Poems and plays

In my heart festering,
In my ears whispering,
"Thy friends are treacherous,

"Thy foes are dangerous,
"Thy dreams ominous.”

Fierce Anthropophagi,
Spectra, Diaboli,

What scared St. Anthony,
Hobgoblins, Lemures,
Dreams of Antipodes,
Night-riding Incubi
Troubling the fantasy,
All dire illusions
Causing confusions;
Figments heretical,
Scruples fantastical,
Doubts diabolical,
Abaddon vexeth me,

Mahu perplexeth me,

Lucifer teareth me

Jesu! Maria! liberate nos ab his diris tentationibus Inimici.

A BALLAD:

Noting the Difference of Rich and Poor, in the Ways of a Rich Noble's Palace and a Poor Workhouse

To the tune of the "Old and Young Courtier

(August, 1800. Text of 1818)

In a costly palace Youth goes clad in gold;
In a wretched workhouse Age's limbs are cold :
There they sit, the old men by a shivering fire,
Still close and closer cowering, warmth is their desire.

In a costly palace, when the brave gallants dine,
They have store of good venison, with old canary wine,
With singing and music to heighten the cheer;
Coarse bits, with grudging, are the pauper's best fare.

In a costly palace Youth is still carest

By a train of attendants which laugh at my young Lord's jest ; In a wretched workhouse the contrary prevails:

Does Age begin to prattle?--no man heark'neth to his tales.

In a costly palace if the child with a pin

Do but chance to prick a finger, strait the doctor is called in ; In a wretched workhouse men are left to perish

For want of proper cordials, which their old age might cherish.

In a costly palace Youth enjoys his lust;

In a wretched workhouse Age, in corners thrust,

Thinks upon the former days, when he was well to do,

Had children to stand by him, both friends and kinsmen too.

In a costly palace Youth his temples hides

With a new devised peruke that reaches to his sides;

In a wretched workhouse Age's crown is bare,
With a few thin locks just to fence out the cold air.

In peace, as in war, 'tis our young gallants' pride,

To walk, each one i' the streets, with a rapier by his side, That none to do them injury may have pretence; Wretched Age, in poverty, must brook offence.

POEMS IN CHARLES LAMB'S WORKS,
1818, NOT PREVIOUSLY PRINTED IN
THE PRESENT VOLUME; TOGETHER
WITH REFERENCES TO THOSE

POEMS THAT HAVE BEEN PRE-
VIOUSLY PRINTED

HESTER

(February, 1803)

HEN maidens such as Hester die,

WHE Their place ye may not well supply,

Though ye among a thousand try,

With vain endeavour.

A month or more hath she been dead,
Yet cannot I by force be led

To think upon the wormy bed,
And her together.

A springy motion in her gait,
A rising step, did indicate

Of pride and joy no common rate,
That flush'd her spirit.

I know not by what name beside
I shall it call:-if 'twas not pride,
It was a joy to that allied,
She did inherit.

Her parents held the Quaker rule,
Which doth the human feeling cool,

But she was train'd in Nature's school,
Nature had blest her.

Here came

A waking eye, a prying mind,
A heart that stirs, is hard to bind,
A hawk's keen sight ye cannot blind,
Ye could not Hester.

My sprightly neighbour, gone before
To that unknown and silent shore,
Shall we not meet, as heretofore,
Some summer morning,

When from thy cheerful eyes a ray
Hath struck a bliss upon the day,
A bliss that would not go away,
A sweet fore-warning?

"To Charles Lloyd." See page 12.

Here came" The Three Friends," followed by "To a River in which a Child was drowned," first printed in "Poetry for Children," 1809. See vol. iii. of this edition, page 416. Here came "The Old Familiar Faces." See page 25. Here came "Helen," by Mary Lamb. See page 28. Here came "A Vision of Repentance." See page 13.

DIALOGUE BETWEEN A MOTHER AND CHILD

(By Mary Lamb. 1804)

CHILD

"O Lady, lay your costly robes aside,
No longer may you glory in your pride."

MOTHER

"Wherefore to-day art singing in mine ear
Sad songs, were made so long ago, my dear;
This day I am to be a bride, you know,
Why sing sad songs, were made so long ago?"

CHILD

"O, mother, lay your costly robes aside,

For you may never be another's bride.
That line I learn'd not in the old sad song."

MOTHER

"I pray thee, pretty one, now hold thy tongue,
Play with the bride-maids, and be glad, my boy,
For thou shalt be a second father's joy."

CHILD

"One father fondled me upon his knee.
One father is enough, alone, for me."

Here came "Queen Oriana's Dream," from "Poetry for Children." See vol. iii. page 480.

Here came "A Ballad Noting the Difference of Rich and Poor." See page 30.

Here came "Hypochondriacus." See page 29.

A FAREWELL TO TOBACCO

(1805)

May the Babylonish curse

Strait confound my stammering verse,

If I can a passage see

In this word-perplexity,

Or a fit expression find,

Or a language to my mind,

(Still the phrase is wide or scant)

To take leave of thee, GREAT PLANT!

Or in any terms relate

Half my love, or half my hate :

For I hate, yet love, thee so,

That, whichever thing I shew,
The plain truth will seem to be
A constrain'd hyperbole,

And the passion to proceed

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