Not her own guardian angel eyes But if, at first, her virgin fear Should start at Love's suspected name, With that of Friendship sooth her ear— True love and friendship are the same! O NIGHTINGALE, best poet of the grove! O lend that strain, sweet Nightingale, to me! 'Tis mine, alas! to mourn my wretched fate: I love a maid who all my bosom charms, Yet lose my days without this lovely mate; Inhuman fortune keeps her from my arms. You, happy birds! by nature's simple laws And love and song is all your pleasing care: But we, vain slaves of interest and of pride, And hence, in vain I languish for my bride: TO MISS YOUNG, WITH HIS "SEASONS." ACCEPT, lov'd nymph! this tribute due WILLIAM SHENSTONE. 1743. The account of Shenstone exhibits few circumstances on which biography is required to expatiate. By far the greater portion of his existence was passed amidst the scenes of his nativity, and occupied in their decoration. He was intimately known only to a small circle of friends, whose number did not augment with his years. William, eldest son of Thomas Shenstone, Esq. whose father purchased the Leasowes that were to be immortalized by the grandson, was born in the parish of HalesOwen, Shropshire, on the 18th of November, in the year 1714. After a course of preparatory instruction under the Rev. Mr. Crumpton, master of the school at Solihull, near Birmingham, he was entered a Commoner of Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1732; but without finally attaching himself to any liberal profession; though such a measure had at first exercised his reflection, principally with the view of affording him the means by which to remedy the scantiness of his patrimonial income. It is to be lamented that Shenstone did not adhere to a design that might have been productive of most salutary effects. The distempers of his mind, as well as the derangements of his fortune, may be traced to this fatal neglect. He discovered his error, when conviction served only to aggravate dissatisfaction. Amendment once become impracticable, there remains no consolation for the calamities of misconduct. Irresolution and inactivity seem equally to have regulated the poet in his conduct towards Miss Graves, sister of the Author of the "Spiritual Quixotte," &c.; to whom he became a suitor in 1735, and whose attractions he commemorated, under the name of DELIA, So late as the year 1749. Unless, however, the disappointment it displays be entirely fiction, the "Pastoral Ballad," instead of being designed for Miss Graves, evidently refers to Miss C-, of whom Shenstone became enamoured while on a visit at Cheltenham, in the summer of 1743. This lady is not unlikely to have been the FLAVIA of his muse. Unsettled in his plans, unaffluent in his circunstances, unever in his temper, and uninviting in his person, it can occaion no wonder that Shenstone could never come to a determination to marry :-if, indeed, he ever met with an eligible opportunity for forming such a decision. He has not, however, escaped the accusation of having imagined cruelty in his DELIA, at a time when he knew her disposed to accept his hand, as well as his addresses. Since such a proceeding must suppose dispositions which no sophistry could palliate, let it be believed that his complaint of rejection was deep and unfeigned; that he, who was generally esteemed for rectitude and tenderness of mind, would not wantonly injure the feelings of a woman he professed to love. The following stanzas (Elegy 25), while they place his character in no unamiable point of view, nevertheless show that, like Hammond, the writer of them aspired only to trifle life away. There are minds to whom "the languor of inglorious days," far from feeling oppressive, is delightful; whose habitual indolence paralyses the few virtues by which they might become estimable to others, and satisfactory to themselves. Passive goodness is not the merit to which a wise man ought to aspire. Faint is my bounded bliss: not I refuse To range where daisies open, rivers roll, Of these lov'd flowers the lifeless corse may share, As when their master smil'd to see them glow: The sequent morn shall wake the silvan quire; While the rude hearse conveys me slow away, O DELIA! cheer'd by thy superior praise, I bless the silent path the Fates decree; To raise the moments crown'd with bliss and thee! Shenstone died at the Leasowes, February 11, 1765, and was buried under a plain flat stone, in the church-yard of Hales-Owen. His friend Graves afterwards erected an Urn to his Memory, graced with an Inscription, in the church of that place. Lyttelton, in commemoration of the poet, placed also an urn in the park at Hagley. Both Shenstone and Hammond abound in senseless declamations against women, on account of the avariciousness repeatedly imputed to the sex; forgetful, it should seem, that some proportion of property is in every situation indispensable to human happiness. While nothing ought to be considered more detestable than a mercenary sacrifice of the finest affections of our nature, equally destructive of those affections is that total disregard of reflection and prudence so often inculcated by the mistaken votaries of pleasure! THE star of Venus ushers in the day, The first the loveliest of the train that shine! The star of Venus lends her brightest ray When other stars their friendly beams resign. |