Anonymous

“ If one soft plea the public favour gain,
And from disgrace protect the vilest strain,
Oh say, what honours may that Bard require,
In whose sad lot all pleas at once conspire;
Who, young, enamour'd, poor, and almost dead,
Writes for his fame, his mistress, and his bread.
Man feels for man by partnership of woe,
For human suff'rings, human tears will flow. ”

“ Some plaintive plea subdues the reader's mind.
The Bard, perchance, is young, o'erwhelm'd with fears;
Forgive his faults, and spare his tender years.
Or want, not will, inspires his tuneful rage [7] ;
'Tis alms to buy—you need not read the page.
Or love [8] has led his gentle mind astray,
From humble prose, to tempt the arduous lay.
Perchance, surviving friends deplore his doom,
And print his strains to grace th' untimely tomb.
Can Censure rail against the recent dead?
Is Pity deaf when mourning parents plead? ”

“ Pratt's edit., page 284.
↑ A countryman of our own has celebrated the effect of "Two or three love letters writ all in rhymes;" nor has the circumstance been left unnoticed by an ancient professor in the art of gaining the affections of a mistress. ”