stay’d

And Hodge again holds up his head.

Such are the fortunes of the game,

And those who play should stop the same

By wholesome laws, such as — all those

Who on the blinded man impose,

Stand in his stead; as long agone

When men were first a nation grown,

Lawless they lived, till wantonness

And liberty began t’ increase,

And one man lay in another’s way;

Then laws were made to keep fair play.

PERSONS.

King Edward.

The Black Prince.

Queen Philippa.

Duke of Clarence.

Sir John Chandos.

Sir Thomas Dagworth.

Sir Walter Manny.

Lord Audley.

Lord Percy.

Bishop.

William, Dagworth’s man.

Peter Blunt, a common soldier.