William Crowe (Уильям Кроу)

The British Theatre

  WRITTEN IN 1775.

  When first was rear’d the British Stage,
    Rude was the scene and weak the lay;
  The Bard explored the sacred Page,
    And holy Mystery form’d his Play.

  Th’ affections of the mortal breast
    In simple Moral next he sung,
  Each Vice[17] in human shape he drest,
    And to each Virtue[17] gave a tongue.

  Then ’gan the Comic Muse unfold
    In coarser jests her homely art:
  Of Gammer Gurton’s[18] loss she told,
    And laugh’d at Hodge’s awkward smart.

  Come from thy wildly-winding stream,
    First-born of Genius, SHAKSPEARE, come!
  The listening World attends thy theme,
    And bids each elder Bard[19] be dumb:

  For thou, within the human Mind
    Fix’d, as on thy peculiar throne,
  Sitt’st like a Deity inshrined;
    And either Muse is all thine own!

  Yet shall not Time’s rough hand destroy
    The scenes by learned Jonson writ;
  Nor shall Oblivion e’er enjoy
    The charms of Fletcher’s courtly wit:

  And still in matchless beauty live
    The numbers of that Lyric Strain
  Sung gayly to the Star of Eve
    By Comus and his jovial Train.

  Here sunk the Stage:—and dire alarms
    The Muse’s voice did overwhelm;
  For wounded Freedom call’d to arms,
    And Discord shook the embattled Realm.

  But Peace return’d; and with her came
    (Alas! how changed!) the tuneful Pair:
  Thalia’s eye should blench with shame,
    And her sad Sister weep to hear

  How the mask’d[20] Fair, in Charles’s reign,
    Her lewd and riotous Fancy fed
  At Killigrew’s debauchful scene,
    While hapless Otway pined for Bread.

  Thus the sweet Lark shall sing unheard,
    And Philomel sit silent by;
  While every vile and chattering bird
    Torments the grove with ribald cry.

  And see what witless Bards presume
    With buskin’d fools to rhyme and rage;
  While Mason’s idle Muse is dumb,
    And weary Garrick quits the Stage.

[17] Personification of the passions in the moralities.

[18] Gammer Gurton’s Needle is the oldest 
English comedy; the distress of it arises 
from the loss of the needle, which at last 
is discovered in her man Hodge’s breeches.

[19] There were no plays of any note 
before Shakspeare.

[20] The custom of that time, for fear of 
hearing indecencies, otherwise
too gross to be supported.

1. Elegy to the Memory of Dr. W. Hayes, Professor of Music in the University of Oxford
2. Ode to the Lyric Muse
3. Merlin's Glass
4. On the Death of Captain Cook
5. Lewesdon Hill

Распечатать (To print)

Количество обращений к стихотворению: 1260

Последние стихотворения

To English version