• -
- a
.-...; ,h . '■ ' • ' i;-•>■■•::-■
M
U ;
vj/ *'/ A \'/ \'/ \{/ v'/ \J/ J/ 0/
NORTHWESTERN.]
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
EVANSTON
ILLINOIS
* ^ ^ a ^ ^ & s»> * $ ->» * *
rp /^k rgk #J\ ^ rp ^k
THE
Cabinet Etbrarj.
IN TWENTY VOLUMES.
VOLUME SIXTEENTH,
CONTAINING
THE SHIPWRECK, BY FALCONER,
WITH
A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.
EDINBURGH:
Printed by James Ballantyne cjr Co.
FOR JOHN BALLANTYNE & CO. UANOVER-STREET ;
AND FOR
LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, LONDON.
1812.
THE
SHIPWRECK,
A POEM,
BY
WILLIAM FALCONER,
A SAILOR.
WITH
A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.
EDINBURGH:
Printed by James Ballantyne <£ Co.
FOR JOHN BALLANTYNE AND CO. HANOVER STREET,
EDINBURGH.
1811.
LIFE
OF
WILLIAM FALCONER.
William Falconer, the subject of the pre¬
sent Memoir, was born in Edinburgh about
the year 1730. His father exercised the hum¬
ble profession of a barber; and it appears that
the circumstances of the family were not very
flourishing, as William, at an early age, was
disposed of on board a Lcith merchantman,
in which he served an apprenticeship.
\
Previous to this, however, he had received
the ordinary rudiments of education, and it
appears that his genius required no more; for
it has been ascertained, by the concurrent tes-
b
ii
WILLIAM FALCONER.
timony of all who knew him through his after
life, that the energy of his mind overcame all
the disadvantages of his circumstances; and,
however unfavourable the situation of a sailor
is to literary attainments, his overpowering ge¬
nius enabled him to make means, to overcome
every difficulty.
Shortly after the expiration of his appren¬
ticeship, he was patronized by Mr Campbell,
purser of the vessel in which he then sailed,
and who was himself no mean poet; to his
interest it was owing that Falconer was after¬
wards appointed mate of a Levant merchant¬
man. This vessel was wrecked on her pas¬
sage to Venice; few of the crew escaped;
and it is thought the impression made on
Falconer's mind by this circumstance first
suggested to him the idea of " The Ship¬
wreck," a Poem which will continue to be
WILLIAM FALCONER. iii
admired as long as correct taste and feeling
subsist.
Falconer first displayed his poetical genius
in the year 1751, at which period he was
about twenty years old. He published, at
lEdinburgh, A Poem, sacred to the Memory
of Frederick, Prince of JVales; and this first
effort, although it contains many faults, cer¬
tainly exhibits the promise of future excel¬
lence. Many other little poetical produc¬
tions, which occasionally appeared in the
magazines and newspapers of the day, were
ascribed to him; but it does not appear that
he ever acknowledged any, from that period
till the year 1762, when he produced the
masterpiece of his genius, in The Shipwreck,
a Poem, in three Cantos, hy a Sailor.
The publication of this Poem, which he
C
WILLIAM FALCONER.
inscribed to his Royal Highness Edward,
Duke of York, immediately drew him from
the obscurity of his situation, and elevated
his name to that rank in the literary world
which it has since held. The Duke instantly
noticed him ; and, in the course of a few
weeks, appointed him to the situation of pur¬
ser to the Royal George. Unfortunately for
Falconer, his further promotion was stopped
by the death of his royal patron ; and it ap¬
pears that he left his situation, shortly after
this period, in order to marry. The young
lady of his choice was named Hicks ; and
she is said to have possessed considerable
poetical and critical powers. It is, indeed,
most likely that Falconer would select a kin¬
dred mind. It does not appear, however,
that this lady brought him any fortune, as we
find him, in 1769, in no higher situation than
that of purser of the Aurora frigate. This ves-
WILLIAM FALCONER.
v
sel sailed for India in the same year, and was
never after heard of. Various reports have
arisen respecting the fate of the Aurora, the
last intelligence of which was from the Cape of
Good Hope in December 1769, where she
then was ; but the prevalent opinion is, that
she took fire at sea in the night-time, and
blew up.
Thus perished William Falconer; who,
whether he is considered as a seaman or a
poet, certainly possessed genius and attain¬
ments of the first class. His poem has aptly
been termed a " grammar of his professional
scienceand, in the execution of the work,
he has not only enforced such principles of
nautical skill as are applicable to almost every
emergency, but he has accomplished the task
by modes so variously interesting, and in num¬
bers so sweetly harmonious, that while the un-
vi WILLIAM FALCONER.
derstanding is instructed, the heart and the
ear are equally charmed.
His Universal Dictionary of Marine was
published early in 1769 ; but as a work of
this nature can only be interesting to nauti¬
cal people, its sale has been proportionally
limited.
Falconer, in his person, was of the mid¬
dle size, sparely made, with a dark weather-
beaten countenance, marked by the small¬
pox. It is remarkable, that a number of his
brothers and sisters were deaf and dumb. No
remains of the family are now known to exist;
a sister, who was supposed to be the last sur¬
viving, died within these few years, in a work¬
house at Edinburgh.
In the present edition, those explanatory
WILLIAM FALCONER.
vii
notes only are retained, which are known to
have been the production of Falconer him¬
self.
The following critique on the Shipwreck
appeared in the Monthly Review, (vol. xxvi.
p. 197.) and contributed not a little to its
publicity and subsequent favourable recep¬
tion :
" It has frequently been observed, that true
genius will surmount every obstacle which op¬
poses its exertion: how unfavourable soever
the situation of a seaman may be thought to
the poet, certain it is the two characters are
not incompatible ; for none but an able sailor-
could give so didactic an account, and so ac¬
curate a description of the voyage and cata¬
strophe here related; and none but a parti¬
cular favourite of the Muses could have em-
viii
WILLIAM FALCONER.
bellished both with equal harmony of num¬
bers and strength of imagery.
" The main object of the poem is the loss
of the ship Britannia, a merchantman, bound
from Alexandria to Venice, which touched at
the island of Candia; whence proceeding on
her voyage, she met with a violent storm that
drove her on the coasts of Greece, where she
suffered shipwreck near Cape Colonne; three
only of the crew being left alive.
" The ship putting to sea from the port of
Candia, the poet takes an opportunity of ma¬
king several beautiful marine descriptions ;
such as the prospect of the Shore; a shoal of
Dolphins; a Water-Spout j the method of
taking an Azimuth ; and working the Ship.
In the Second Canto, the ship having cleared
the land, the Storm begins ; and with it the
WILLIAM FALCONER. ix
consultation of the Pilots, and operations of
the Seamen ; all which the poet has described
with an amazing minuteness, and has found
means to reduce the several technical terms
of the marine into smooth and harmonious
numbers. Homer has been admired by some
for reducing a catalogue of ships into tolera¬
bly flowing verse; but who, except a poetical
sailor, the nursling of Apollo, educated by
Neptune, would ever have thought of versify¬
ing his own sea-language ? what other poet
would ever have dreamt of Reef-Tackles, Ha-
liards, Clue-garnets, Bunt-lines, Lashings, La¬
niards, and fifty other terms equally obnoxi¬
ous to the soft sing-song of modern poetasters.
" Many of his descriptions are not inferior
to any thing in the iEneid; many passages
in the third and fifth books of which our au¬
thor has had in view ; they have not suffered
X
william falconer.
by his imitation; and his Pilot appears to
much greater advantage than the Palinurus
of Virgil.
" Nor is the poet's talent confined to the
description of inanimate scenes: he relates,
and bewails, the untimely fate of his compa¬
nions in the most animated and pathetic
strains. The close of the Master's address
to the Seamen, in the time of their greatest
danger, is noble and philosophical. It is im¬
possible to read the circumstantial account of
the unfortunate end of the ship's crew, with¬
out being deeply affected by the tale, and
charmed with the manner of the relation."
Falconer's other poetical attempts have ne¬
ver been collected in one publication, and
perhaps they are scarcely worthy preserva¬
tion. His " Midshipman," however, or, as
WILLIAM FALCONER. xi
it has been more technically called, " The
Orlop," may be considered an exception ;
and with it we shall conclude our brief Me¬
moir of Falconer.
THE MIDSHIPMAN.
Aid me, kind Muse ! so whimsical a theme,
No poet ever yet pursued for fame ;
Boldly I venture on a naval scene,
Nor fear the critic's frown, the pedant's spleen:
Sons of the Ocean! we their rules disdain,
Our bosom's honest, and our style is plain—
Let Homer's heroes, and his gods, delight,
Let Milton with infernal legions fight;
His favourite warrior, polished Virgil show;
With love, and wine, luxurious Horace glow—
Be such their subjects ; I another choose,
As yet neglected by the laughing Muse.
XII WILLIAM FALCONER.
Deep in that fabric, where Britannia boasts
O'er seas to waft her thunder and her hosts,
A cavern * lies ! unknown to cheering day;
Where one small taper lends a feeble ray:
Where wild Disorder holds her wanton reign,
And careless mortals frolic in her train—
Bending beneath a hammock's friendly shade,
See iEsculapius all in arms display'd ;
In his right hand the impending steel he holds,
The other round the trembling victim folds;
His gaping myrmidon the deed attends,
Whilst in the pot the crimson stream descends;
Unawed young Galen bears the hostile brunt,
Pills in his rear, and Cullen in his front;
Whilst, mustered round the medicinal pile,
Death's grim militia stand in rank and file.
In neighbouring mansions, lo! what clouds arise,
It half conceals its owner from our eyes;
One penny light with feeble lustre shines,
To prove the Mid in high Olympus dines;
* The Orlop, or deck immediately over the hold, con¬
tains the cabins of the midshipmen.
WILLIARI FALCONER.
Let us approach—the preparation view !
A Cockpit Beau is surely something new :
To him Japan her varnished joy denies;
Nor bloom for him the sweets of eastern skies :
His rugged limbs no lofty mirror shows,
Nor tender couch invites him to repose :
A pigmy glass upon his toilet stands,
Crack'd o'er and o'er by awkward clumsy hands
Chesterfield's page polite, the Seaman's Guide,
A half-eat biscuit, Congreve's Mourning Bride,
Bestrewed with powder, in confusion lie,
And form a chaos to the intruding eye—
At length this meteor of an hour is drest,
And rises an Adonis from his chest:
Cautious he treads, least some unlucky slip
Defiles his clothes with burgou, or with flip :
These rocks escaped, arrives in statu quo ;
Bows; dines and bows; then sinks again below.
Not far from hence a joyous group are met,
For social mirth, and sportive pastime set;
In cheering grog the rapid course goes round,
And not a care in all the circle's found :
xiv WILLIAM FALCONER.
Promotion, mess-debts, absent friends, and love
Inspired by Hope, in turn their topics prove :
To proud superiors then, they each look up,
And curse all discipline in ample cup.
Hark! yonder voice in hollow murmur swells;
Hark! yonder voice the Mid to duty calls!
Thus summoned by the gods, he deigns to go,
But first makes known his consequence below:
At slavery rails, scorns lawless sway to hell,
And damns the power allowed a white lapel:
Vows that he's free!—to stoop, to cringe disdains—
Ascends the ladder,—and resumes his chains.
In canvassed birth, profoundly deep in thought,
His busy mind with sines and tangents fraught,
A Mid reclines!—in calculation lost!—
His efforts still by some intruder crost:
Now to the longitude's vast height he soars,
And now formation of Lapscous explores;
Now o'er afield of logarithms bends,
And now to make a pudding he pretends ;
At once the sage, the hero, and the cook,
He wields the sword, the saucepan, and the book.
Opposed to him a sprightly mess-mate lolls,
Declaims with Garrick, or with Shuter drolls;
WILLIAM FALCONER.
xv
Sometimes his breast great Cato's virtue warms,
And then his task the gay Lothario charms;
Cleone's grief his tragic feelings wake,
With Richard's pangs the Orlopian cavern shake!
No more the mess for other joys repine,
When pea-soup entering shows 'tis time to dine.
But think not meanly of this humble seat,
Whence sprung the Guardians of the British Fleet;
Revere the sacred spot, however low,
Which formed to martial acts a Hawks ! a Howe !
ADVERTISEMENT
to
THE SECOND EDITION.
published by a. millar, in octavo, 1764.
It is perhaps necessary to acquaint the Public, that
the Author of this Poem designed not at first to en¬
large the Work with so many Notes, and, to avoid
this, proposed to refer his readers to any one of the
modern Dictionaries, which should be thought most
proper for explaining the technical terms occasional¬
ly employed in the Poem; but, after strict exami¬
nation of them all, he could by no means recommend
their explanations, without forfeiting his claim to the
character assumed in the Title-Page, of which he is
c
[ xviii ]
much more tenacious than of his reputation as a
Poet.
Although it is so frequent a practice to take the
advantage of public approbation, and raise the price
of performances that have been much encouraged,
the author chooses to steer in a quite different chan¬
nel : it being a considerable time since the first Edi¬
tion sold off, (notwithstanding the high price, and
the singularity of the subject,) he might very justly
continue the price; but as it deterred a number of
the inferior Officers of the sea from purchasing it,
at their repeated requests it has been printed now in
a smaller Edition; at the same time, the Author is
sorry to observe, that the gentlemen of the sea, for
whose entertainment it was chiefly calculated, have
hardly made one-tenth of the purchasers.
ADVERTISEMENT
TO
THE THIRD EDITION.
The favourable reception which this performance
has hitherto met with from the Public, has encoura¬
ged the Author to give it a strict and thorough revi¬
sion ; in the course of which, he flatters himself, it
will be found to have received very considerable
improvements.
9
INTRODUCTION
to
THE POEM.
while jarring interests wake the world to arms,
And fright the peaceful vale with dire alarms,
While Albion bids th' avenging thunder roll
Along her vassal Deep from pole to pole ;
Sick of the scene, where War with ruthless hand
Spreads desolation o'er the bleeding land ;
Sick of the tumult, where the trumpet's breath
Bids ruin smile, and drowns the groan of Death ;
'Tis mine, retired beneath this cavern hoar
That stands all lonely on the sea-beat shore,
Far other themes of deep distress to sing
Than ever trembled from the vocal string;
A scene from dumb Oblivion to restore,
To Fame unknown, and new to Epic lore ;
*
INTRODUCTION
to
THE POEM.
while jarring interests wake the world to arms,
And fright the peaceful vale with dire alarms,
While Albion bids th' avenging thunder roll
Along her vassal Deep from pole to pole;
Sick of the scene, where War with ruthless hand
Spreads desolation o'er the bleeding land ;
Sick of the tumult, where the trumpet's breath
Bids ruin smile, and drowns the groan of Death;
'Tis mine, retired beneath this cavern hoar
That stands all lonely on the sea-beat shore,
Far other themes of deep distress to sing
Than ever trembled from the vocal string;
A scene from dumb Oblivion to restore,
To Fame unknown, and new to Epic lore;
a
2
INTRODUCTION.
Where hostile elements conflicting rise,
And lawless Surges swell against the skies,
Till Hope expires, and Peril and Dismay
Wave their black ensigns on the watery way.
Immortal train ! who guide the maze of song,
To whom all Science, Arts, and Arms belong,
Who bid the Trumpet of eternal Fame
Exalt the Warrior's and the Poet's name,
Or in lamenting elegies express
The varied pang of exquisite distress ;
If e'er with trembling hope I fondly strayed
In life's fair morn beneath your hallowed shade,
To hear the sweetly mournful lute complain,
And melt the heart with ecstasy of pain,
Or listen to the enchanting voice of Love,
While all Elysium warbled through the grove
Oh ! by the hollow blast that moans around,
That sweeps the wild harp with a plaintive sound;
By the long Surge that foams through yonder cave,
Whose vaults remurmur to the roaring wave ;
INTRODUCTION.
S
With living colours give my Verse to glow,
The sad Memorial of a Tale of Woe!
The fate, in lively sorrow, to deplore
Of Wanderers shipwrecked on a leeward shore.
Alas ! neglected by the sacred Nine,
Their Suppliant feels no genial ray divine;
Ah ! will they leave Pieria's happy shore,
To plough the Tide where wintery tempests roar ?
Or shall a Youth approach their hallowed fane,
Stranger to Phoebus, and the tuneful train ?
Far from the Muses' academic grove,
'Twas his the vast and trackless Deep to rove ;
Alternate change of climates has he known,
And felt the fierce extremes of either zone;
Where polar skies congeal th' eternal snow,
Or equinoctial suns for ever glow,
Smote by the freezing, or the scorching blast,
' A Ship-Boy on the high and giddy mast,'
From regions where Peruvian billows roar,
To the bleak coasts of savage Labrador;
4 INTRODUCTION.
From where Damascus, pride of Asian plains,
Stoops her proud neck beneath tyrannic chains,
To where the Isthmus, laved by adverse tides,
Atlantic and Pacific seas divides :
But while he measured o'er the painful race
In Fortune's wild illimitable chace,
Adversity, companion of his way,
Still o'er the Victim hung with iron sway,
Bade new distresses every instant grow,
Marking each change of place with change of Woe;
In regions where th' Almighty's chastening hand
With livid Pestilence afflicts the land,
Or where pale Famine blasts the hopeful year,
Parent of want and misery severe ;
Or where, all-dreadful in th* embattled line,
The hostile Ships in flaming combat join,
Where the torn Vessel Wind and Waves assail,
Till o'er her Crew distress and death prevail.—
Such joyless Toils, in early youth endured,
Th' expanding dawn of mental day obscured,
3
INTRODUCTION.
5
Each genial passion of the Soul opprest,
And quenched the ardour kindling in his breast:
Then censure not severe the Native Song,
Though jarring sounds the measured verse prolong,
Though terms uncouth offend the softer ear,
Yet Truth, and human anguish deign to hear:
No laurel wreaths these lays attempt to claim,
Nor sculptured brass to tell the Poet's name.
And lo ! the Power that wakes th' eventful Song
Hastes hither from Lethean banks along ;
She sweeps the gloom, and, rushing on the sight,
Spreads o'er the kindling scene propitious Light:
In her right hand an ample Roll appears,
Fraught with long annals of preceding years,
With every wise and noble art of Man
Since first the circling hours their course began ;
Her left a silver Wand on high displayed,
Whose magic touch dispels Oblivion's shade :
Pensive her look ; on radiant wings that glow
Like Juno's birds, or Iris' flaming bow,
6
INTRODUCTION.
She sails; and swifter than the course of light
Directs her rapid intellectual flight:
The fugitive ideas she restores,
And calls the wanderingthoughtfromLETHE'sshores;
To things long past a second date she gives,
And hoary Time from her fresh youth receives;
Congenial sister of immortal Fame,
She shares her power, and Memory is her name.—
O first-born Daughter of primeval Time !
By whom transmitted down in every clime
The deeds of ages long elapsed are known,
And blazoned glories spread from zone to zone;
Whose magic breath dispels the mental night,
And o'er th' obscured idea pours the light;
Say on what Seas, for thou alone canst tell,
What dire mishap a fated Ship befel,
Assailed by Tempests, girt with hostile Shores ?
Arise ! approach! unlock thy treasured stores !
Full on my Soul the dreadful Scene display,
And give its latent horrors to the Day.
FIRST CANTO:
The Scene of which lies near the City of Candia.
TIME, ABOUT FOUR DAYS AND A HALF.
ARGUMENT.
I. Retrospect of the Voyage... .Arrival at Candia... .State
of that Islpnd... .Season of the Year described... .II. Cha¬
racter of the Master, and his Officers, Albert, Rodmond,
and Arion. ... Palemon, Son to the Owner of the Ship,..
Attachment of Palemon to Anna, the Daughter of Al¬
bert —III. Noon....palemon>sHistory.—IV. Sun set,
Midnight... Arion's Dream .. . Unmoor by moonlight.. .
Morning...-Sun's Azimuth taken .... Beautiful appear¬
ance of the Ship, as seen by the Natives from the Shore.
the
SHIPWRECK.
CANTO FIRST.
I. A Ship from Egypt, o'er the deep impell'd
By guiding winds, her course for Venice held.
Of famed Britannia were the gallant crew,
And from that Isle her name the Vessel drew;
The wayward steps of Fortune they pursued,
And sought in certain ills imagined good :
Though cautioned oft her slippery path to shun,
Hope still with promised joys allured them on;
10
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO I.
And, while they listened to her winning lore,
The softer scenes of Peace could please no more :
Long absent they from friends and native home
The cheerless Ocean were inured to roam;
Yet Heaven, in pity to severe distress,
Had crowned each painful voyage with success;
Still to compensate toils and hazards past
Restored them to maternal plains at last.
Thrice had the Sun to rule the varying year
Across th' equator rolled his flaming sphere,
Since last the Vessel spread her ample sail
From Albion's coast, obsequious to the gale;
She o'er the spacious flood, from shore to shore,
Unwearying wafted her commercial store;
The richest ports of Afric she had viewed,
Thence to fair Italy her course pursued;
Had left behind Trinacria's burning isle,
And visited the margin of the Nile :
And now, that Winter deepens round the Pole,
The circling voyage hastens to its goal;
canto i. THE SHIPWRECK.
11
They, blind to Fate's inevitable law,
No dark event to blast their hope foresaw,
But from gay Venice soon expect to steer
For Britain's coast, and dread no perils near :
Inflamed by Hope, their throbbing hearts elate
Ideal pleasures vainly antedate,
Before whose vivid intellectual ray
Distress recedes, and danger melts away:
Already British Coasts appear to rise,
The chalky Cliffs salute their longing eyes;
Each to his breast, where floods of rapture roll,
Embracing strains the Mistress of his soul;
Nor less o'erjoy'd, with sympathetic truth,
Each faithful Maid expects th' approaching Youth:
In distant souls congenial passions glow,
And mutual feelings mutual bliss bestow—
Such shadowy Happiness their thoughts employ,
Illusion all, and visionary joy !
Thus time elapsed, while o'er the pathless Tide
Their Ship through Grecian Seas the pilots guide.
12
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO I.
Occasion called to touch at Candia's shore,
Which, blest with favouring Winds, they soon explore;
The Haven enter, borne before the gale,
Dispatch their Commerce, and prepare to sail.
Eternal powers ! what ruins from afar
Mark the fell track of desolating War!
Here Arts and Commerce with auspicious reign
Once breathed sweet influence on the happy plain;
While o'er the lawn, with dance and festive song,
Young Pleasure led the jocund Hours along;
In gay luxuriance Ceres too was seen
To crown the vallies with eternal green :
For wealth, for valour, courted and revered,
What Albion is, fair Candia then appeared
Ah ! who the flight of Ages can revoke ? "J
The free-born spirit of her Sons is broke, >
They bow to Ottoman's imperious yoke; J
No longer Fame their drooping heart inspires,
For stern Oppression quenched its genial fires :
canto i. the shipwreck.
is
Though still her fields, with golden harvests crown'd,
Supply the barren shores of Greece around,
Sharp penury afflicts these wretched Isles,
There Hope ne'er dawns, and Pleasure never smiles;
The vassal wretch contented drags his chain,
And hears his famished babes lament in vain;
These eyes have seen the dull reluctant Soil
A seventh year mock the weary labourer's toil.—
No blooming Venus, on the desert shore,
Now views with triumph captive gods adore;
No lovely Helens now with fatal charms
Excite th' avenging Chiefs of Greece to arms ;
No fair Penelopes enchant the eye,
For whom contending kings were proud to die;
Here sullen Beauty sheds a twilight ray,
While Sorrow bids her vernal bloom decay ;
Those Charms, so long renowned in Classic strains,
Had dimly shone on Albion's happier plains!
Now, in the southern hemisphere, the Sun
Through the bright Virgin, and the Scales,had run,
14
THE SHIPWRECK. canto I.
And on th' ecliptic wheeled his winding way
Till the fierce Scorpion felt his flaming ray.
Four days becalmed the Vessel here remains^,
And yet no hopes of aiding Wind obtains ;
For sickening vapours lull the air to sleep,
And not a Breeze awakes the silent Deep :
This, when th' autumnal Equinox is o'er,
And Phoebus in the north declines no more,
The watchful mariner, whom Heaven informs,
Oft deems the prelude of approaching Storms.—
No dread of Storms the Master's soul restrain,
A Captive fettered to the oar of gain :
His anxious heart, impatient of delay,
Expects the Winds to sail from Candia's bay,
Determined, from whatever point they rise,
To trust his fortune to the Seas and Skies.
Thou living ray of intellectual Fire,
Whose voluntary gleams my verse inspire,
Ere yet the deepening Incidents prevail,
Till roused attention feel our plaintive tale;
canto I. THE SHIPWRECK.
IS
Record whom chief among the gallant Crew
Th' unblest pursuit of Fortune hither drew :
Can sons of Neptune, generous, brave, and bold,
In pain and hazard toil for sordid Gold ?
They can ! for Gold too oft with magic art
Can rule the Passions, and corrupt the heart:
This crowns the prosperous Villain with applause,
To whom in vain sad Merit pleads her cause;
This strews with roses Life's perplexing road,
And leads the way to Pleasure's soft abode ;
This spreads with slaughtered heaps the bloody plain,
And pours adventurous thousands o'er the Main.
II. The stately Ship, with all her daring Band,
To skilful Albert owned the chief command :
Though trained in boisterous elements, his mind
Was yet by soft humanity refined;
Each joy of wedded love, at home, he knew,
Aboard, confest the Father of his Crew !
Brave, liberal, just! the calm domestic scene
Had o'er his temper breathed a gay serene:
16
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO X.
Him Science taught by mystic lore to trace
The planets wheeling in eternal race;
To mark the Ship in floating balance held,
By Earth attracted, and by Seas repell'd ;
Or point her devious track through Climes unknown,
That leads to every shore and every zone:
He sawthe Moonthrough Heaven'sblue concaveglide,
And into motion charm th' expanding Tide,
While Earth impetuous round her axle rolls,
Exalts her watery zone, and sinks the poles;
Light and Attraction, from their genial source,
He saw still wandering with diminished force ;
While on the margin of declining day
Night's shadowy cone reluctant melts away—
Inured to peril, with unconquer'd soul,
The Chief beheld tempestuous Oceans roll;
O'er the wild Surge when dismal shades preside,
His equal skill the lonely Bark could guide;
His genius, ever for th' event prepared,
Rose with the Storm, and all its dangers shared.
canto I. THE SHIPWRECK.
17
Rodmond the next degree to Albert bore,
A hardy son of England's farthest shore,
Where bleak Northumbria pours her savage train
In sable squadrons o'er the northern main ;
That, with her pitchy entrails stored, resort,
A sooty tribe, to fair Augusta's port:
Where'er in ambush lurk the fatal Sands,
They claim the danger, proud of skilful bands ;
For while with darkling course their Vessels sweep
The winding shore, or plough the faithless deep,
O'er Bar, and Shelve, the watery path they sound
With dexterous arm, sagacious of the ground:
Fearless they combat every hostile wind,
Wheeling in mazy tracks, with course inclined.
Expert to moor where terrors line the road,
Or win the anchor from its dark abode ;
But drooping, and relaxed, in climes afar,
Tumultuous and undisciplined in War.
Such Rodmond was; by learning unrefined,
That oft enlightens to corrupt the mind :
b
18
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO I.
Boisterous of manners; trained in early youth
To scenes that shame the conscious cheek of Truth;
To scenes that Nature's struggling voice control,
And freeze Compassion rising in the soul:
Where the grim hell-hounds, prowling round the shore,
With foul intent the stranded Bark explore;
Deaf to the voice of woe, her decks they board,
While tardy Justice slumbers o'er her sword.
The indignant Muse, severely taught to feel,
Shrinks from a theme she blushes to reveal.
Too oft Example, armed with poisons fell,
Pollutes the shrine where Mercy loves to dwell;
Thus Rodmond, trained by this unhallowed crew,
The sacred social passions never knew.
Unskilled to argue, in dispute yet loud,
Bold without caution, without honours proud ;
In Art unschooled, each veteran rule he prized,
And all improvement haughtily despised.
Yet, though full oft to future perils blind,
With skill superior glowed his daring mind,
CANTO I. THE SHIPWRECK.
19
Through snares of death the reeling bark to guide,
When midnight shades involve the raging tide.
To Rodmond, next in order of command,
Succeeds the youngest of our naval band:
But what avails it to record a name
That courts no rank among the sons of fame;
Whose vital spring had just began to bloom,
When o'er it Sorrow spread her sickening gloom ?
While yet a stripling, oft with fond alarms
His bosom danced to Nature's boundless charms ;
On him fair Science dawned in happier hour,
Awakening into bloom young Fancy's flower:
But soon Adversity, with freezing blast,
The blossom withered, and the dawn o'ercast.
Forlorn of heart, and by severe decree
Condemned reluctant to the faithless Sea,
With long farewell he left the laurel grove,
Where Science and the tuneful Sisters rove.
Hither he wandered, anxious to explore
Antiquities of Nations now no more
20
the shipwreck. canto i.
To penetrate each distant realm unknown,
And range excursive o'er the untravelled zone:
In vain—for rude Adversity's command,
S;ill on the margin of each famous land,
With unrelenting ire his steps opposed,
And every gate of Hope against him closed.
Permit my verse, ye blest Pierian train!
To call Arion this ill-fated swain ;
For like that Bard unhappy, on his head
Malignant stars their hostile influence shed :
Both, in lamenting numbers, o'er the Deep
With conscious anguish taught the Harp to weep ;
And both the raging Surge in safety bore
Amid destruction, panting to the shore :
This last, our tragic Story from the wave
Of dark oblivion, haply, yet may save ;
With genuine sympathy may yet complain,
While sad Remembrance bleeds at every vein.
These, chief among the Ship's conducting train,
Her path explored along the deep domain;
canto i.
THE SHIPWRECK.
21
Trained to command, and range the swelling sail,
Whose varying force conforms to every gale.
Charged with the commerce, hither also came
A gallant youth, Palemon was his name :
A Father's stern resentment doomed to prove ;
He came the victim of unhappy love !
His heart for Albert's beauteous daughter bled,
For her a sacred flame his bosom fed :
Nor let the wretched Slaves of Folly scorn
This genuine passion, Nature's eldest born !
'Twas his with lasting anguish to complain,
While blooming Anna mourned the cause in vain.
Graceful of form, by Nature taught to please,
Of power to melt the female breast with ease ;
To her Palemon told his tender tale
Soft as the voice of Summer's evening gale ;
His Soul, where moral truth spontaneous grew,
No guilty wish, no cruel passion knew:
Though tremblingly alive to Nature's Laws,
Yet ever firm to Honour's sacred cause;
22
THE SHIPWRECK. canto i.
O'erjoyed he saw her lovely eyes relent,
The blushing Maiden smiled with sweet consent.
Oft in the mazes of a neighbouring grove
Unheard they breathed alternate vows of love:
By fond society their passion grew,
Like the young blossom fed with vernal dew;
While their chaste Souls possessed the pleasing pains
That Truth improves, and Virtue ne'er restrains.
In evil hour the officious tongue of Fame
Betrayed the Secret of their mutual flame.
With grief and anger struggling in his breast,
Palemon's Father heard the tale confest;
Long had he listened with Suspicion's ear,
And learnt, sagacious, this event to fear.
Too well, fair Youth ! thy liberal heart he knew,
A heart to Nature's warm impressions true :
Full oft his wisdom strove with fruitless toil
With Avarice to pollute that generous soil;
That soil impregnated with nobler seed
Refused the culture of so rank a weed.
CANTO I. THE SHIPWRECK.
23
Elate with wealth in active Commerce won,
And basking in the smile of Fortune's sun,—
For many freighted Ships from shore to shore,
Their wealthy charge by his appointment bore,—
With scorn the Parent eyed the lowly shade
That veiled the beauties of this charming maid.
He, by the lust of Riches only moved,
Such mean connexions haughtily reproved ;
Indignant he rebuked th' enamoured boy,
The flattering promise of his future joy ;
He soothed and menaced, anxious to reclaim
This hopeless passion, or divert its aim;
Oft led the youth where circling joys delight
The ravished sense, or beauty charms the sight.
With all her powers enchanting Music failed,
And Pleasure's syren voice no more prevailed :
Long with unequal art, in vain he strove
To quench th' ethereal flame of ardent Love.
The Merchant, kindling then with proud disdain,
In look, and voice, assumed a harsher strain.
24 THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO I.
In Absence now his only hope remained;
And such the stern decree his will ordained:
Deep anguish, while Palemon heard his doom,
Drew o'er his lovely face a saddening gloom ;
High beat his heart, fast flowed the unbidden tear,
His bosom heaved with agony severe ;
In vain with bitter sorrow he repined,
No tender pity touched that sordid mind—
To thee, brave Albert ! was the charge consign'd.
The stately Ship forsaking England's shore
To regions far remote Palemon bore.
Incapable of change, the unhappy youth
Still loved fair Anna with eternal truth ;
Still Anna's image swims before his sight
In fleeting vision through the restless night;
From clime to clime an Exile doomed to roam,
His heart still panted for its secret home.
The Moon had circled twice her wayward zone,
To him since young Arion first was known;
canto I. THE SHIPWRECK. 25
Who wandering here through many a scene renown'd,
In Alexandria's port the vessel found;
Where, anxious to review his native shore,
He on the roaring wave embarked once more.
Oft by pale Cynthia's melancholy light
With him Palemon kept the watch of night,
In whose sad bosom many a sigh supprest
Some painful secret of the soul confest:
Perhaps Arion soon the cause divined,
Though shunning still to probe a wounded mind;
He felt the chastity of silent woe,
Though glad the balm of comfort to bestow.
He with Palemon, oft recounted o'er
The tales of hapless Love in ancient lore,
Recalled to memory by th' adjacent shore :
The scene thus present, and its story known,
The Lover sighed for sorrows not his own.
Thus, though a recent date their Friendship bore,
Soon the ripe metal own'd the quick'ning ore ;
26 THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO I.
For in one tide their passions seemed to roll,
By kindred age and sympathy of soul.
These o'er the inferior naval train preside,
The course determine, or the commerce guide :
O'er all the rest, an undistinguished Crew,
Her wing of deepest shade Oblivion drew.
III. A sullen languor still the skies opprest,
And held the unwilling Ship in strong arrest:
High in his chariot glowed the lamp of day,
O'er Ida flaming with meridian ray ;
Relaxed from toil, the Sailors range the shore,
Where famine, war, and storm are felt no more;
The hour to social pleasure they resign,
And black remembrance drown in generous wine.
On deck, beneath the shading canvas spread,
Rodmond a rueful tale of wonders read
Of dragons roaring on th' enchanted coast;
The hideous Goblin and the yelling Ghost:
But with Arion, from the sultry heat
Of Noon, Palemon sought a cool retreat.
CANTO I. THE SHIEWRECK.
27
And lo! the Shore with mournful prospects crown'd,
The Rampart torn with many a fatal wound,
The ruined Bulwark tottering o'er the strand,
Bewail the stroke of War's tremendous hand:
What scenes of woe this hapless Isle o'erspread!
Where late thrice fifty thousand warriors bled.
Full twice twelve summers were yon towers assailed,
Till barbarous Ottoman at last prevailed;
While thundering mines the lovely plains o'erturned,
While heroes fell, and domes and temples burned.
But now before them happier Scenes arise,
Elysian Vales salute their ravished eyes ;
Olive, and Cedar, formed a grateful shade,
Where light, with gay romantic error, strayed:
The Myrtles here with fond caresses twine,
There, rich with nectar, melts the pregnant Vine:
And lo ! the Stream, renowned in classic song,
Sad Lethe, glides the silent vale along.
On mossy banks, beneath the Citron grove,
The youthful Wanderers found a wild Alcove ;
28 THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO I.
Soft o'er the fairy region Languor stole,
And with sweet Melancholy charmed the Soul.
Here first Palemon, while his pensive mind
For consolation on his friend reclined,
In pity's bleeding bosom, poured the stream
Of Love's soft anguish, and of grief supreme:
" Too true thy words! by sweet remembrance taught,
" My heart in secret bleeds with tender thought;
" In vain it courts the solitary shade,
" By every action, every look betrayed :
" The pride of generous woe disdains appeal
" To hearts that unrelenting frosts congeal;
" Yet sure, if right Palemon can divine,
" The sense of gentle pity dwells in thine :*
" Yes! all his cares thy sympathy shall know,
" And prove the kind companion of his woe.
" Albert thou kno w'st, with skill and science graced;
" In humble station though by Fortune placed,
" Yet never Seaman more serenely brave
" Led Britain's conquering Squadrons o'er the wave:
canto i. THE SHIPWRECK. 29
" Where full in view Augusta's spires are seen
" With flowery lawns, and waving woods between,
" An humble habitation rose, beside
" Where Thames meand'ring rolls his ample tide :
" There live the hope and pleasure of his life,
" A pious Daughter, and a faithful Wife :
" For his return with fond officious care
" Still every grateful object these prepare :
" Whatever can allure the smell or sight,
" Or wake the drooping spirits to delight.
" This blooming Maid in Virtue's path to guide
" The admiring Parents all their care applied:
" Her spotless soul to soft affection trained,
" No vice untuned, no sickening folly stained:
" Not fairer grows the Lily of the vale,
" Whose bosom opens to the vernal gale :
" Her eyes, unconscious of their fatal charms,
" Thrilled every heart with exquisite alarms:
" Her face, in Beauty's sweet attraction drest,
" The smile of maiden innocence exprest;
8
30 THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO I.
" While Health, that rises with the new-born day,
" Breathed o'er her cheek the softest blush of May:
" Still in her look Complacence smiled serene;
" She moved the Charmer of the rural scene!
" 'Twas at that Season, when the fields resume
" Their loveliest hues, arrayed in vernal bloom :
" Yon Ship, rich freighted from the Italian shore,
" To Thames' fair banks her costly tribute bore :
" While thus my Father saw his ample hoard,
" From this return, with recent treasures stored;
" Me, with affairs of commerce charged, he sent
" To Albert's humble mansion—soon I went!
" Too soon, alas ! unconscious of th' event.
" There, struck with sweet surprise and silent awe,
" The gentle Mistress of my hopes I saw;
" There, wounded first by Love's resistless arms,
" My glowing bosom throbbed with strange alarms;
" My ever charming Anna ! who alone
" Can all the frowns of cruel fate atone ;
CANTO I. THE SHIPWRECK.
31
" Oh ! while all-conscious Memory holds her power,
" Can I forget that sweetly-painful hour,
" When from those eyes, with lovely lightningfraught,
" My fluttering spirits first the infection caught ?
" When, as I gazed, my faltering tongue betray'd
" The heart's quick tumults, or refused its aid;
" While the dim light my ravished eyes forsook,
" And every limb, unstrung with terror, shook :
" With all her powers, dissenting Reason strove
" To tame at first the kindling flame ofLovE:
" She strove in vain ; subdued by charms divine,
" My soul a victim fell at Beauty's shrine.
" Oft from the din of bustling life I strayed,
" In happier scenes to see my lovely Maid ;
" Full oft, where Thames his wandering current leads,
" We roved at evening hour through flowery meads;
" There, while my heart's soft anguish I revealed,
" To her with tender sighs my hope appealed :
" While the sweet Nymph my faithful tale believed,
" Her snowy breast with secret tumult heaved;
3
32 THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO L,
" For, trained in rural scenes from earliest youth,
" Nature was her's, and Innocence, and Truth:
" She never knew the city damsel's art,
" Whose frothy pertness charms the vacant heart—
" My suit prevailed! for Love informed my tongue,
" And on his votary's lips persuasion hung.
" Her eyes with conscious sympathy withdrew,
" And o'er her cheek the rosy current flew.
" Thrice happy hours! where with no dark allay
" Life's fairest sunshine gilds the vernal day :
" For here the sigh, that soft affection heaves,
" From stings of sharper woe the soul relieves:
" Elysian scenes ! too happy long to last,
" Too soon a storm the smiling dawn o'ercast:
" Too soon some demon to my Father bore
" The tidings, that his heart with anguish tore.
" My pride to kindle, with dissuasive voice
" Awhile he laboured to degrade my choice:
" Then, in the whirling wave of Pleasure, sought
" From its loved object to divert my thought:
CANTO I. THE SHIPWRECK.
33
" With ecfual hope he might attempt to bind
" In chains of adamant the lawless wind ;
" For Love had aimed the fatal shaft too sure,
" Hope fed the wound, and Absence knew no cure.
" With alienated look, each art he saw
" Still baffled by superior Nature's law.
" His anxious mind on various schemes revolved,
" At last on cruel exile he resolved :
" The rigorous doom was fixed ; alas ! how vain
" To him of tender anguish to complain :
" His soul, that never love's sweet influence felt,
" By social sympathy could never melt;
" With stern command to Albert's charge he gave
" To waft Palemon o'er the distant wave.
" The Ship was laden and prepared to sail,
" And only waited now the leading gale :
" 'Twas ours, in that sad period, first to prove
" The poignant torments of despairing love ;
" The impatient Wish, that never feels repose,.
" Desire, that with perpetual current flows
c
34
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO I.
" The fluctuating pangs of Hope and Fear,
" Joy distant still, and Sorrow ever near.
" Thus, while the pangs of thought severer grew,-,
" The western breezes inauspicious blew,
" Hastening the moment of our last adieu. >
" The Vessel parted on the falling tide,
" Yet Time one sacred hour to Love supplied:
" The Night was silent, and advancing fast,
" The Moon o'er Thames her silver mantle cast;
" Impatient Hope the midnight path explored,
" And led me to the Nymph my soul adored.
" Soon her quick footsteps struck my listening ear
" She came confest! the lovely Maid drew near !
" But, ah ! what force of language can impart
" The impetuous joy that glowed in either heart:
" O ye ! whose melting hearts are formed to prove
" The trembling ecstasies of genuine love;
" When, with delicious agon}', the thought
" Is to the verge of high delirium wrought;
8
CANTO I. THE SHIPWRECK.
35
" Your secret sympathy alone can tell
" What raptures then the throbbing bosom swell:
" O'er all the nerves what tender tumults roll,
" While Love with sweet enchantment melts the soul.
" In transport lost, by trembling hope imprest,
" The blushing Virgin sunk upon my breast,
" While her's congenial beat with fond alarms;
" Dissolving softness ! Paradise of charms !
" Flashed from our eyes, in warm transfusion flew
" Our blending spirits that each other drew !
" O bliss supreme ! where Virtue's self can melt
" With joys, that guilty Pleasure never felt;
" Formed to refine the thought with chaste desire,
" And kindle sweet affection's purest fire.
" Ah ! wherefore should myhopeless love, she cries,—
" While sorrow bursts with interrupting sighs,—
" For ever destined to lament in vain,
" Such flattering, fond ideas entertain :
" My heart through scenes of fair illusion stray'd,
" To joys, decreed for some superior Maid.
$6 THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO I.
" 'Tis mine abandoned to severe distress
" Still to complain, and never hope redress—
" Go then, dear Youth ! thy father's rage atone,
" And let this tortured bosom beat alone.
" The hovering anger yet thou may'st appease;
" Go then, dear Youth ! nor tempt the faithless Seas.
" Find out some happier Maid, whose equal charms
" With Fortune's fairer joys, may bless thy arms:
" Where, smiling o'er thee with indulgent ray,
" Prosperity shall hail each new-born day:
" Too well thou know'st good Albert's niggard fate
" 111 fitted to sustain thy father's hate.
" Go then, I charge thee by thy generous love,
" That fatal to my father thus may prove;
" On me alone let dark affliction fall,
" Whose heart for thee will gladly suffer all.
" Then haste thee hence, Palemon, ere too late,
" Nor rashly hope to brave opposing Fate.
" She ceased : while anguish in her angel-face
" O'er all her beauties showered celestial grace:
canto i.
THE SHIPWRECK.
3?
" Not Helen, in her bridal charms arrayed,
" Was half so lovely as this gentle Maid.—
" O soul of all my wishes ! I replied,
" Can that soft fabric stem affliction's tide ?
" Canst thou, bright pattern of exalted truth,
" To sorrow doom the summer of thy youth,
" And I, ingrateful! all that sweetness see
Consigned to lasting misery for me ?
" Sooner this moment may th' eternal doom
" Palemon in the silent earth entomb;
" Attest, thou Moon, fair regent of the night!
" Whose lustre sickens at this mournful sight!
" By all the pangs divided lovers feel,
" Which sweet possession only knows to heal:
" By all the horrors brooding o'er the deep,
" Where Fate, and Ruin, sad dominion keep;
" Though tyrant Duty o'er me threatening stands,
" And claims obedience to her stern commands,
" Should Fortune, cruel or auspicious prove,
" Her smile, or frown, shall never change my love ?
38
the shipwreck. canto i,
" My heart, that now must every joy resign,
" Incapable of change, is only thine.
" Oh cease to weep, this storm will yet decay,
" And the sad clouds of sorrow melt away :
" While through the rugged path of life we go,
" All Mortals taste the bitter draught of woe.
u The famed and great, decreed to equal pain,
" Full oft in splendid wretchedness complain :
" For this Prosperity, with brighter ray,
" In smiling contrast gilds our vital day.
" Thou too,sweet Maid! ere twice ten months are o'er,
" Shall hail Palemon to his native shore,
" Where never Interest shall divide us more
" Herstruggling soul, o'erwhelm'd with tendergrief,
" Now found an interval of short relief:
" So melts the surface of the frozen stream
" Beneath the wintry Sun's departing beam.
" With cruel haste the shades of Night withdrew,
" And gave the signal of a sad adieu :
CANTO I. THE SHIPWRECK.
39
" As on my neck the afflicted Maiden hung,
" A thousand racking doubts her spirits wrung;
" She wept the terrors of the fearful Wave,
" Too oft, alas ! the wandering lover's grave :
" With soft persuasion I dispelled her fear,
" And from her cheek beguiled the falling tear.
" While dying fondness languished in her eyes,
" She poured her soul to heaven in suppliant sighs :
" Look down with pity, 0 ye Powers above
" Who hear the sad complaint of bleeding Love ;
" Ye, who the secret laws of Fate explore,
" Alone can tell if he returns no more ;
" Or if the hour of future joy remain,
" Long-wished atonement of long-suffered pain,
" Bid every guardian minister attend,
" Andfrom all ill the much-loved Youth defend.
" With grief o'erwhelmed we parted twice in vain,
" And, urged by strong attraction, met again.
" At last, by cruel Fortune torn apart
" While tender passion beat in either heart,
40
THE SHIPWRECK.
CANTO I.
" Our eyes transfixed with agonizing look,
" One sad farewell, one last embrace we took.
" Forlorn of hope the lovely Maid I left,
" Pensive and pale, of every joy bereft:
" She to her silent couch retired to weep,
" Whilst I embarked, in sadness, on the Deep."
His tale thus closed, from sympathy of grief
Palemon's bosom felt a sweet relief;
To mutual friendship thus sincerely true,
No secret wish, or fear, their bosoms knew;
In mutual hazards oft severely tried,
Nor Hope, nor Danger, could their love divide.
Ye tender Maids! in whose pathetic souls
Compassion's sacred stream impetuous rolls,
Whose warm affections exquisitely feel
The secret wound you tremble to reveal;
Ah ! may no Wanderer of the stormy main
Pour through your breasts the soft delicious bane ;
May never fatal tenderness approve
The fond effusions of their ardent love;
canto i.
THE SHIPWRECK.
41
Oil! warned, avoid the path that leads to woe,
Where thorns, and baneful weeds, alternate grow:
Let them severer stoic Nymphs possess,
Whose stubborn passions feel no soft distress.
Now as the Youths returning o'er the plain
Approached the lonely margin of the Main,
First, with attention roused, Arion eyed
The graceful Lover, formed in Nature's pride:
His frame the happiest symmetry displayed,
And locks of waving gold his neck arrayed;
In every look the Paphian graces shine,
Soft breathing o'er his cheek their bloom divine :
With lightened heart he smiled serenely gay,
Like young Adonis, or the son of May.
Not Cytherea from a fairer swain
Received her apple on the Trojan plain.
IV. The Sun's bright orb, declining all serene,
Now glanced obliquely o'er the woodland scene:
Creation smiles around ; on every spray
The warbling birds exalt their evening lay:
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO I.
Blithe skipping o'er yon hill, the fleecy train
Join the deep chorus of the lowing plain ;
The golden lime, and orange, there were seen
On fragrant branches of perpetual green ;
The crystal streams that velvet meadows lave,
To the green Ocean roll with chiding wave.
The glassy Ocean hushed forgets to roar,
But trembling murmurs on the sandy shore :
And lo! his surface lovely to behold
Glows in the west, a sea of living gold !
While, all above, a thousand liveries gay
The Skies with pomp ineffable array.
Arabian sweets perfume the happy plains;
Above, beneath, around, enchantment reigns !
While glowing Vesper leads the starry train,
And Night slow draws her veil o'er land, and main.
Emerging clouds the azure East invade,
And wrap the lucid Spheres in gradual shade;
While yet the songsters of the vocal grove,
With dying numbers tune the soul to love:
canto i. THE SHIPWRECK.
With joyful eyes the attentive Master sees
The auspicious omens of an eastern breeze.
Round the charged bowl the Sailors form a ring
By turns recount the wond'rous tale, or sing,
As love, or battle, hardships of the main,
Or genial wine, awake the homely strain :
Then some the watch of night alternate keep,
The rest lie buried in oblivious sleep.
Deep midnight now involves the livid skies,
When eastern breezes, yet enervate, rise;
The waning Moon behind a watery shroud
Pale glimmered o'er the long protracted cloud;
A mighty halo round her silver throne,
With parting meteors crossed, portentous shone
This in the troubled sky full oft prevails,
Oft deemed a signal of tempestuous gales.
While young Arion sleeps, before his sight
Tumultuous swim the visions of the night:
Now, blooming Anna with her happy swain
Approached the sacred Hymeneal fane ;
44
THE SHIPWRECK. canto I.
Anon, tremendous lightnings flash between,
And funeral pomp, and weeping loves are seen:
Now with Palemon, up a rocky steep,
Whose summit trembles o'er the roaring deep,
With painful step he climbed; while far above
Sweet Anna charmed them with the voice of love:
Then sudden from the slippery height they fell,
While dreadful yawned, beneath, the jaws of hell—
Amid this fearful trance, a thundering sound
He hears, and thrice the hollow decks rebound;
Upstarting from his couch on deck he sprung,
Thrice with shrill note the Boatswain's whistle rung:
All hands unmoor! proclaims a boisterous cry;
All hands unmoor ! the caverned Rocks reply :
Roused from repose aloft the Sailors swarm,
And with their levers soon the windlass arm :
The order given, up springing with a bound, -v
They fix the bars, and heave the windlass round ; >
At every turn the clanging pauls resound. J
canto I. THE SHIPWRECK.
45
Up-torn reluctant from its oozy cave
The ponderous Anchor rises o'er the wave.
High on the slippery Masts the Yards ascend,
And far abroad the canvass wings extend.
Along the glassy plain the Vessel glides,
While azure radiance trembles on her sides ;
The lunar rays in long reflection gleam,
With silver deluging the fluid stream.
Levant and Grecian gales alternate play,
Then in the Egyptian quarter die away.
A calm ensues; adjacent shores they dread,
The boats, with rowers manned, are sent a-head;
With cordage fastened to the lofty prow
Aloof to sea the stately Ship they tow:
The nervous crew their sweeping oars extend,
And pealing shouts the shore of Candia rend :
Success attends their skill! the danger's o'er !
The Port is doubled, and beheld no more.
Now Morn with gradual pace advanced on high,
Whitening with orient beam the twilight sky:
46 THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO I.
She comes not in refulgent pomp arrayed,
But frowning stern, and wrapt in sullen shade.
Above incumbent mists, tall Ida's height,
Tremendous rock ! emerges on the sight;
North-east, a league, the Isle of Standia bears,
And westward, Freschin's woody Cape appears.
In distant angles while the transient gales
Alternate blow, they trim the flagging sails;
The drowsy air attentive to retain,
As from unnumbered points it sweeps the main.
Now swelling Stud-sails on each side extend,
Then Stay-sails sidelong to the breeze ascend;
While all, to court the veering winds, are placed
With Yards alternate square, and sharply braced.
The dim Horizon lowering vapours shroud,
And blot the Sun yet struggling in the clond ;
Through the wide atmosphere condensed with haze,
His glasing orb emits a sanguine blaze.
The Pilots now their Azimuth attend,
On which all Courses, duly formed, depend:
CANTO I. THE SHIPWRECK. 47
The Compass placed to catch the rising ray,
The Quadrant's shadows studious they survey;
Along the arch the gradual Index slides,
While Phoebus down the vertic-circle glides;
Now seen on Ocean's utmost verge to swim,
He sweeps it vibrant with his nether limb.
Thus Height, and Polar distance are obtained,
Then Latitude, and Declination, gained;
In Chiliads next the Analogy is sought,
And on the sinical triangle wrought:
By this magnetic variance is explored,
Just angles known, and polar truth restored.
The Natives, while the Ship departs their land,
Ashore with admiration gazing stand.
Majestically slow before the breeze
She moved triumphant o'er the yielding seas;
Her bottom through translucent waters shone,
White as the clouds beneath the blaze of noon;
The bending Wales their contrast next displayed,
All fore and aft in polish jet arrayed.
48
THE SHIPWRECK. canto i.
Britannia, riding awful on the prow,
Gazed o'er the vassal waves that rolled below:
Where'er she moved the vassal waves were seen
To yield obsequious, and confess their Queen.
The imperial Trident graced her dexter hand,
Of power to rule the surge like Moses' wand ;
The eternal empire of the main to keep,
And guide her squadrons o'er the trembling deep.
Her left, propitious, bore a mystic shield,
Around whose margin rolls the watery field;
There her bold Genius in his floating car
O'er the wild billow hurls the storm of war :
And lo ! the beasts that oft with jealous rage
In bloody combat met, from age to age,
Tamed into Union, yoked in Friendship's chain,
Draw his proud chariot round the vanquished main;
From the proud margin to the centre grew
Shelves, rocks, and whirlpools, hideous to the view.
The immortal Shield from Neptune she received,
When first her head above the waters heaved;
canto I. THE SHIPWRECK.
49
Loose floated o'er her limbs an azure vest,
A figured scutcheon glittered on her breast;
There from one parent soil, for ever young,
The blooming rose and hardy thistle sprung.
Around her head an oaken wreath was seen,
Inwove with laurels of unfading green.
Such was the sculptured prow ; from van to rear
The artillery frowned, a black tremendous tier !
Embalmed with orient gum, above the wave
The swelling sides a yellow radiance gave.
On the broad stern, a pencil warm and bold,
That never servile rules of art controul'd,
An allegoric tale on high pourtray'd;
There a young hero, here a royal maid:
Fair England's Genius in the youth exprest,
Her ancient foe, but now her friend confest,
The warlike nymph with fond regard surveyed;
No more his hostile frown her heart dismayed:
His look, that once shot terror from afar,
Like young Alcides, or the God of War,
d
50 THE SHIPWRECK. canto i.
Serene as summer's evening skies she saw;
Serene, yet firm ; though mild, impressing awe :
Her nervous arm, inured to toils severe,
Brandished the unconquered Caledonian spear :
The dreadful falchion of the hills she wore,
Sung to the harp in many a tale of yore,
That oft her rivers dyed with hostile gore.
Blue was her rocky shield ; her piercing eye
Flashed like the meteor of her native sky;
Her crest, high-plumed, was rough with many a scar,
And o'er her helmet gleamed the northern star.
The warrior youth appeared of noble frame,
The hardy offspring of some Runic dame :
Loose o'er his shoulders hung the slackened bow,
Renowned in song, the terror of the foe !
The sword that oft the barbarous north defied,
The scourge of tyrants ! glittered by his side :
Clad in refulgent arms in battle won,
The George emblazoned on his corselet shone;
canto i. THE SHIPWRECK.
51
Fast by his side was seen a golden lyre,
Pregnant with numbers of eternal fire ;
Whose strings unlock the witches' midnight spell,
Or waft rapt Fancy through the gulphs of hell:
Struck with contagion, kindling Fancy hears
The songs of Heaven, the music of the Spheres !
Borne on Newtonian wing through air she flies,
Where other suns to other systems rise.
These front the scene conspicuous; overhead
Albion's proud oak his filial branches spread:
While on the sea-beat shore obsequious stood,
Beneath their feet, the father of the flood:
Here, the bold native of her cliffs above,
Perched by the martial maid the bird of Jove ;
There, on the watch, sagacious of his prey,
With eyes of fire, an English mastiff lay :
Yonder fair Commerce stretched her winged sail,
Here, frowned the god that wakes the living gale.
High o'er the poop, the flattering winds unfurled
The imperial flag that rules the watery world.
52
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO I.
Deep blushing Armors all the tops invest,
And warlike trophies either quarter drest:
Then towered the masts, the canvass swelled on high,
And waving streamers floated in the sky.
Thus the rich vessel moves in trim array,
Like some fair virgin on her bridal day;
Thus, like a swan, she cleaved the watery plain,
The pride and wonder of th' yEgean main.
END OF CANTO FIRST.
CANTO SECOND.
Scene at Sea, between Cape Freschin, in Candia, and
the Island of Falconera, nearly twelve leagues north¬
ward of Cape Spado.
TIME, FROM NINE IN THE MORNING UNTIL ONE
O'CLOCK NEXT DAY AT NOON.
ARGUMENT.
I. Reflections on leaving Shore.—II. Favourable Breeze..Wa¬
ter-Spout... The dying Dolphin... Breeze freshens... Ship's
rapid progress along the Coast... Top-Sails reefed... Gale
of Wind... Last appearance, bearing, and distance of Cape
Spado... A Squall... Top-Sails double reefed ... Main-Sail
split... The Ship bears up ; again hauls upon the Wind...
Another Main-Sail bent and set... Porpoises.—111. The Ship
driven out of her course from Candia. .Heavy Gale...Top-
Sails furled...Top-gallant-yards lowered. .. Heavy Sea...
Threatening Sun-set... Difference of opinion respecting the
mode of taking in the Main-Sail... Courses reefed... Four
Seamen lost off the lee Main-yard-arm ... Anxiety of the
Master and his Mates on being near a Lee-shore... Mizen
reefed.—IV. A tremendous Sea bursts over the Deck ; its
consequences...The Ship labours in great Distress... Guus
thrown overboard.. Dismal appearance of the Weather..
Very high and dangerous Sea.. Storm of Lightning. Severe
fatigue of the Crew at the Pumps.. Critical situation of the
Ship near the Island Falconera.. Consultationand resolution
of the Officers. .Speech and advice of Albert; his devout
Address to Heaven.. Order given to scud.. The Fore Stay-
Sail hoisted and split..The Head Yards braced aback..
The Mizen-Mast cut away.
the
SHIPWRECK.
CANTO SECOND.
I. Adieu ! ye pleasures of the sylvan scene,
Where Peace, and calm Contentment, dwell serene :
To me, in vain, on earth's prolific soil
With summer crowned, the Elysian vallies smile ;
To me those happier scenes no joy impart,
But tantalize with hope my aching heart:
Ye tempests! o'er my head congenial roll
To suit the mournful music of my soul;
56
THE SHIPWRECK. canto ii.
In black progression, lo, they hover near,
Hail social horrors ! like my fate severe:
Old Ocean hail! beneath whose azure zone
The secret deep lies unexplored, unknown.
Approach, ye brave companions of the sea!
And fearless view this awful scene with me.
Ye native guardians of your country's laws !
Ye brave assertors of her sacred cause !
The Muse invites you, judge if she depart,
Unequal, from the thorny rules of art;
In practice trained, and conscious of her power,
She boldly moves to meet the trying hour :
Her voice attempting themes, before unknown
To music, sings distresses all her own.
II. O'er the smooth bosom of the faithless tides,
Propelled by flattering gales, the vessel glides:
Rodmond exulting felt the auspicious wind,
And by a mystic charm its aim confined.
The thoughts of home, that o'er his fancy roll,
With trembling joy dilate Palemon's soul;
CANTO II. THE SHIPWRECK. 57
Hope lifts his heart, before whose vivid ray
Distress recedes, and danger melts away.
Tall Ida's summit now more distant grew,
And Jove's high hill was rising to the view:
When on the larboard quarter they descry
A liquid column towering shoot on high;
The foaming base the angry whirlwinds sweep,
Where curling billows rouse the fearful deep:
Still round, and round, the fluid vortex flies,
Diffusing briny vapours o'er the skies.
This vast phenomenon, whose lofty head,
In Heaven immersed, embracing clouds o'erspread,
In spiral motion first, as seamen deem,
Swells, when the raging whirlwind sweeps the stream.
The swift volution, and th' enormous train,
Let sages versed in Nature's lore explain.
The horrid apparition still draws nigh,
And white with foam the whirling billows fly.
The guns were primed; the vessel northward veers,
Till her black battery on the column bears:
58
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO II.
The nitre fired ; and, while the dreadful sound
Convulsive shook the slumbering air around,
The watery volume, trembling to the sky,
Burst down, a dreadful deluge, from on high ?
The expanding ocean trembled as it fell,
And felt with swift recoil her surges swell;
But soon, this transient undulation o'er,
The sea subsides, the whirlwinds rage no more.
While southward now the increasing breezes veer,
Dark clouds incumbent on their wings appear:
Ahead they see the consecrated grove
Of Cyprus, sacred once to Cretan Jove.
The ship beneath her lofty pressure reels,
And to the freshening gale still deeper heels.
But now, beneath the lofty vessel's stern,
A shoal of sportive dolphins they discern
Beaming from burnished scales refulgent rays,
Till all the glowing ocean seems to blaze :
In curling wreaths they wanton on the tide,
Now bound aloft, now downward swiftly glide;
canto ii. the sh1ewreck.
Awhile beneath the waves their tracks remain,
And burn in silver streams along the liquid plain.
Soon to the sport of death the crew repair,
Dart the long lance, or spread the baited snare-
One in redoubling mazes wheels along,
And glides unhappy near the triple prong :
rodmond, unerring, o'er his head suspends
The barbed steel, and every turn attends ;
Unerring aimed, the missile weapon flew,
And, plunging, struck the fated victim through ;
The upturning points his ponderous bulk sustain,
On deck he struggles with convulsive pain:
But while his heart the fatal javelin thrills,
And flitting life escapes in sanguine rills,
What radiant changes strike the astonished sight
What glowing hues of mingled shade and light!
Not equal beauties gild the lucid west
With parting beams all o'er profusely drest,
Not lovelier colours paint the vernal dawn,
When orient dews impearl the enamelled lawn;
60 THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO H.
Than from his sides in bright suffusion flow,
That now with gold empyreal seem to glow;
Now in pellucid sapphires meet the view,
And emulate the soft celestial hue ;
Now beam a flaming crimson on the eye,
And now assume the purple's deeper dye :
But here description clouds each shining ray;
What terras of Art can Nature's powers display!
The lighter sails, for summer winds and seas,
Are now dismissed, the straining masts to ease;
Swift on the deck the stud-sails all descend,
Which ready seamen from the yards unbend;
The boats then hoisted in are fixed on board,
And on the deck with fastening gripes secured.
The watchful ruler of the helm no more
With fixed attention eyes the adjacent shore,
But by the oracle of truth below,
The wonderous magnet, guides the wayward prow.
The powerful sails, with steady breezes swelled,
Swift and more swift the yielding bark impelled r
CANTO II. the shipwreck.
61
Across her stem the parting waters run,
As clouds, by tempests wafted, pass the sun.
Impatient thus she darts along the shore,
Till Ida's mount, and Jove's, are seen no more ;
And, while aloof from Retimo she steers,
Maleca's foreland full in front appears.
Wide o'er yon isthmus stands the Cyprus grove,
That once inclosed the hallowed fane of Jove;
Here too, memorial of his name ! is found
A tomb in marble ruins on the ground :
This gloomy tyrant, whose despotic sway
Compelled the trembling nations to obey,
Through Greece for murder, rape, and incest known,
The Muses raised to high Olympus' throne;
For oft, alas ! their venal strains adorn
The prince, whom blushing Virtue holds in scorn :
Still Rome and Greece record his endless fame,
And hence yon mountain yet retains his name.
But see ! in confluence borne before the blast,
Clouds rolled on clouds the dusky noon o'ercast:
62
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO II.
The blackening ocean carls, the winds arise,
And the dark scud in swift succession flies.
While the swoln canvass bends the masts on high,
Low in the wave the leeward cannon lie.
The master calls, to give the ship relief,
The topsails lower, andform a single reef!
Each lofty yard with slackened cordage reels;
Rattle the creaking blocks and ringing wheels.
Down the tall masts the topsails sink amain,
Are manned and reefed, then hoisted up again.
More distant grew receding Candia's shore,
And southward of the west Cape Spado bore.
Four hours the sun his high meridian throne
Had left, and o'er Atlantic regions shone ;
Still blacker clouds, that all the skies invade,
Draw o'er his sullied orb a dismal shade :
A lowering squall obscures the southern sky.
Before whose sweeping breath the waters fly;
Its weight the top-sails can no more sustain—
Beef top-sails, reef! the master calls again.
canto ii. the shipwreck.
The halyards and top-bow-lines soon are gone,
To clue-lines and reef-tackles next they run :
The shivering sails descend; the yards are square
Then quick aloft the ready crew repair:
The weather-earings and the lee they past,
The reefs enrolled, and every point made fast.
Their task above thus finished, they descend,
And vigilant the approaching squall attend :
It comes resistless ! and with foaming sweep
Upturns the whitening surface of the deep :
In such a tempest, borne to deeds of death,
The wayward sisters scour the blasted heath.
The clouds, with ruin pregnant, now impend,
And storm, and cataracts, tumultuous blend.
Deep, on her side, the reeling vessel lies :
Brail up the mizen quick ! the master cries,
Man the clue-garnets ! let the main-sheet fly /
It rends in thousand shivering shreds on high !
The main-sail all in streaming ruins tore,
Loud fluttering, imitates the thunder's roar;
64
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO II.
The ship still labours in the oppressive strain,
Low bending, as if ne'er to rise again.
Hear up the lielm a-weather ! Rodmond cries :
Swift at the word the helm a-weather flies;
She feels its guiding power, and veers apace,
And now the fore-sail right athwart they brace :
With equal sheets restrained, the bellying sail
Spreads a broad concave to the sweeping gale.
While o'er the foam the ship impetuous flies,
The helm the attentive timoneer applies:
As in pursuit along the aerial way
With ardent eye the falcon marks his prey,
Each motion watches of the doubtful chace,
Obliquely wheeling through the fluid space;
So, governed by the steersman's glowing hands,
The regent helm her motion still commands.
But now, the transient squall to leeward past,
Again she rallies to the sullen blast:
The helm to starboard moves; each shivering sail
Is sharply trimmed to clasp the augmenting gale
8
CANTO II. THE SHIPWRECK.
65
The mizen draws; she springs aloof once more,
While the fore stay-sail balances before.
The fore-sail braced obliquely to the wind,
They near the prow th' extended tack confined;
Then on the leeward sheet the seamen bend,
And haul the bow-line to the bowsprit-end :
To top-sails next they haste; the bunt-lines gone !
Through rattling blocks the clue-lines swiftly run;
Th' extending sheets on either side are mann'd,
Abroad they come ! the fluttering sails expand;
The yards again ascend each comrade mast,
The leeches taught, the halyards are made fast,
The bow-lines hauled, and yards to starboard braced,
And straggling ropes in pendant order placed.
The main-sail, by the squall so lately rent,
In streaming pendants flying, is unbent •.
With brails refixed, another soon prepared,
Ascending, spreads along beneath the yard.
To each yard-arm the head-rope they extend,
And soon their earings and their robans bend.
E
66 THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO IF.
That task performed, they first the braces slack,
Then to the chesstree drag th' unwilling tack.
And, while the lee clue-garnet's lowered away,
Taught aft the sheet they tally, and belay.
Now to the north, from Afric's burning shore,
A troop of porpoises their course explore ;
In curling wreaths they gambol on the tide,
Now bound aloft, now down the billow glide:
Their tracks awhile the hoary waves retain,
That burn in sparkling trails along the main—
These fleetest coursers of the finny race,
When threatening clouds th' ethereal vault deface,
Their route to leeward still sagacious form,
To shun the fury of th' approaching storm.
III. Fair Candia now no more beneath her lee
Protects the vessel from th' insulting sea;
Round her broad arms impatient of control,
Roused from the secret deep, the billows roll:
Sunk were the bulwarks of the friendly shore,
And all the scene an hostile aspect wore.
CANTO II. THE SHIPWRECK.
67
The flattering wind, that late with promised aid
From Candia's bay th' unwilling ship betray'd,
No longer fawns beneath the fair disguise,
But like a ruffian on his quarry flies :
Tost on the tide she feels the tempest blow,
And dreads the vengeance of so fell a foe—
As the proud horse with costly trappings gay,
Exulting, prances to the bloody fray;
Spurning the ground he glories in his might,
But reels tumultuous in the shock of fight:
E'en so, caparisoned in gaudy pride,
The bounding vessel dances on the tide.
Fierce and more fierce the gathering tempest grew,
South, and by west, the threatening demon blew;
Auster's resistless force all air invades,
And every rolling wave more ample spreads:
The ship no longer can her top-sails bear;
No hopes of milder weather now appear.
Bowlines and halyards are cast off again,
Clue-lines hauled down, and sheets let fly amain:
68 THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO II.
Embrailed each top-sail, and by braces squared,
The seamen climb aloft, and man each yard;
They furled the sails, and pointed to the wind
The yards, by rolling tackles then confined,
While o'er the ship the gallant boatswain flies;
Like a hoarse mastiff through the storm he cries,
Prompt to direct th' unskilful still appears,
Th' expert he praises, and the timid cheers.
Now some, to strike top-gallant yards attend, T
Some, travelers up the weather-back-stays send, V
At each mast-head the top-ropes others bend: j
The parrels, lifts, and clue-lines soon are gone,
Topped and unrigged, they down the back-stays run;
The yards secure along the booms were laid,
And all the flying ropes aloft belay'd :
Their sails reduced, and all the rigging clear,
Awhile the crew relax from toils severe ;
Awhile their spirits, with fatigue opprest,
In vain expect th' alternate hour of rest
CANTO II. THE SHIPWRECK.
69
But with redoubling force the tempests blow,
And watery hills in dread succession flow:
A dismal shade o'ercast the frowning skies,
New troubles grow; fresh difficulties rise;
No season this from duty to descend,
All hands on deck must now the storm attend.
His race performed, the sacred Lamp of Day
Now dipt in western clouds his parting ray:
His languid fires, half lost in ambient haze,
Refract along the dusk a crimson blaze ;
Till deep immerged the sickening orb descends,
And cheerless Night o'er Heaven her reign extends:
Sad evening's hour, how different from the past!
No flaming pomp, no blushing glories cast,
No ray of friendly light is seen around ;
The moon and stars in hopeless shade are drown'd.
The ship no longer can whole courses bear,
To reef them now becomes the master's care;
The sailors, summoned aft, all ready stand,
And man th' enfolding brails at his command :
70
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO If.
But here the doubtful officers dispute,
Till skill, and judgment, prejudice confute :
For Rodmond, to new methods still a foe,
Would first, at all events, the sheet let go;
To long-tried practice obstinately warm,
He doubts conviction, and relies on form.
This Albert and Arion disapprove,
And first to brail the tack up firmly move:
" The watchful seaman, whose sagacious eye
" On sure experience may with truth rely,
" Who from the reigning causeforetels th' effect,
" This barbarous practice ever will reject;
" For,fluttering loose in air, the rigid sail
" Soon fits to ruins in thefurious gale ;
" And he, who strives the tempest to disarm,
" Will never first embrail the lee yard-arm.'"
So Albert spoke ; to windward, at his call,
Some seamen the clue-garnet stand to haul—
The tack's eased off, while the involving clue
Between the pendent blocks ascending flew;
CANTO II. THE SHIPWRECK.
71
The sheet and weather-brace they now stand by,
The lee clue-garnet, and the bunt-lines ply ;
Then, all prepared, Let go the sheet! he cries—
Loud rattling, jarring, through the blocks it flies!
Shivering at tirst, till by the blast impelled;
High o'er the lee yard-arm the canvas swelled;
By spilling lines embraced, with brails confined,
It lies at length unshaken by the wind.
The foresail then secured with equal care,
Again to reef the mainsail they repair;
While some above the yard o'er-haul the tye,
Below, the down-haul tackle others ply;
Jears, lifts, and brails, a seaman each attends,
And down the mast its mighty yard descends:
When lowered sufficient they securely brace,
And fix the rolling tackle in its place ;
The reef-lines and their earings now prepared,
Mounting on pliant shrouds they man the yard:
Far on the extremes appear two able hands,
For no inferior skill this task demands—
72 THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO II.
f
To windward, foremost, young Arion strides,
The lee yard-arm the gallant boatswain rides :
Each earing to its cringle first they bend,
The reef-band then along the yard extend ;
The circling earings round th' extremes entwined,
By outer and by inner turns they bind;
The reef-lines next from hand to hand received,
Through eyelet-holes and roban-legs were reeved ;
The folding reefs in plaits inrolled they lay,
Extend the worming lines, and ends belay.
Hadst thou, Arion ! held the leeward post
While on the yard by mountain billows tost,
Perhaps Oblivion o'er our tragic tale
Had then for ever drawn her dusky veil;
But ruling Heaven prolonged thy vital date,
Severer ills to suffer, and relate.
For, while aloft the order those attend
To furl the mainsail, or on deck descend;
A Sea, upsurging with stupendous roll,
To instant ruin seems to doom the whole:
canto II. THE SHIPWRECK.
0friends, secure your hold ! Aricn cries—
It comes all dreadful! down the vessel lies
Half buried sideways ! while, beneath it tost,
Four seamen off the lee yard-arm are lost:
Torn with resistless fury from their hold,
In vain their struggling arms the yard enfold ;
In vain to grapple flying ropes they try,
The ropes, alas! a solid gripe deny:
Prone on the midnight surge with panting breath
They cry for aid, and long contend with death;
High o'er their heads the rolling billows sweep,
And down they sink in everlasting sleep.
Bereft of power to help, their comrades see
The wretched victims die beneath the lee,
With fruitless sorrow their lost state bemoan,
Perhaps a fatal prelude to their own.
In dark suspense on deck the pilots stand,
Nor can determine on the next command:
Though still they knew the vessel's armed side
Impenetrable to the clasping tide;
74
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO II.
Though still the waters by no secret wound
A passage to her deep recesses found ;
Surrounding evils yet they ponder o'er,
A storm, a dangerous sea, and leeward shore !
" Should they, though reefed, again their sails extend,
" Again in shivering streamers they may rend;
" Or, should they stand, beneath th' oppressive strain
" The down-pressed ship may never rise again ;
" Too late to weather now Morea's land,
" And drifting fast on Athens' rocky strand."
Thus they lament the consequence severe,
Where perils unallayed by hope appear :
Long pondering in their minds each feared event,
At last to furl the courses they consent:
That done, to reef the mizen next agree,
And try beneath it sidelong in the sea.
Now down the mast the yard they lower away,
Then jears and topping-lift secure belay;
The head, with doubling canvass fenced around,
In balance near the lofty peak they bound;
canto ii. THE SHIPWRECK.
75
The reef enwrapped, th' inserting knittles tied,
The halyards throt and peak are next applied—
The order given, the yard aloft they swayed,
The brails relaxed, th' extended sheet belayed;
The helm its post forsook, and, lashed a-lee,
Inclined the wayward prow to front the sea.
IV. When sacred Orpheus on the Stygian coast,
With notes divine deplored his consort lost;
Though round him perils grew in fell array,
And fates and furies stood to bar his way;
Not more adventurous was the attempt, to move
Th' infernal powers with strains of heavenly love,
Than mine, in ornamental verse to dress
The harshest sounds that terms of art express:
Such arduous toil sage Daedalus endured,
In mazes, self-invented, long immured,
Till Genius her superior aid bestow'd,
To guide him through that intricate abode—
Thus, long imprisoned in a rugged way
Where Phiebus' daughters never aimed to stray,
76 THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO ir.
The Muse, that tuned to barbarous sounds her string,
Now spreads, like D^dalus, a bolder wing;
The verse begins in softer strains to flow,
Replete with sad variety of woe.
As yet, amid this elemental war,
Where Desolation in his gloomy car
Triumphant rages round the starless void,
And Fate on every billow seems to ride;
Nor toil, nor hazard, nor distress appear
To sink the seamen with unmanly fear :
Though their firm hearts no pageant-honour boast,
They scom the wretch that trembles at his post;
Wrho from the face of danger strives to turn,
Indignant from the social hour they spurn;
Though now full oft they felt the raging tide
In proud rebellion climb the vessel's side;
Though every rising wave more dreadful grows,
And in succession dire the deck o'erflows;
No future ills unknown their souls appal,
They know no danger, or they scorn it all:
8
canto ii. THE SHIPWRECK.
77
But e'en the generous spirits of the brave,
Subdued by toil, a friendly respite crave ;
They, with severe fatigue alone opprest,
Would fain indulge an interval of rest.
Far other cares the Master's mind employ,
Approaching perils all his hopes destroy :
In vain he spreads the graduated chart,
And bounds the distance by the rules of art;
Across the geometric plane expands
The compasses to circumjacent lands;
Ungrateful task ! for, no asylum found,
Death yawns on every leeward shore around.—
While Albert thus, with horrid doubts dismayed,
The geometric distances surveyed,
On deck the watchful Rodmonb cries aloud,
Secure your lives ! grasp every man a shroud—
Roused from his trance, he mounts with eyes aghast;
When o'er the ship, in undulation vast,
A giant surge down rushes from on high,
And fore and aft dissevered ruins lie :
78 THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO II,
As when, Britannia's empire to maintain,
Great Hawke descends in thunder on the main,
Around the brazen voice of battle roars,
And fatal lightnings blast the hostile shores;
Beneath the storm their shattered navies groan ;
The trembling deep recoils from zone to zone—
Thus the torn vessel felt th' enormous stroke,
The boats beneath the thundering deluge broke;
Torn from their planks the crackling ring-bolts drew,
And gripes and lashings all asunder flew;
Companion, binacle, in floating wreck,
With compasses and glasses strewed the deck ;
The balanced mizen, rending to the head,
In fluttering fragments from its bolt-rope fled;
The sides convulsive shook on groaning beams,
And, rent with labour, yawned their pitchy seams.
They sound the well, and, terrible to hear!
Five feet immersed along the line appear:
At either pump they ply the clanking brake,
And, turn by turn, th' ungrateful office take :
CANTO II. THE SHIPWRECK.
79
Rodmond, Arion, and Palemon here
At this sad task all diligent appear—
As some strong citadel begirt with foes
Tries long the tide of ruin to oppose,
Destruction near her spreads his black array,
And death and sorrow mark his horrid way :
Till, in some destined hour, against her wall
In tenfold rage the fatal thunders fall;
It breaks 1 it bursts before the cannonade !
And following hosts the shattered domes invade:
Her inmates long repel the hostile flood,
And shield their sacred charge in streams of blood;
So the brave mariners their pumps attend,
And help incessant, by rotation, lend;
But all in vain ! for now the sounding cord,
Updrawn, an undiminished depth explored.
Nor this severe distress is found alone,
The ribs opprest by ponderous cannon groan;
Deep rolling from the watery volume's height,
The tortur'd sides seem bursting with their weight—
80
THE SHIPWRECK. canto II.
So reels Pelorus with convulsive throes,
When in his veins the burning earthquake glows;
Hoarse through his entrails roars th' infernal flame,
And central thunders rend his groaning frame—
Accumulated mischiefs thus arise,
And Fate, vindictive, all their skill defies :
For this, one remedy is only known,
From the torn ship her metal must be thrown ;
Eventful task! which last distress requires,
And dread of instant death alone inspires :
For, while intent the yawning decks to ease,
Filled ever and anon with rushing seas,
Some fatal billow with recoiling sweep
May whirl the helpless wretches in the deep.
No season this for counsel or delay;
Too soon th' eventful moments haste away !
Here perseverance, with each help of art,
Must join the boldest efforts of the heart;
These- only now their misery can relieve,
These only now a dawn of safety give.
canto ii. THE SHIPWRECK.
81
While o'er the quivering deck from van to rear
Broad surges roll in terrible career,
Rodmond, Arion, and a chosen crew,
This office in the face of death pursue;
The wheeled artillery o'er the deck to guide,
Rodmond descending claimed the weather-side ;
Fearless of heart, the Chief his orders gave,
Fronting the rude assaults of every wave—
Like some strong watch-tower nodding o'er the deep,
Whose rocky base the foaming waters sweep,
Untamed he stood ; the stern aerial war
Had marked his honest face with many a scar;
Meanwhile Arion, traversing the waist, A
The cordage of the leeward-guns unbraced, V
And pointed crows beneath the metal placed. j
Watching the roll, their forelocks they withdrew,
And from their beds the reeling cannon threw ;
Then, from the windward battlements unbound,
Rodmond's associates wheeled th' artillery round ;
f
82 THE SHIPWRECK. canto ii.
t
Pointed with iron fangs, their bars beguile
The ponderous arms across the steep defile;
Then, hurled from sounding hinges o'er the side,
Thundering they plunge into the flashing tide.
The ship, thus eased, some little respite finds
In this rude conflict of the seas and winds—
Such ease Alcides felt, when, clogged with gore,
Th' envenom'd mantle from his side he tore ;
When, stung with burning pain, he strove too late
To stop the swift career of cruel Fate;
Yet then his heart one ray of hope procured,
Sad harbinger of sevenfold pangs endured—
.Such, and so short, the pause of woe She found!
Cimmerian darkness shades the deep around,
Save when the lightnings in terrific blaze
Deluge the cheerless gloom with horrid rays :
Above, all ether fraught with scenes of woe
With grim destruction threatens all below;
Beneath, the storm-lashed surges furious rise,
And wave uprolled on wave assails the skies:
CANTO ii. the shipwreck.
83
With ever-floating bulwarks they surround
The ship, half-swallowed in the black profound.
With ceaseless hazard and fatigue opprest,
Dismay and anguish every heart possest;
For while, with sweeping inundation, o'er
The sea-beat ship the booming waters roar,
Displaced beneath by her capacious womb,
They rage their ancient station to resume;
By secret ambushes, their force to prove,
Through many a winding channel first they rove;
Till gathering fury, like the fevered blood,
Through her dark veins they roll a rapid flood :
When unrelenting thus the leaks they found,
The clattering pumps with clanking strokes resound;
Around each leaping valve, by toil subdued,
The tough bull-hide must ever be renewed :
Their sinking hearts unusual horrors chill,
And down their weary limbs thick dews distil ;
No ray of light their dying hope redeems,
Pregnant with some new woe, each moment teems.
84
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO IT.
Again the Chief the instructive chart extends,
And o'er the figured plane attentive bends ;
To him the motion of each orb was known,
That wheels around the sun's refulgent throne ;
But here, alas ! his science nought avails,
Skill droops unequal, and experience fails :
The different traverses, since twilight made,
He on the hydrographic circle laid ;
Then, in the graduated arch contained,
The angle of lee-way, seven points, remained.—
Her place discovered by the rules of art,
Unusual terrors shook the master's heart,
When, on the immediate line of drift, he found
The rugged isle, with rocks and breakers bound,
Of Falconera ; distant only now
Nine lessening leagues beneath the leeward bow:
For, if on those destructive shallows tost,
The helpless bark with all her crew are lost;
As fatal still appears, that danger o'er,
The steep St George, and rocky Gardalor.
CANTO IX. the shipwreck.
85
With him the pilots, of their hopeless state,
In mournful consultation, long debate—
Not more perplexing doubts her chiefs appal
When some proud city verges to her fall,
While ruin glares around, and pale affright
Convenes her councils in the dead of night.
No blazoned trophies o'er their concave spread,
Nor storied pillars raised aloft their head :
But here the queen of shade around them threw
Her dragon wing, disastrous to the view !
Dire was the scene with whirlwind, hail, and shower;
Black Melancholy ruled the fearful hour :
Beneath, tremendous rolled the flashing tide,
Where Fate on every billow seemed to ride—
Enclosed with ills, by peril unsubdued,
Great in distress the master-seaman stood !
Skilled to command ; deliberate to advise ;
Expert in action; and in council wise—
Thus to his partners, by the crew unheard,
The dictates of his soul the chief referred :
86
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO II.
" Ye faithful mates! who all my troubles share,
" Approved companions of your master's care!
" To you, alas ! 'twere-fruitless now to tell
" Our sad distress, already known too well:
" This morn with favouring gale the port we left,
" Though now of every flattering hope bereft:
" No skill, nor long experience could forecast
" Th' unseen approach of this destructive blast;
" These seas, where storms at various seasons blow,
" No reigning winds nor certain omens know:
" The hour, th' occasion, all your skill demands,
" A leaky ship, embayed by dangerous lands !
" Our bark no transient jeopardy surrounds,
" Groaning she lies beneath unnumbered wounds:
" 'Tis ours the doubtful remedy to find,
" To shun the fury of the seas and wind;
" For in this hollow swell, with labour sore,
" Her flank can bear the bursting floods no more.
" One only shift, though desperate, we must try,
" And that, before the boisterous storm to fly:
CANTO II. THE SHIPWRECK.
87
" Then less her sides will feel the surges' power,
" Which thus may soon the foundering hull devour.
" 'Tis true, the vessel and her costly freight,
" To me consigned, my orders only wait;
" Yet, since the charge of every life is mine,
" To equal votes our counsels I resign—
" Forbid it, Heaven ! that in this dreadful hour
" I claim the dangerous reins of purblind Power!
" But should we now resolve to bear away,
" Our hopeless state can suffer no delay:
" Nor can we, thus bereft of every sail,
" Attempt to steer obliquely on the gale ;
" For then, if broaching sideway to the sea,
" Our dropsied ship may founder by the lee ;
" Vain all endeavours then to bear away,
" Nor helm, nor pilot, would she more obey."
He said: the listening mates with fixed regard,
And silent reverence, his opinion heard ;
Important was the question in debate,
And o'er their counsels hung impending Fate :
8
88 THE SHIPWRECK. canto ii.
Rodmond, in many a scene of peril tried,
Had oft the master's happier skill descried,
Yet now, the hour, the scene, th' occasion known,
Perhaps with equal right preferred his own ;
Of long experience in the naval art,
Blunt was his speech, and naked was his heart;
Alike to him each climate, and each blast,
The first in danger, in retreat the last i
Sagacious, balancing th' opposed events,
From Albert his opinion thus dissents—
" Too true the perils of the present hour,
" Where toils succeeding toils our strength o'erpower!
" Our bark, 'tis true, no shelter here can find,
" Sore shattered by the ruffian seas and wind:
" Yet where with safety can we dare to scud
" Before this tempest, and pursuing flood ?
" At random driven, to present death we haste,
" And one short hour perhaps may be our last:
« Though Corinth's gulf extend along the lee,
"To whose safe ports appears a passage free,
canto ii. the shipwreck.
89^
" Yet think! this furious unremitting gale-
" Deprives the ship of every ruling sail;
" And if before it she directly flies,
" New ills enclose us, and new dangers rise:
" Here Falconera spreads her lurking snares,
" There distant Greece her rugged shelves prepares;
" Our hull, if once it strikes that iron coast,
" Asunder bursts, in instant ruin lost;
" Nor she alone, but with her all the crew,
" Beyond relief, are doomed to perish too r
" Such mischiefs follow if we bear away;
" O safer that sad refuge—to delay !
" Then of our purpose this appears the scope,
" To weigh the danger with the doubtful hope:
" Though sorely buffeted by every sea,
" Our hull unbroken long may try a-lee ;
" The crew, though harassed much with toils severe,
" Still at their pumps, perceive no hazards near:
i
" Shall we, incautious, then the danger tell,
'' At once their courage and their hope to quell ?
90
THE shipwreck. canto ii.
" Prudence forbids ! this southern tempest soon
" May change its quarter with the changing moon ;
" Its rage, though terrible, may soon subside,
" Nor into mountains lash th' unruly tide :
" These leaks shall then decrease—the sails once more
" Direct our course to some relieving shore."
Thus while he spoke, around from man to man
At either pump a hollow murmur ran :
For, while the vessel through unnumbered chinks,
Above, below, th' invading water drinks,
Sounding her depth they eyed the wetted scale,
And lo ! the leaks o'er all their powers prevail:
Yet at their post, by terrors unsubdued,
They with redoubling force their task pursued.
And now the senior pilots seemed to wait
Arion's voice, to close the dark debate :
Not o'er his vernal life the ripening sun
Had yet, progressive, twice ten summers run ;
Slow to debate, yet eager to excel,
In thy sad school, stern Neptune! taught too well:
CANTO IX. the shipwreck.
91
With lasting pain to rend his youthful heart
Dire Fate in venom dipt her keenest dart;
Till his firm spirit, tempered long to ill,
Forgot her persecuting scourge to feel:
But now the horrors, that around him roll,
Thus roused to action his rekindling soul:
" Can we, delayed in this tremendous tide,
" A moment pause what purpose to decide ?
" Alas! from circling horrors thus combined,
" One method of relief alone we find;
" Thus water-logged, thus helpless to remain
" Amid this hollow, how ill judged ! how vain!
" Our sea-breach'd vessel can no longer bear
" The floods, that o'er her burst in dread career;
" The labouring hull already seems half-filled
" With water through an hundred leaks distilled;
" Thus drenched by every wave, her riven deck,
" Stript, and defenceless, floats a naked wreck;
" At every pitch th' o'erwhelming billows bend
" Beneath their load the quivering bowsprit's end;
92
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO II.
" A fearful warning! since the masts on high
" On that support with trembling hope rely ;
" At either pump our seamen pant for breath,
" In dire dismay, anticipating death;
" Still all our powers th' increasing leaks defy,
" We sink at sea, no shore, no haven nigh :
" One dawn of hope yet breaks athwart the gloom
" To light and save us from a watery tomb ;
" That bids us shun the death impending here,
" Fly from the following blast, and shoreward steer.
" 'Tis urged indeed, the fury of the gale
" Precludes the help of every guiding sail;
" And, driven before it on the watery waste,
" To rocky shores and scenes of death we haste ;
" But haply Falconera we may shun,
" And long to Grecian coasts is yet the run :
" Less harassed then, our scudding ship may bear
" Th' assaulting surge repelled upon her rear,
" And since as soon that tempest may decay,
" When steering shoreward—wherefore thus delav ?
canto ii. the shipwreck.
■93
" Should we at last be driven by dire decree
" Too near the fatal margin of the sea,
" The hull dismasted there awhile may ride
" With lengthened cables, on the raging tide;
" Perhaps kind Heaven, with interposing power,
" May curb the tempest ere that dreadful hour;
" But here, ingulfed and foundering, while we stay,
" Fate hovers o'er, and marks us for her prey."
He said : Palemon saw with grief of heart
The storm prevailing o'er the pilot's art;
In silent terror and distress involved,
He heard their last alternative resolved :
High beat his bosom—with such fear subdued,
Beneath the gloom of some enchanted wood,
Oft in old time the wandering swain explored
The midnight wizards, breathing rites abhorred ;
Trembling, approached their incantations fell,
And, chilled with horror, heard the songs of hell.
Arion saw, with secret anguish moved,
The deep affliction of the friend he loved,
94 THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO If.
And all awake to friendship's genial heat
His bosom felt consenting tremors beat:
Alas ! no season this for tender love,
Far hence the music of the myrtle grove—
He tried with soft persuasion's melting lore
Palemon's fainting courage to restore ;
His wounded spirit healed with friendship's balm,
And bade each conflict of the mind be calm.
Now had the pilots all th' events revolved,
And on their final refuge thus resolved—
When, like the faithful shepherd, who beholds
Some prowling wolf approach his fleecy folds,
To the brave crew, whom racking doubts perplex,
The dreadful purpose Albert thus directs:
" Unhappy partners in a wayward fate !
" Whose courage now is known perhaps too late;
" Ye ! who unmoved behold this angry storm
" In conflict all the rolling deep deform;
" Who, patient in adversity, still bear
" The firmest front when greatest ills are near;
CANTO II. THE SHIPWRECK. 95
" The truth, though painful, I must now reveal,
" That long in vain I purposed to conceal:
" Ingulfed, all help of art we vainly try,
" To weather leeward shores, alas! too nigh :
" Our crazy bark no longer can abide
" The seas, that thunder o'er her battered side;
" And while the leaks a fatal warning give
" That in this raging sea she cannot live,
" One only refuge from despair we find—
" At once to wear and scud before the wind:
" Perhaps e'en then to ruin we may steer,
" For rocky shores beneath our lee appear;
" But that's remote, and instant death is here:
" Yet there, by Heaven's assistance, we may gain
" Some creek or inlet of the Grecian main;
" Or, sheltered by some rock, at anchor ride
" Till with abating rage the blast subside:
" But if, determined by the will of Heaven,
" Our helpless bark at last ashore is driven,
96
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO II.
" These councils followed, from a watery grave
" Our crew perhaps amid the surf may save :—
" And first, let all our axes be secured,
" To cut the masts and rigging from aboard;
" Then to the quarters bind each plank and oar
" To float between the vessel and the shore:
" The longest cordage too must be conveyed
" On deck, and to the weather-rails belayed:
" So they, who haply reach alive the land,
" Th' extended lines may fasten on the strand,
" Whene'er, loud thundering on the leeward shore,
" While yet aloof, we hear the breakers roar :
" Thus for the terrible event prepared,
" Brace fore and aft to starboard every yard :
" So shall our masts swim lighter on the wave,
" And from the broken rocks our seamen save ;
" Then westward turn the stem, that every mast
" May shoreward fall as from the vessel cast.
" When o'er her side once more the billows bound,
" Ascend the rigging till she strikes the ground ;
CANTO II. THE SHIPWRECK.
" And, when you hear aloft the dreadful shock
" That strikes her bottom on some pointed rock,
" The boldest of our sailors must descend
" The dangerous business of the deck to tend:
" Then burst the hatches off, and every stay
" And every fastening laniard cut away;
" Planks, gratings, booms, and rafts to leeward cast;
" Then with redoubled strokes attack each mast,
" That buoyant lumber may sustain you o'er
" The rocky shelves and ledges to the shore:
" But as your firmest succour, till the last
" 0 cling securely on each faithful mast!
" Though great the danger, and the task severe,
" Yet bow not to the tyranny of fear;
" If once that slavish yoke your souls subdue,
" Adieu to hope ! to life itself adieu !
" I know among you some have oft beheld
" A blood-hound train, by rapine's lust impell'd,
" On England's cruel coast impatient stand,
" To rob the wanderers wrecked upon their strand
98
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO II.
" These, while their savage office they pursue,
" Oft wound to death the helpless plundered crew,
" Who, 'scaped from every horror of the main,
" Implored their mercy, but implored in vain:
" Yet dread not this, a crime to Greece unknown,
" Such bloodhounds all her circling shores disown;
" Who, though by barb'rous tyranny opprest,
" Can share affliction with the wretch distrest:
" Their hearts, by cruel fate inured to grief,
" Oft to the friendless stranger yield relief."
With conscious horror struck, the naval band
Deserted for a while their native land;
They cursed the sleeping vengeance of the laws,
That thus forgot her guardian sailors' cause.
Meanwhile the Master's voice again they heard,
Whom, as with filial duty, all revered:
"No more remains—but now a trusty band
" Must ever at the pumps industrious stand;
" And, while with us the rest attend to wear,
" Two skilful seamen to the helm repair—
canto ii. the shipwreck.
99
" And Thou, Eternal Power ! whose awful sway
" The storms revere, and roaring seas obey !
" On thy supreme assistance we rely ;
" Thy mercy supplicate, if doomed to die !
" Perhaps this storm is sent with healing breath
" From neigkb' ring shores to scourge disease and death :
" 'Tis ours on thine unerring laws to trust,
" With thee, great Lord ! ' whatever is, is just."
He said ; and, with consenting reverence fraught,
The sailors joined his prayer in silent thought:
His intellectual eye, serenely bright,
Saw distant objects with prophetic light—
Thus in a land, that lasting wars oppress,
That groans beneath misfortune and distress;
Whose wealth to conquering armies falls a prey,
Till all her vigour, pride and fame decay ;
Some bold sagacious statesman, from the helm,
Sees desolation gathering o'er his realm ;
He darts around his penetrating eyes,
Where dangers grow, and hostile unions rise;
100
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO II.
With deep attention marks th' invading foe,
Eludes their wiles and frustrates every blow,
Tries his last art the tottering state to save,
Or in its ruins find a glorious grave.
Still in the yawning trough the vessel reels,
Ingulphed beneath two fluctuating hills ;
On either side they rise, tremendous scene !
A long dark melancholy vale between:
The balanced ship now forward, now behind,
Still felt th' impression of the waves and wind,
And to the right and left by turns inclined;
But Albert from behind the balance drew,
And on the prow its double efforts threw.
The order now was given to bear away !
The order given, the timoneers obey;
Both stay-sail sheets to mid-ships were conveyed,
And round the foremast on each side belayed;
Thus ready, to the halyards they apply,
They hoist! away the flitting ruins fly :
8
CANTO II. THE SHIPWRECK.
101
Yet Albert new resources still prepares,
Conceals his grief, and doubles all his cares.—
" Away there ! lower the mizen-yard on deck,"
He calls, " and brace the foremost yards aback!"
His great example every bosom fires,
New life rekindles, and new hope inspires.
While to the helm unfaithful still she lies,
One desperate remedy at last he tries—
" Haste ! with your weapons cut the shrouds and stay,
" And hew at once the mizen-mast away !"
He said : to cut the girding stay they run,
Soon on each side the severed shrouds are gone:
Fast by the fated pine bold Rodmond stands,
The impatient axe hung gleaming in his hands;
Brandished on high, it fell with dreadful sound,
The tall mast groaning felt the deadly wound;
Deep gashed beneath, the tottering structure rings,
And crashing, thundering, o'er the quarter swings :
Thus, when some limb, convulsed with pangs of death,
Imbibes the gangrene's pestilential breath,
102
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO II.
The experienced artist from the blood betrays
The latent venom, or its course delays;
But if the infection triumphs o'er his art,
Tainting the vital stream that warms the heart,
To stop the course of Death's inflaming tides,
The infected member from the trunk divides.
END OF THE SECOND CANTO.
CANTO THIRD :
The Scene is extendedfrom that part of the Archipelago
■which lies ten miles to the northward of Falconer a, to
Cape Colonna in Attica.
THE TIME ABOUT SEVEN HOURS ; FROM ONE, UNTIL EIGHT
IN THE MORNING.
ARGUMENT.
I. The beneficial influence of Poetry in the civilization of
Mankind... Diffidence of the Author.—II. Wreck of the
Mizen-Mast cleared away.. .Ship put before the Wind...
Labours much... Different stations of the Officers... Ap¬
pearance of the Island of Falconera.—III. Excursion
to the adjacent Nations of Greece renowned in antiquity..
Athens. . .Socrates, Plato, Aristides.. Solon.. .Corinth
. .its Architecture... Sparta. .. Leonidas.. .Invasion by
Xerxes... Lycurgus...Epaminondas... Present state of the
Spartans.. .Arcadia. . .Former happiness and fertility..
Its present distress the effect of Slavery. ..Ithaca. . .Ulys¬
ses and Penelope.. *Argos and Mvcexe. . .Agamemnon
.. .Macron isi. . .Lemnos. .. Vulcan... Delos. . .Apollo
and Diana...Troy.,. Sestos... Leander and Hero... Del-
phos ... Temple of Apollo... Parnassus. .. The Muses.—
IV. Subject resumed...Address to the Spirits of the Storm
...A Tempest, accompanied with Rain, Hail, and Meteors
...Darkness of the Night, Lightning and Thunder.. . Day¬
break... St George's cliffs open upon them ... The Ship, in
great danger, passes the Island of St George.—V Land of
Athens appears... Helmsman struck blind by Lightning...
Ship laid broadside to the Shore...Bowsprit, Foremast,and
Main-top-mast carried nway...;albert,RoDMOND, Ari-
on and Palemon, strive to save themselves on the wreck
of the Foremast... The Ship parts asunder... Death of Al¬
bert and Rodmond... Arion reaches the Shore... Finds
Palemon expiring on the Beach... His dying Address to
Arion, vtho is led away by the humane Natives.
THE
SHIPWRECK.
CANTO THIRD.
I. W hen in a barbarous age, with blood defiled,
The human savage roamed the gloomy wild;
When sullen Ignorance her flag displayed,
.And Rapine and Revenge her voice obeyed;
Sent from the shores of light the Muses came
The dark and solitary race to tame,
The war of lawless passions to controul,
To melt in. tender sympathy the soul;
106
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO III.
The heart's remote recesses to explore,
And touch its springs when prose availed no more :
The kindling spirit caught the empyreal ray,
And glowed congenial with the swelling lay ;
Roused from the chaos of primeval night,
At once fair Truth and Reason sprung to light.
When great Maeonides, in rapid song,
The thundering tide of battle rolls along,
Each ravished bosom feels the high alarms,
And all the burning pulses beat to arms ;
Hence, War's terrific glory to display,
Became the theme of every epic lay:
But when his strings with mournful magic tell
What dire distress Laertes' son befel,
The strains meand'ring through the maze of woe
Bid sacred sympathy the heart o'erflow ;
Far through the boundless realms of thought he
springs,
From earth upborne on Pegasean wings,
While distant poets, trembling as they view
His sunward flight, the dazzling track pursue;
CANTO III. THE SHIPWRECK.
His magic voice that rouses and delights,
Allures and guides to climb Olympian heights :
But I, alas ! through scenes bewildered stray,
Far from the light of his unerring ray;
While, all unused the wayward path to tread,
Darkling I wander with prophetic dread;
To me in vain the bold Maeonian lyre
Awakes the numbers fraught with living fire ;
Full oft indeed that mournful harp of yore
Wept the sad wanderer lost upon the shore ;
'Tis true he lightly sketched the bold design,
But toils more joyless, more severe are mine ;
Since o'er that scene his genius swiftly ran,
Subservient only to a nobler plan:
But I, perplexed in labyrinths of art,
Anatomize, and blazon every part;
Attempt with plaintive numbers to display,
And chain the events in regular array;
Though hard the task to sing in varied strains,
When still unchanged the same sad theme remains
108
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO III.
O could it draw Compassion's melting tear
For kindred miseries, oft beheld too near !
For kindred wretches, oft in ruin cast
On Albion's strand beneath the wintery blast;
For all the pangs, the complicated woe,
Her bravest sons, her guardian sailors know;
Then every breast should sigh at our distress—
This were the summit of my hoped success !
For this, my theme through mazes I pursue,
Which nor MiEONiDEs nor Maro knew.
IL Awhile the mast, in ruins dragged behind,
Balanced the impression of the helm and wind;
The wounded serpent, agonized with pain,
Thus trails his mangled volume on the plain:
But now, the wreck dissevered from the rear,
The long reluctant prow began to veer:
While round before the enlarging wind it falls,
" Square fore and aft the yards," the master calls;
"You timoneers her motion still attend,
" For on your steerage all our lives depend:
CANTO III. THE SHIPWRECK.
109
" So, steady! meet her! watch the curving prow,
" And from the gale directly let her go."
" Starboard again the watchful pilot cries,
" Starboard the obedient timoneer replies:
Then back to port, revolving at command,
The wheel rolls swiftly through each glowing hand.
The ship no longer, foundering by the lee,
Bears on her side the invasions of the sea;
All lonely o'er the desert waste she flies,
Scourged on by surges, storms, and bursting skies:
As when enclosing harponeers assail
In Hyperborean seas the slumb'ring whale,
Soon as their javelins pierce his scaly side,
He groans, he darts impetuous down the tide;
And racked all o'er with lacerating pain,
He flies remote beneath the flood in vain—
So with resistless haste the wounded ship
Scuds from pursuing waves along the deep;
While, dashed apart by her dividing prow,
Like burning adamant the waters glow;
110
THE SHIPWRECK. canto iii.
Her joints forget their firm elastic tone,
Her long keel trembles, and her timbers groan :
Upheaved behind her in tremendous height
The billows frown, with fearful radiance bright;
Now quivering o'er the topmost wave she rides,
While deep beneath the enormous gulf divides ;
Now launching headlong down the horrid vale,
Becalmed, she hears no more the howling gale ;
Till up the dreadful height again she flies,
Trembling beneath the current of the skies:
As that rebellious angel, who, from heaven,
To regions of eternal pain was driven,
When dreadless he forsook the Stygian shore
The distant realms of Eden to explore ;
Here, on sulphureous clouds sublime upheaved,
With daring wing the infernal air he cleaved ;
There, in some hideous gulf descending prone,
Far in the void abrupt of night was known—
E'en so she climbs the briny mountain's height,
Then down the black abyss precipitates her flight:
CANTO III. THE SHIPWRECK.
Ill
The Masts, about whose tops the whirlwinds sing,
With long vibration round her axle swing.
To guide her wayward course amid the gloom,
The watchful pilots different posts assume :
Albert and Rodmond on the poop appear,
There to direct each guiding timoneer;
While at the bow the watch Arion keeps,
To shun what cruisers wander o'er the deeps:
Where'er he moves Palemon still attends,
As if on him his only hope depends ;
While Rodmond, fearful of some neighbouring shore,
Cries, ever and anon, Look out afore !
Thus o'er the flood four hours she scudding flew,
When Falconera's rugged cliffs they view
Faintly along the larboard bow descried,
As o'er its mountain tops the lightnings glide;
High o'er its summit, through the gloom of night,
The glimmering watch tower cast a mournful light:
In dire amazement rivetted they stand,
And hear the breakers lash the rugged strand—
112
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO III.
But scarce perceived, when past the beam it flies,
Swift as the rapid eagle cleaves the skies :
That danger past reflects a feeble joy,
But soon returning fears their hope destroy:
As in the Atlantic Ocean, when we find
Some Alp of ice driv'n southward by the wind,
The sultry air all sickening pants around,
In deluges of torrid ether drown'd;
Till when the floating isle approaches nigh,
In cooling tides the aerial billows fly:
Awhile delivered from the scorching heat,
In gentler tides our feverish pulses beat:
Such transient pleasure, as they passed this strand,
A moment bade their throbbing hearts expand;
The illusive meteors of a lifeless fire,
Too soon they kindle, and too soon expire.
III. Say, Memory ! thou, from whose unerring
tongue
Instructive flows the animated song,
What regions now the scudding ship surround i
Regions of old through all the world renown'd;
CANTO III. THE SHIPWRECK.
113
That, once the Poet's theme, the Muses' boast,
Now lie in ruins, in oblivion lost!
Did they, whose sad distress these lays deplore, -v
Unskilled in Grecian, or in Roman lore, >
Unconscious pass along each famous shore ? J
They did : for in this desert, joyless Soil,
No flowers of genial Science deign to smile ;
Sad Ocean's Genius, in untimely hour,
Withers the bloom of every springing flower;
For native Tempests here, with blasting breath,
Despoil, and doom the vernal buds to death ;
Here Fancy droops, while sullen clouds, and Storm,
The generous temper of the Soul deform:
Then, if among the wandering Naval train,
One Stripling, exiled from th' Aonian plain,
Had e'er, entranced in Fancy's soothing dream,
Approached to taste the sweet Castalian Stream;
(Since those salubrious streams, with power divine,
To purer sense the softened soul refine)
H
114
THE SHIPWRECK. canto III.
Sure he, amid unsocial Mates immured,
To learning lost, severer Grief endured ;
In vain might Phcebus' ray his mind inspire,
Since Fate with torrents quenched the kindling fire:
If one this pain of living death possest,
It dwelt supreme, Arion ! in thy breast;
When, with Palemon, watching in the night
Beneath pale Cynthia's melancholy light,
You oft recounted those surrounding States,
Whose glory Fame with brazen tongue relates.
Immortal Athens first, in ruin spread,
Contiguous lies at Port Liono's head;
Great source of Science ! whose immortal name
Stands foremost in the glorious roll of Fame;
Here god-like Socrates, and Plato shone,
And, firm to truth, eternal honour won ;
The first in Virtue's cause his life resigned,
By Heaven pronounced the wisest of mankind;
The last proclaimed the spark of vital fire,
The Soul's fine essence, never could expire;
canto III. THE SHIPWRECK.
IIS
Here Solon dwelt, the philosophic Sage
That fled Pisistratus' vindictive rage ;
Just Aristides here maintained the Cause,
Whose sacred Precepts shine through Solon's laws:
Of all her towering Structures, now alone
Some Columns stand, with mantling weeds o'ergrown;
The wandering Stranger near the Port descries
A milk-white Lion of stupendous size,
Of antique marble ; hence the Haven's name,
Unknown to modern Natives whence it came.
Next, in the gulf of Engia, Corinth lies,
Whose gorgeous fabrics seemed to strike the skies;
Whom, though by tyrant victors oft subdued,
Greece, Egypt, Rome, with admiration viewed;
Her name, for architecture long renowned,
Spread like the foliage which her Pillars crowned;
But now, in fatal desolation laid,
Oblivion o'er it draws a dismal shade.
Then further westward, on Morea's land.
Fair Misitra ! thy modern turrets stand:
116 THE SHIPWRECK. canto 111.
Ah ! who, unmoved with secret woe, can tell
That here great Laced.>emon's glory fell;
Here once she flourished, at whose trumpet's sound
War burst his chains, and Nations shook around ;
Here brave Leonidas from shore to shore
Through all Achaia bade her thunders roar :
He, when imperial Xerxes from afar
Advanced with Persia's sumless hosts to war,
Till Macedonia shrunk beneath his spear,
And Greece all shuddered as the Chief drew near;
He, at Thermopylae's decisive plain,
Their force opposed with Sparta's glorious train;
Tall Oeta saw the tyrant's conquered bands
In gasping millions bleed on hostile lands:
Thus vanquished, haughty Asia heard thy name,
And Thebes, and Athens, sickened at thy fame;
Thy State, supported by Lycurgus' laws,
Gained, like thine arms, superlative applause:
E'en great Epaminondas strove in vain
To curb thy spirit with a Theban chain;
CANTO III. THE SHIPWRECK.
I it
But ah ! how low that free-bom spirit now !
Thy abject sons to haughty tyrants bow ;
A false, degenerate, superstitious race
Invest thy region, and its name disgrace.
Not distant far, Arcadia's blest domains
Peloponnesus' circling shore contains :
Thrice happy soil! where still serenely gay,
Indulgent Flora breathed perpetual May:
Where buxom Ceres bade each fertile field
Spontaneous gifts in rich profusion yield;
Then, with some rural Nymph supremely blest,
While transport glowed in each enamoured breast,
Each faithful Shepherd told his tender pain,
And sung of sylvan sports in artless strain ;
Soft as the happy Swain's enchanting lay
That pipes among The Shades of Endermciy :
Now, sad reverse ! Oppression's iron hand
Enslaves her natives, and despoils her land ;
In lawless rapine bred, a sanguine train,
With midnight ravage, scour th' uncultured plain.
lis
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO III.
Westward of these, beyond the Isthmus, lies
The long-sought Isle of Ithacus the wise ;
Where fair Penelope, of him deprived,
To guard her honour endless schemes contrived :
She, only shielded by her stripling Son,
Her lord Ulysses long to Ilion gone,
Each bold attempt of suitor-kings repell'd,
And undefiled her nuptial contract held ;
True to her vows, and resolutely chaste,
Met arts with art, and triumphed at the last.
Argos, in Greece forgotten and unknown,
Still seems her cruel fortune to bemoan :
Argos, whose monarch led the Grecian hosts
Across the iEgean main to Dardan coasts :
Unhappy Prince ! who, on a hostile shore,
Fatigue, and danger, ten long winters bore;
And when to native Realms restored at last
To reap the harvest of thy labours past,
There found a perjured friend, and faithless wife,
Who sacrificed to impious lust thy life;
canto iii. the shipwreck.
119
Fast by Arcadia stretch these desert plains,
And o'er the land a gloomy tyrant reigns.
Next Macronisi is adjacent seen,
Where adverse winds detained the Spartan Queen ;
For whom, in arms combined, the Grecian host,
With vengeance fired, invaded Phrygia's coast;
For whom so long they laboured to destroy
The lofty turrets of imperial Troy ;
Here driv'n by Juno's rage, the hapless dame,
Forlorn of heart, from ruined Ilion came :
The Port an image bears of Parian stone,
Of ancient fabric, but of date unknown,
Due east from this appears the immortal shore
That sacred Phoebus, and Diana bore,
Delos ! through all the iEgean seas renown'd,
Whose coast the rocky Cyclades surround ;
By Phoebus honoured, and by Greece revered,
Her hallowed groves e'en distant Persia feared:
But now a desert unfrequented land,
No human footstep marks the trackless sand.
8
120
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO lir:
Thence to the north by Asia's western bound
Fair Lemnos stands, with rising marble crown'd;
Where, in her rage, avenging Juno hurl'd
Ill-fated Vulcan from th' ethereal world:
There his eternal anvils first he reared;
Then, forged by Cyclopean art, appeared
Thunders that shook the skies with dire alarms,
And formed, by skill divine, immortal arms ;
There, with this crippled wretch, the foul disgrace
And living scandal of th' empyreal race,
In wedlock lived the beauteous Queen of Love ;
Can such sensations heavenly bosoms move !
Eastward of this appears the Dardan shore,
That once the imperial Towers of Ilium bore,
Illustrious Tkoy ! renowned in every clime
Through the long records of succeeding time ;
Who saw protecting Gods from Heaven descend
Full oft, thy royal bulwarks to defend:
Though Chiefs unnumbered in her Cause were slain,
With Fate the gods, and heroes, fought in vain !
canto nr. the shipwreck. i
That refuge of perfidious Helen's shame,
At midnight was involved in Grecian flame;
And now, by Time's deep ploughshare harrowed o'r
The seat of sacred Troy is found no more:
No trace of her proud fabrics now remains,
But Corn, and Vines, enrich her cultured plains;
Silver Scamander laves the verdant shore,
Scamander, oft o'erflowed with hostile gore.
Nor far removed from Uion's famous land
In counter-view appears the Thracian Strand,
Where beauteous Hero, from the turret's height,
Displayed her cresset each revolving night;
Whose gleam directed loved Leander o'er
The rolling Hellespont from Asia's shore;
Till in a fated hour, on Thracia's coast,
She saw her lover's lifeless body tost;
Then felt her bosom agony severe,
Her eyes, sad gazing, poured the incessant tear ;
O'erwhelmed with anguish, frantic with despair,
She beat her swelling breast, and tore her hair;
122
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO III.
On dear Leander's name in vain she cried,
Then headlong plunged into the parting tide ;
Th' exulting tide received the lovely Maid,
And proudly from the strand its freight convey'd.
Far west of Thrace, beyond the /Egean main,
Remote from Ocean lies the Delphic plain;
The sacred Oracle of Phoebus there
High o'er the Mount arose, divinely fair!
Achaian marble formed the gorgeous pile,
August the fabric ! elegant its style !
On brazen hinges turned the silver doors,
And chequered marble paved the polished floors j
The Roof, where storied tablature appeared,
On columns of Corinthian mould was reared;
Of shining porphyry the Shafts were framed,
And round the hollow Dome bright jewels flamed :
Apollo's Priests, before the holy shrine
Suppliant, poured forth their Orisons divine;
To front the Sun's declining ray 'twas placed,
With golden Harps and branching Laurels graced:
CANTO III. THE SHIPWRECK.
123
Around the Fane, engraved by Vulcan's hand,
The Sciences and Arts were seen to stand;
Here /Esculapius' snake displayed his crest,
And burning glories sparkled on his breast;
While from his eye's insufferable light,
Disease and Death recoiled in headlong flight:
Of this great Temple, through all time renown'd,
Sunk in oblivion, no remains are found.
Contiguous here, with hallowed woods o'erspreatl,
Renowned Parnassus lifts its honoured head ;
There roses blossom in eternal Spring,
And strains celestial feathered warblers sing :
Apollo, here, bestows th' unfading Wreath ;
Here Zephyrs aromatic odours breathe ;
They o'er Castalian plains diffuse perfume,
Where round the scene perennial Laurels bloom;
Fair daughters of the Sun, the sacred Nine !
Here wake to extasy their Harps divine,
Or bid the Paphian lute mellifluous play,
And tune to plaintive Love the liquid lay;
124
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO III.
Their numbers every mental storm controul,
And lull to Harmony the afflicted soul,
With heavenly balm the tortured breast compose,
And sooth the agony of latent woes :
The verdant shades that Helicon surround,
On rosy gales seraphic tunes resound :
Perpetual Summers crown the happy hours,
Sweet as the breath that fans Elysian flowers :
Hence Pleasure dances in an endless round,
And Love and Joy, ineffable, abound.
IV. Stop, wandering thought! methinks I feel their
strains
Diffuse delicious languor through my veins :
Adieu, ye flow'ry vales, and fragrant scenes,
Delightful bowers, and ever vernal greens !
Adieu, ye streams ! that o'er enchanted ground
In lucid maze the Aonian hill surround;
Ye fairy scenes ! where Fancy loves to dwell,
And young Delight, for ever, oh ! farewell
CANTO nr. THE SHIPWRECK. 125
The Soul with tender luxury you fill,
And o'er the sense Lethean dews distil:
Awake, O Memory ! from the inglorious Dream.,
With brazen lungs resume the kindling theme ;
Collect thy powers, arouse thy vital fire,
Ye Spirits of the Storm my verse inspire !
Hoarse as the whirlwinds that enrage the Main,
In torrent pour along the swelling Strain.
Now, through the parting wave impetuous bore.
The scudding Vessel stemm'd th' Athenian Shore;
The Pilots, as the waves behind her swell,
Still with the wheeling Stern their force repel;
For this assault should either Quarter feel,
Again to flank the Tempest she might reel:
The Steersmen every bidden turn apply,
To right and left, the spokes alternate fly—
Thus, when some conquered Host retreats in fear,
The bravest leaders guard the broken rear ;
Indignant they retire, and long oppose
Superior Armies that around them close;
126
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO III.
Still shield the flanks, the routed squadrons join,
And guide the flight in one continued line :
Thus they direct the flying Bark before
The impelling floods, that lash her to the Shore :
High o'er the Poop the audacious Seas aspire,
Uprolled in hills of fluctuating fire:
With lab'ring throes she rolls on either side,
And dips her gunnels in the yawning tide ;
Her joints unhinged in palsied languors play,
As ice-flakes part beneath the noon-tide ray:
The Gale howls doleful through the blocks and shrouds,
And big Rain pours a deluge from the clouds;
From winteiy magazines that sweep the sky,
Descending globes of Hail impetuous fly;
High on the Masts, with pale and livid rays,
Amid the gloom portentous Meteors blaze ;
Th' ethereal dome in mournful pomp array'd
Now buried lies beneath impervious shade,
Now, flashing round intolerable light,
Redoubles all the horror of the night—
CANTO III. THE SHIPWRECK.
127
Such terror Sinai's trembling hill o'erspread,
When Heaven's loud trumpet sounded o'er its head :
It seemed, the wrathful Angel of the wind
Had all the horrors of the skies combined,
And here, to one ill-fated Ship opposed,
At once the dreadful magazine disclosed:
And lo! tremendous o'er the Deep he springs,
The inflaming sulphur flashing from his wings ;
Hark ! his strong voice the dismal silence breaks,
Mad Chaos from the chains of Death awakes:
Loud, and more loud, the rolling Peals enlarge,
And blue on deck the fiery tides discharge;
There all aghast the shivering wretches stood,
While chill suspense and fear congealed their blood;
Wide burst in dazzling sheets the living Flame,
And dread concussion rends th' ethereal frame ;
Sick Earth convulsive groans from shore to shore.
And Nature, shuddering, feels the horrid roar.
Still the sad prospect rises on my sight,
Revealed in all its mournful shade and light;
128
THE SHIPWRECK. canto III,
E'en now my ear with quick vibration feels
Tli' explosion burst in strong rebounding peals;
Swift through my pulses glides the kindling fire,
As lightning glances on th' electric wire:
Yet ah ! the languid colours vainly strive
To bid the Scene in native hues revive-
But lo ! at last, from tenfold darkness born,
Forth issues o'er the wave the weeping Morn
Hail, sacred Vision ! who, on orient wings,
The cheering dawn of light propitious brings;
All nature smiling hailed the vivid ray
That gave her beauties to returning Day,
All but our Ship ! which, groaning on the tide,
No kind relief, no gleam of Hope descried;
For now in front her trembling inmates see
The hills of Greece emerging on the lee—
So the lost lover views that fatal Morn,
On which, for ever from his bosom torn,
The maid adored resigns her blooming charms,
To bless with love some happier rival's arms;
canto iii. THE SHIPWRECK.
129
So to Eliza dawned that cruel day
That tore .ZEneas from her sight away,
That saw him parting never to return,
Herself in funeral flames decreed to burn.
0 yet in clouds, thou genial source of light!
Conceal thy radiant glories from our sight;
Go, with thy smile adorn the happy plain,
And gild the scenes where health and pleasure reign:
But let not here, in scorn, thy wanton beam
Insult the dreadful grandeur of my theme.
While shoreward now the bounding vessel flies,
Full in her van St George's cliffs arise;
High o'er the rest a pointed crag is seen,
That hung projecting o'er a mossy green;
Huge breakers on the larboard bow appear,
And full a-head its eastern ledges bear :
To steer more eastward Albert still commands,
And shun, if possible, the fatal strands—
Nearer and nearer now the danger grows,
And all their skill relentless fates oppose;
i
130 THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO III.
For while more eastward they direct the prow,
Enormous waves the quivering deck o'erflow ;
While, as she wheels, unable to subdue u
Her sallies, still they dread her broaching-to :
Alarming thought! for now no more a-lee
Her trembling side could bear the mountained sea,
And if pursuing waves she scuds before,
Headlong she runs upon the frightful shore ;
A shore, where shelves and hidden rocks abound,
Where death in secret ambush lurks around;
Not half so dreadful to ^Eneas' eyes
The Straits of Sicily were seen to rise,
When Palinurus from the helm descry'd
The rocks of Scylla on his eastern side,
While in the west, with hideous yawn disclosed,
His onward path Charybdis' gulph opposed ;
The double danger he alternate viewed,
And cautiously his arduous track pursued :
Thus, while to right and left destruction lies,
Between th' extremes the daring vessel flies :
CANTO III. THE SHIPWRECK.
131
With terrible irruption bursting o'er
The marble cliffs, tremendous surges roar;
Hoarse through each winding creek the tempest raves,
And hollow rocks repeat the groan of waves :
Should once the bottom strike this cruel shore,
The parting ship that instant is no more;
Nor she alone, but with her all the crew
Beyond relief are doomed to perish too :
But haply she escapes the dreadful strand,
Though scarce her length in distance from the land;
Swift as the weapon quits the Scythian bow,
She cleaves the burning billows with her prow,
And forward hurrying with impetuous haste,
Borne on the Tempest's wings the isle she past:
With longing eyes, and agony of mind,
The sailors view this refuge left behind;
Happy to bribe with India's richest ore
A safe accession to that barren shore
When in the dark Peruvian mine confined,
Lost to the cheerful commerce of mankind,
132
THE SHirWRECK. CANTO III.
The groaning captive wastes his life away,
For ever exiled from the realms of day,
Not half such pangs his bosom agonize
When up to distant light he rolls his eyes !
Where the broad sun, in his diurnal way,
Imparts to all beside his vivid ray,
While, all forlorn, the victim pines in vain
For scenes he never shall possess again.
V. But now Athenian mountains they descry,
And e'er the surge Colonna frowns on high;
Where marble columns, long by time defaced,
Moss-covered on the lofty cape are placed;
There reared by fair Devotion to sustain
In elder times Tritonia's sacred fane;
The circling beach in murderous form appears,
Decisive goal of all their hopes and fears :
The seamen now in wild amazement see
The scene of ruin rise beneath their lee;
Swift from their minds elapsed all dangers past,
As dumb with terror they behold the last.
CANTO III. THE SHIPWRECK.
133
And now, while winged with ruin from on high,
Through the rent cloud the ragged lightnings fly,
A flash, quick glancing on the nerves of light,
Struck the pale helmsman with eternal night:
Rodmond, who heard a piteous groan behind,
Touched with compassion gazed upon the blind ;
And, while around his sad companions crowd,
He guides the unhappy victim to the shroud :
" Hie thee aloft, my gallantfriend !" he cries ;
" Thy only succour on the mast relies
The helm, bereft of half its vital force, ■
Now scarce subdued the wild unbridled course;
Quick to th' abandoned wheel Arion came,
The ship's tempestuous sallies to reclaim :
The vessel, while the dread event draws nigh,
Seems more impatient o'er the waves to fly;
Fate spurs her on !—Thus, issuing from afar,
Advances to the sun some blazing star,
And, as it feels attraction's kindling force,
Springs onward with accelerated course
134
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO III.
The moment fraught with fate approaches fast!
While thronging sailors climb each quivering mast;
The ship no longer now must stem the land,
And, hard a starboard! is the last command :
While every suppliant voice to Heaven applies,
The prow, swift wheeling, to the westward flies;
Twelve sailors, on the foremast who depend,
High on the platform of the top ascend,
Fatal retreat! for, while the plunging prow
Immerges headlong in the wave below,
Down prest by watery weight the bowsprit bends,
And from above the stem deep-crashing rends :
Beneath her bow the floating ruins lie ;
The foremast totters, unsustained on high ;
And now the ship, forelifted by the sea,
Hurls the tall fabric backward o'er her lee;
While, in the general wreck, the faithful stay
Drags the main topmast by the cap away :
Flung from the mast, the seamen strive in vain,
Through hostile floods, their vessel to regain;
canto ill. THE SHIPWRECK.
135
Weak hope, alas! they buffet long the wave,
And grasp at life though sinking in the grave;
Till all exhausted, and bereft of strength,
O'erpowered they yield to cruel Fate at length;
The burying waters close around their head,
They sink! for ever numbered with the dead.
Those who remain the weather shrouds embrace,
Nor longer mourn their lost companions' case ;
Transfixt with terror at the approaching doom,
Self-pity in their breasts alone has room :
Albert, and Rodmond, and Palemon, near
With young Arion, on the mast appear;
E'en they, amid th' unspeakable distress,
In every look distracting thoughts confess,
In every vein the refluent blood congeals,
And every bosom mortal terror feels;
Begirt with all the horrors of the main,
They viewed th' adjacent shore, but viewed in vain :
Such torments in the drear abodes of hell,
Where sad Despair laments with rueful yell,
136
THE SHIPWRECK. canto III.
Such torments agonize the damned breast,
That sees remote the mansions of the blest.
It comes! the dire catastrophe draws near,
Lashed furious on by destiny severe:
The ship hangs hovering on the verge of death,
Hell yawns, rocks rise, and breakers roar beneath!
O yet confirm my heart, ye Powers above !
This last tremendous shock of Fate to prove ;
The tottering frame of reason yet sustain,
Nor let this total havoc whirl my brain:
Since I, all trembling in extreme distress,
Must still the horrible result express.
In vain, alas ! the sacred shades of yore
Would arm the mind with philosophic lore ;
In vain they'd teach us, at the latest breath
To smile serene amid the pangs of death :
Immortal Zeno's self would trembling see
Inexorable Fate beneath the lee;
And Epictetus at the sight, in vain
Attempt his stoic firmness to retain;
CANTO nr. THE SHIPWRECK.
Had Socrates, for godlike virtue famed,
And wisest of the sons of men proclaimed,
Spectator of such various horrors been,
E'en he had staggered at this dreadful scene.
In vain the cords and axes were prepared,
For every wave now smites the quivering yard;
High o'er the ship they throw a dreadful shade,
Then on her burst in terrible cascade;
Across the foundered deck o'erwhelming roar,
And foaming, swelling, bound upon the shore.
Swift up the mounting billow now she flies,
Her shattered top half-buried in the skies;
Borne o'er a latent reef the hull impends,
Then thundering on the marble crags descends
Her ponderous bulk the dire concussion feels,
And o'er upheaving surges wounded reels—
Again she plunges ! hark! a second shock
Bilges the splitting vessel on the rock—
Down on the vale of death, with dismal cries,
The fated victims shuddering cast their eyes
168
THE SHIPWRECK. canto III.
In wild despair; while yet another stroke
With strong convulsion rends the solid oak :
Ah Heaven !—behold her crashing ribs divide !
She loosens, parts, and spreads in ruin o'er the tide 1
Oh, were it mine with sacred Mako's art
To wake to sympathy the feeling heart,
Like him, the smooth and mournful verse to dress
In all the pomp of exquisite distress;
Then, too severely taught by cruel Fate,
To share in all the perils I relate,
Then might I, with unrivalled strains, deplore
Th' impervious horrors of a leeward shore.
As o'er the surf the bending mainmast hung,
Still on the rigging thirty seamen clung:
Some on a broken crag were struggling cast,
And there by oozy tangles grappled fast;
Awhile they bore the o'erwhelming billows' rage,
Unequal combat with their fate to wage;
Till all benumbed, and feeble, they forego
Their slippery hold, and sink to shades below :
canto iii. the shipwreck.
Some from the main yard-arm impetuous thrown
On marble ridges, die without a groan :
Three with Palemon on their skill depend,
And from the wreck on oars and rafts descend ;
Now on the mountain-wave on high they ride,
Then downward plunge beneath th' involving tide
Till one, who seems in agony to strive,
The whirling breakers heave on shore alive:
The rest a speedier end of anguish knew,
And prest the stony beach—a lifeless crew !
Next, O unhappy chief! the eternal doom
Of Heaven decreed thee to the briny tomb :
What scenes of misery torment thy view !
What painful struggles of thy dying crew !
Thy perished hopes all buried in the flood
O'erspread with corses, red with human blood !
So pierced with anguish hoary Priam gazed,
When Troy's imperial domes in ruin blazed ;
While he, severest sorrow doomed to feel,
Expired beneath the victor's murdering steel—
140
THE SHIPWRECK. canto
Thus with his helpless partners to the last,
Sad refuge ! Albert grasps the floating mast.
His soul could yet sustain this mortal blow,
But droops, alas ! beneath superior woe ;
For now strong Nature's sympathetic chain
Tugs at his yearning heart with powerful strain
His faithful wife, (for ever doomed to mourn
For him, alas ! who never shall return,)
To black Adversity's approach exposed,
With want, and hardships unforeseen enclosed;
His lovely daughter, left without a friend
Her innocence to succour and defend,
By youth and indigence set forth a prey
To lawless guilt, that flatters to betray—
While these reflections rack his feeling mind,
Rodmond, who hung beside, his grasp resign'd;
And, as the tumbling waters o'er him roll'd,
His outstretched arms the master's legs enfold :
Sad Albert feels their dissolution near,
And strives in vain his fettered limbs to clear,
#
For Death bids every clenching joint adhere :
CANTO nr. THE SHIPWRECK. 141
All faint, to Heaven he throws his dying eyes,
And, Oh protect my wife and child ! he cries—
The gushing streams roll back the unfinished sound.
He gasps! and sinks amid the vast profound.
Five only left of all the shipwrecked throng
Yet ride the mast which shoreward drives along;
With these Arion still his hold secures,
And all assaults of hostile waves endures:
O'er the dire prospect as for life he strives,
He looks if poor Palemon yet survives—
" Ah wherefore, trusting to unequal art,
" Didst thou, incautious ! from the wreck depart ?
" Alas! these rocks all human skill defy ;
" Who strikes them once, beyond relief must die :
" And now sore wounded, thou perhaps art tost
" On these, or in some oozy cavern lost
Thus thought Arion ; anxious gazing round
In vain, his eyes no more Palemon found—
The demons of destruction hover nigh,
And thick their mortal shafts commissioned fly :
6
j12 the shipwreck. canto ill.
When now a breaking surge, with forceful sway,
Two, next Arion, furious tears away ;
Hurled on the crags, behold they gasp, they bleed!
And groaning, cling upon th' elusive weed ;
Another billow bursts in boundless roar !
Arion sinks ! and Memory views no more.
Ha ! total night and horror here preside,
My stunned ear tingles to the whizzing tide;
It is their funeral knell! and gliding near
Methinks the phantoms of the dead appear;
But lo ! emerging from the watery grave,
Again they float incumbent on the wave,
Again the dismal prospect opens round,—
The wreck, the shore, the dying, and the drown'd!
And see ! enfeebled by repeated shocks,
Those two, who scramble on the adjacent rocks,
Their faithless hold no longer can retain,
They sink o'erwhelmed ! and never rise again.
Two with Arion yet the mast upbore,
That now above the ridges reached the shore;
canto III. THE SHIPWRECK. 143
Still trembling to descend, they downward gaze,
With horror pale, and torpid with amaze :
The floods recoil! the ground appears below !
And life's faint embers now rekindling glow ;
Awhile they wait th' exhausted waves' retreat,
Then climb slow up the beach with hands and feet—
0 heaven ! delivered by whose sovereign hand
Still on destruction's brink they shuddering stand,
Receive the languid incense they bestow,
That, damp with death, appears not yet to glow;
To thee each soul the warm oblation pays
With trembling ardour of unequal praise ;
In every heart dismay with wonder strives,
And hope the sickened spark of life revives,
Her magic powers their exiled health restore,
Till horror and despair are felt no more.
Roused by the blustering tempest of the night,
A troop of Grecians mount Colonna's height;
When, gazing down with horror on the flood,
Full to their view the scene of ruin stood—
144
THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO III.
The surf with mangled bodies strewed around,
And those yet breathing on the sea-washed ground :
Though lost to science and the nobler arts,
Yet Nature's lore informed their feeling hearts ;
Strait down the vale with hastening steps they hied,
The unhappy sufferers to assist, and guide.
Meanwhile, those three escaped beneath explore
The first advent'rous youth who reached the shore :
Panting, with eyes averted from the day,
Prone, helpless, on the tangly beach he lay—
It is Palemon ! oh, what tumults roll
With hope and terror in Arion's soul;
" If yet unhurt he lives again to view
" Hisfriend, and this sole remnant of our crew,
" With us to travel through this foreign zone,
" And share thefuture good or ill unknown ?"
Arion thus; but ah, sad doom of fate !
That bleeding Memory sorrows to relate,
While yet afloat, on some resisting rock
His ribs were dashed, and fractured with the shock:
canto iii. THE SHIPWRECK.
145
Heart-piercing sight! those cheeks so late array'd
In beauty's bloom, are pale with mortal shade ;
Distilling blood his lovely breast o'erspread,
And clogged the golden tresses of his head :
Nor yet the lungs by this pernicious stroke
Were wounded, or the vocal organs broke.
Down from his neck, with blazing gems arrayed,
Thy image, lovely Anna ! hung pourtrayed;
Th' unconscious figure, smiling all serene,
Suspended in a golden chain was seen :
Hadst thou, soft Maiden ! in this hour of woe
Beheld him writhing from the deadly blow,
What force of art, what language could express
Thine agony, thine exquisite distress ?
But thou, alas! art doomed to weep in vain,
For him thine eyes shall never see again.
With dumb amazement pale, Arion gazed,
And cautiously the wounded youth upraised;
Palemon then, with equal pangs opprest,
In faultering accents thus his friend addrest:
143 THE SHIPWRECK. canto III.
" O rescued from destruction late so nigh,
" Beneath whose fatal influence doomed I lie;
" Are we then, exiled to this last retreat
" Of life, unhappy! thus decreed to meet?
" Ah! how unlike what yester-morn enjoyed,
" Enchanting hopes ! for ever now destroyed ;
" For wounded, far beyond all healing power,
" Palemon dies, and this his final hour:
" By those fell breakers, where in vain I strove,
" At once cut off from fortune, life, and love !
" Far other scenes must soon present my sight,
" That lie deep-buried yet in tenfold night—
" Ah ! wretched Father of a wretched Son,
" Whom thy paternal prudence has undone;
" How will remembrance of this blinded care
" Bend down thy head with anguish and despair !
" Such dire effects from avarice arise,
" That, deaf to Nature's voice, and vainly wise,
" With force severe endeavours to controul
" The noblest passions that inspire the soul.
canto nr. the shipwreck.
" But, O Thou sacreu Power ! whose law connects
" Th' eternal chain of causes and effects,
" Let not thy chastening ministers of rage
" Afflict with sharp remorse his feeble age:
" And you, Arion ! who with these the last
" Of all our crew survive the Shipwreck past—
" Ah ! cease to mourn, those friendly tears restrain,
" Nor give my dying moments keener pain !
" Since Heaven may soon thy wandering steps restore,
" When parted hence, to England's distant shore;
" Shouldst thou, th' unwilling messenger of Fate,
" To him the tragic story first relate ;
" Oh! friendship's generous ardour then suppress,
" Nor hint the fatal cause of my distress;
" Nor let each horrid incident sustain
" The lengthened tale to aggravate his pain:
" Ah ! then remember well my last request
" For her who reigns for ever in my breast;
" Yet let him prove a father and a friend,
" The helpless maid to succour and defend—
148 THE SHIPWRECK. CANTO III.
" Say, I this suit implored with parting breath,
" So Heaven befriend him at his hour of death !
" But, oh! to lovely Anna shouldst thou tell
" What dire untimely end thy friend befel;
" Draw o'er the dismal scene soft Pity's veil,
" And lightly touch the lamentable tale :
" Say that my love, inviolably true,
" No change, no diminution ever knew;
" Lo! her bright image pendant on my neck
" Is all Palemon rescued from the wreck;
'* Take it! and say, when panting in the wave,
" I struggled life and this alone to save.
" My soul, that fluttering hastens to be free,
" Would yet a train of thoughts impart to thee,
" But strives in vain ; the chilling ice of death
" Congeals my blood, and choaks the stream of breath;
" Resigned, she quits her comfortless abode
" To course that long, unknown, eternal road—
" O sacred Source of ever-living Light!
" Conduct the weary wanderer in her flight;
CANTO III. THE SHIPWRECK. 149
" Direct her onward to that peaceful shore,
" Where peril, pain, and death prevail no more.
" When thou some tale of hapless love shalt hear,
" That steals from Pity's eye the melting tear;
" Of two chaste hearts, by mutual passion joined,
" To absence, sorrow, and despair consigned ;
" Oh ! then, to swell the tides of social woe
" That heal th' afflicted bosom they o'erflow,
" While Memory dictates, this sad Shipwreck tell,
" And what distress thy wretched friend befel:
" Then, while in streams of soft compassion drown'd,
" The swains lament, and maidens weep around ;
" While lisping children, touched with infant fear,
" With wonder gaze, and drop the unconscious tear;
" Oh ! then this moral bid their souls retain,
" All thoughts of happiness on earth are
" vain !"
The last faint accents trembled on his tongue,
That now inactive to the palate clung;
His bosom heaves a mortal groan—he dies!
And shades eternal sink upon his eyes.
150 THE SHIPWRECK. canto III.
As thus defaced in death Palemon lay,
Arion gazed upon the lifeless clay;
Transfixed he stood, with awful terror filled,
While down his cheek the silent drops distilled:
" O ill-starred votary of unspotted Truth!
" Untimely perished in the bloom of youth;
" Should e'er thy friend arrive on Albion's land,
" He will obey, though painful, thy command ;
" His tongue the dreadful story shall display,
" And all the horrors of this dismal day;
" Disastrous day! what ruin hast thou bred,
" What anguish to the living and the dead!
" How hast thou left the widow all forlorn;
" And ever doomed the orphan child to mourn,
" Through life's sad journey hopeless to complain :
" Can sacred Justice these events ordain ?
" But, O my soul ! avoid that wondrous maze
" Where Reason, lost in endless error, strays;
" As through this thorny vale of life we run,
" Great Cause of all Effects, Thy will be done !"
CANTO III. THE SHIPWRECK. 151
Now had the Grecians on the beach arrived,
To aid the helpless few who yet survived:
While passing, they behold the waves o'erspread
With shattered rafts and corses of the dead ;
Three still alive, benumbed and faint they find,
In mournful silence on a rock reclined :
The generous natives, moved with social pain,
The feeble strangers in their arms sustain ;
With pitying sighs their hapless lot deplore,
And lead them trembling from the fatal shore.
[ 52 ]
OCCASIONAL ELEGY,
in which the preceding narrative is concluded.
The Scene of Death is closed! the mournful strains
Dissolve in dying languor on the ear;
Yet Pity weeps, yet Sympathy complains,
And dumb Suspense awaits o'erwhelm'd with fear:
But the sad Muses with prophetic eye
At once the future and the past explore ;
Their harps Oblivion's influence can defy,
And waft the spirit to th' eternal shore— .
ELEGY.
Then, O Palemon ! if thy shade can hear
The voice of Friendship still lament thy doom,
Yet to the sad oblations bend thine ear,
That rise in vocal incense o'er thy tomb:
From young Arion first the news received
With terror, pale unhappy Anna read;
With inconsolable distress she grieved,
And from her cheek the rose of beauty fled.
In vain, alas ! the gentle virgin wept,
Corrosive anguish nipt her vital bloom;
O'er her soft frame diseases sternly crept,
And gave the lovely victim to the tomb :
A longer date of woe, the widowed Wife
Her lamentable lot afflicted bore ;
Yet both were rescued from the chains of life
Before Arion reached his native shore 1
154
elegy.
The Father unrelenting Phrenzy stung,
Untaught in Virtue's school distress to bear;
Severe Remorse his tortured bosom wrung,
He languished, groaned, and perished in despair.
Ye lost companions of distress, adieu !
Your toils, and pains, and dangers are no more;
The tempest now shall howl unheard by you,
While Ocean smites in vain the trembling shore;
On you the blast, surcharged with rain and snow,
In winter's dismal nights no more shall beat;
Unfelt by you the vertic sun may glow,
And scorch the panting earth with baneful heat:
No more the joyful maid, with sprightly strain,
Shall wake the dance to give you welcome home;
Nor hopeless love impart undying pain,
When far from scenes of social joy you roam;
ELEGY.
155
No more on yon wide watery waste you stray,
While hunger and disease your life consume,
While parching thirst, that burns without allay,
Forbids the blasted rose of health to bloom;
No more you feel Contagion's mortal breath,
That taints the realms with misery severe;
No more behold pale Famine, scattering death,
With cruel ravage desolate the year :
The thundering drum, the trumpet's swelling strain
Unheard, shall form the long embattled line :
Unheard, the deep foundations of the main
Shall tremble, when the hostile squadrons join :
Since grief, fatigue, and hazards still molest
The wandering vassals of the faithless deep;
Oh! happier now escaped to endless rest,
Than we who still survive to wake, and weep:
158
ELEGY.
What though no funeral pomp, no borrowed tear,
Your hour of death to gazing crowds shall tell;
Nor weeping friends attend your sable bier,
Who sadly listen to the passing bell;
The tutor'd sigh, the vain parade of woe,
No real anguish to the soul impart;
And oft, alas ! the tear that friends bestow,
Belies the latent feelings of the heart:
What though no sculptured pile your name displays,
Like those who perish in their country's cause;
What though no epic muse in living lays
Records your dreadful daring with applause,—
Full oft the flattering marble bids Renown
With blazoned trophies deck the spotted name;
And oft, too oft, the venal muses crown
The slaves of vice with never-dying fame.—
8
ELEGY.
157
Yet shall Remembrance from Oblivion's veil
Relieve your scene, and sigh with grief sincere;
And soft Compassion at your tragic tale
In silent tribute pay her kindred tear.
NOTES.
NOTES
on
CANTO FIRST.
O'er Bar, and Shelve.—P. If. 1. 11.
A Bar is known, in Hydrography, to be a mass of
earth, or sand, that has been collected, by the surge of
the sea, at the entrance of a River, or Haven, so as
to render navigation difficult, and often dangerous. A
Shelf, or Shelve, so called from the Saxon Schylf,
is a name given to any dangerous shallows, sand-banks,
or rocks, lying immediately under the surface of the
water.
And with their levers soon the Windlass arm.
P. 44.1. 16.
The Windlass is a large cylindrical piece of timber
used in merchant ships to heave up the anchors: it is
furnished with strong iron Pauls to prevent it from turn¬
ing back by the efforts of the Cable, when charged with
L
162 NOTES ON CANTO 1.
the weight of the Anchor, or strained by the violent
jerking of the Ship in a tempestuous Sea. As the
Windlass is heaved about in a vertical direction, it is
evident that the effort of an equal number of men
acting upon it will be much more powerful than on
the Capstan. It requires, however, some dexterity and
address to manage the Handspec,orLever, tothegreat-
est advantage ; and to perform this the Sailors must all
rise at once upon the Windlass, and, fixing their bars
therein, give a sudden jerk at the same instant; in
which movement they are regulated by a sort of Song
pronounced by one of the number. The most dex¬
terous managers of the Handspec in heaving at the
WIndlass, are generally supposed to be the Colliers
of Northumberland; and of all European Mariners,
the Dutch are certainly the most awkward and slug¬
gish in this manoeuvre.
The stately Ship they tow.—P. 45. 1.14.
From the Saxon teohan. Towing is chiefly used, as
in the present instance, when a Ship for want of wind
is forced toward the shore by the swell of the Sea.
Now swelling Stud-sails on each side extend,
Then Stay-sails sidelong to the breeze ascend.
P. 46. 1. 11. 12.
1. Stud, or studding-sails, called by the French Ba-
NOTES ON CANTO I. 163
nettes en etui, are light sails, which are extended in
moderate breezes beyond the skirts of the principal
Sails; where they appear as Wings upon the Yard-
arms. These sails seem originally to have been called
steadying Sails, from their tendency to keep the ship
in a steady course, as also from the Saxon word sled,
to assist. 2. Stay-sail; though the form of Sails is
so extremely different, they may all be divided into
Sails which have either three or four sides: a Stay¬
sail comes under the first class, and receives its name
from a large strong rope on which it is hoisted, called
a Stay, employed to support the Mast, by being ex¬
tended from its upper end towards the fore part of the
Ship, as the Shrouds (a range of large ropes), are ex¬
tended to the right and left of the Mast, and behind
it. The Yards of a Ship are said to be square, when
they hang across the ship, at right angles with the
mast; and braced, when they form greater or lesser
angles with the Ship's length.
White as the Clouds beneath the blaze of Noon.
P. 47. 1. 18.
Before the art of coppering Ships' bottoms was dis¬
covered, they were painted white. The Wales are the
strong planks which extend along a Ship's side, at dif¬
ferent heights, throughout her whole length, and form
164 NOTES ON CANTO I.
the curves by which a Vessel appears light and grace¬
ful on the water: they are usually distinguished into
the main-wale and the channel-wale.
NOTES
ON
CANTO SECOND.
Lozo in the wave the leeward cannon lie.—P. 62. 1. 4.
When the Wind crosses a Ship's course, either di¬
rectly or obliquely, that side of the Ship, upon which
it acts, is termed the weather side ; and the opposite
one, which is then pressed downwards, is termed the
lee side; all on one side of her is accordingly called
to windward, and all on the opposite side to leeward :
hence also are derived the lee cannon, the lee braces,
weather braces, &c. The same term is used by Mil¬
ton,
" The Pilot of some small night-founded Skill',
With fixed Anchor,
Moors by his side under the Lee."
166 NOTES ON CANTO 11.
Halyards—Boat-lines—Clue-lines—Reef Tackles—
Tarings.—p. 63. i. 1, 2, &c.
Halyards are those ropes by which Sails are hoist¬
ed, or lowered ; Bow-Lines are ropes fastened to the
outer edge of square sails in three different places, that
the windward edge of the Sail may be bound tight for¬
ward on a side wind, in order to keep the Sail from
shivering. Clue-lines are fastened to the lower cor¬
ners of the square Sails, for the more easy furling of
them. Reef-tackles are ropes fastened to the edge
of the Sail, just beneath the lowest Reef; and being
brought down to the deck by means of two blocks, are
used to facilitate the operation of reefing. Earings
are small ropes employed to fasten the upper corners
of the principal Sails, and the extremities of the Reefs,
to the respective Yard-arms, particularly when any Sail
is to be close furled.
Man the clue-garnets ! let the Main-sheet fly !
P. 63. 1. 17.
Clue-Garnets are the same to the Main-sail and
Fore-sail, which the Clue-lines are to all other Square-
Sails, and are hauled up when the Sail is to be furled,
or brailed. Sheets : it is necessary in this place to
remark, that the Sheets, which are universally mistaken
by our English Poets for the Sails, are in reality the
NOTES ON CANTO II.
Ropes that are used to extend the Clues, or lower cor¬
ners of the Sails, to which they are attached.
Bear up the Helm a-weather !—P. 64. 1.3.
The reason for putting the Helm a-weather, or to the
side next the wind, is to make the Ship veer before it
when it blows so hard that she cannot bear her side to
it any longer. Veering, or Wearing, is the operation
by which a Ship, in changing herCourse from one board
to the other, turns her stern to windward: the French
term is, virer vent arriere.
While the fore stay-sail balances before.—P. 65.1. 2.
Called with more propriety the fore top-mast Stay¬
sail : it is of a triangular shape, and runs upon the fore
top-mast Stay, over the Bowsprit: it consequently has
an influence on the fore part of the Ship, as the Mizen
has on the hinder part; and, when thus used together,
they may be said to balance each other. See also
the last Note of this Canto.
.... tli extended Tuck confined.—P. 65.1. 4.
The Main-Sail and Fore-Sail of a Ship are fur¬
nished with a Tack on each side, which is formed of
a thick rope tapering to the end, having a knot wrought
upon the largest extremity, by which it is firmly re¬
tained in the Clue of the Sail: by this means the Tack
168
NOTES ON CANTO II.
is always fastened to windward, at the same time that
the Sheet extends the Sail to leeward.
the Buntlines gone !—P. 65. 1.7.
Bunt-Lines are ropes fastened to the bottoms of
the square Sails to draw them up to the yards, when
the Sails are brailed, or furled.
Brails, Head-Ropes, Robands.—p. 65.1. 17—20.
Brails : a general name given to all the ropes which
are employed to haul up, or brail the bottoms, and
lower corners of the great Sails. A Rope is always
attached to the edges of the Sails, to strengthen, and
prevent them from rending: those parts of it which are
on the perpendicular or sloping edges, are called leech
ropes, that at the bottom, the foot rope, and that on
the top, or upper edge, the Head Rope. Robands,
or Rope hands, are small pieces of rope of a sufficient
length to pass three or four times about the Yards, in
order to fix to them the upper edges of the respective
great Sails: the Robands for this purpose are passed
through the eyelet holes under the Head-rope.
Top-Gallant-Yards, Travellers, Back-Stays,
Top-Ropes, Parrels, Lifts, Topped, Booms.
P. 68.1. 9—14.
Top-Gallant-Yards, which are the highest ones
NOTES ON CANTO II. 1g9
in a Ship, are sent down at the approach of a heavy
Gale, to ease the mast-heads. Travellers are iron
Rings furnished with a piece of rope, one end of which
encircles the Ring to which it is spliced : they are prin¬
cipally intended to facilitate the hoisting or bowering
of the Top-gallant-yards; for which purpose two of
them are fixed on each Backstay; which are long ropes
that reach on each side the Ship, from the Top-masts
(which are the second in point of height) to the Chains.
Top-Ropes, are employed to sway up, or lower, the
Top-masts, Top-gallant-masts, and their respective
Yards. Parrels, are those bands of rope by which
the Yards are fastened to the masts, so as to slide up
and down when requisite; and of these there are four
different sorts. Lifts, are ropes which reach from each
mast-head to their respective Yard-arms. A Yard is
said to be Topped, when one end of the yard is raised
higher than the other, in order to lower it on deck by
means of the Top-ropes. Booms, are spare Masts, or
Yards, which are placed in store on deck, between the
main and fore-mast, immediately to supply the place
of any that may be carried away, or injured, by stress
of weather.
But here the doubtful Officers dispute.—p. 70.1. 1.
This is particularly mentioned, not because there was,
or could be, any dispute at such a time between a
170 NOTES ON CANTO II.
Master of a Ship and his chief Mate, as the former
can always command the latter, but to expose the ob¬
stinacy of a number of our veteran Officers, who would
rather risk any thing than forego their ancient rules,
although many of them are in the highest degree equally
absurd and dangerous. It is to the wonderful sagacity
of these philosophers, that we owe the sea maxims of
avoiding to whistle in a Storm, because it will increase
the Wind; of whistling on the Wind in a Calm ; of
nailing horse-shoes on the Mast to prevent the power
of Witches; of nailing a fair Wind to the starboard
Cat-head, &c.
The Tack's eased off !—P. 70. 1. 19.
It has been already remarked, that the Tack is al¬
ways fastened to windward ; consequently, as soon as
it is cast loose, and the Clue-Garnet is hauled up, the
weather Clue of the Sail immediately mounts to the
Yard; and this operation must be carefully performed
in a Storm, to prevent tne Sail from splitting, or being
torn to pieces by shivering.
By spilling Lines embraced.—P. 71. 1. 7.
The Spilling Lines, which are only used on par¬
ticular occasions in tempestuous Weather, are employ¬
ed to draw together, and confine the belly of the Sail,
when inflated by the wind over the Yard.
NOTES ON CANTO II. 171
Below, the down-huul Tackle others ply.—P. 71.1. 12.
The violence of the Gale forcing the Yard much
out, it could not easily have been lowered so as to
reef the Sail, without the application of a Tackle, con¬
sisting of an assemblage of Pullies, to haul it down on
the Mast.
Reef-Lines, Shrouds, Reef-Band, Outer and
Inner Turns.—P. 71.1. 17, &c.
Reef-Lines are only used to reef the Main-Sail
and Fore-Sail. Shrouds, so called from the Saxon
Scrud, consist of a range of thick ropes stretching
downwards from the Mast Heads to the right and left
sides of a Ship, in order to support the Masts, and en¬
able them to carry Sail; they are also used as Rope
Ladders, by which Seamen ascend, or descend, to ex¬
ecute whatever is wanting to be done about the Sails
and Rigging. Reef-Band consists of a piece of canvas
sewed across the Sail, to strengthen it in the place
where the eyelet-holes of the Reefs are formed. The
Outer Turns of the Earing serve to extend the Sail
along its Yard; the Inner Turns are employed to
confine its Head-Rope close to its surface.
A Sea, up-surging with stupendous roll.—P. 72.1. 19.
A Sea is the general term given by Sailors to an
172 NOTES ON CANTO 11.
enormous Wave; and hence, when such a Wave bursts
over the Deck, the Vessel is said to have Shipped a
Sea.
Too late to weather now Morea's land,
And drifting fast on Athens' rocky strand.
P. 74.1. 9, 10.
To weather a Shore is to pass to windward of it,
which at this time was prevented by the violence of the
Gale. Drift is that motion and direction by which a
Vessel is forced to leeward sideways, when she is un¬
able any longer to carry sail; or, at least, is restrained
to such a portion of sail, as may be necessary to keep
her sufficiently inclined to one side that she may not
be dismasted by her violent labouring produced by the
turbulence of the Sea.
And try beneath it sidelong in the Sea.—P. 74.1.16.
To TRY, is to lay the ship with her side nearly in
the direction of the Wind and Sea, with her head
somewhat inclined to windward; the Helm being fast¬
ened close to the lee-side, or, in the sea language, hard
a-lee, to retain her in that position. See a further il¬
lustration in the last Note of this Canto.
Topping Lift; Knittle, Throt.—P. 74.1.18, &c.
A Tackle, or assemblage of Pullies, which tops the
NOTES ON CANTO II. 173
upper end of the Mizen-Yard. This line, and the sis
following, describe the operation of reefing and ba¬
lancing the Mizen. The Knittle is a short Line used
to reef the Sails by the bottom. The Throt is that
part of the Mizen-Yard which is close to the Mast.
Companion, Binacle.—P. 78.1.11.
The Companion is a wooden Porch placed over the
ladder, that leads down to the Cabins of the Officers.
The Binacle is a case, which is placed on deck before
the Helm, containing three divisions ; the middle one
for a Lamp, or Candle, and the two others for Mari¬
ners' Compasses. There are always two Binacles on
the deck of a Ship of War, one of which is placed be¬
fore the Master, at his appointed station. In all the
old Sea Books it was called Bittacle.
Meanwhile Arion, traversing the Wuist.—P. 81.1,13.
The Waist is that part of a Ship which is contained
between the Quarter Deck and Forecastle; or the
middle of that Deck which is immediately below them.
When the Waist of a Merchant Ship is only one or
two steps in descent from the Quarter Deck and
Forecastle, she is said to be Galley built; but when it
is considerably deeper, as with six or seven steps, she
is then called Frigate built.
NOTES ON CANTO II.
Her place discovered by the rules of Art.—P. 84.1.11.
The Lee-way, or Drift, in this passage are synony¬
mous terms.—The true course and distance, resulting
from these Traverses, is discovered by collecting the
difference of Latitude and departure of each Course,
and reducing the whole into one departure, and one
difference of Latitude, according to the known rules of
Trigonometry: this reduction will immediately ascer¬
tain the base and perpendicular; or, in other words,
will give the difference of latitude and departure, to
discover the Course and Distance.
Yet where with safety can we dare to scud
Before this Tempest, and pursuing Flood ?
P. 88. 1. 15, 16.
The movement of Scudding, from the Swedish word
Skutta, is never attempted in a contrary Wind, unless,
as in the present instance, the condition of a Ship ren¬
ders her incapable of sustaining any longer on her side
the mutual efforts of the Winds and Waves. The prin¬
cipal hazards, incident to Scudding, are generally a
pooping Sea; the difficulty of steering, which exposes
the Vessel perpetually to the risk of broaching-to;
and the want of sufficient sea-room : A Sea striking
the Ship violently on the stern may dash it inwards,
by which she must inevitably founder ; in broaching-to
9
NOTES ON CANTO II. 175
suddenly, she is threatened with being immediately
overset; and, for want of sea-room, she is endangered
with Shipwreck on a lee-shore; a circumstance too
dreadful to require explanation.
Thus water-logged.—P. 91.1. 11.
A Ship is said to be water-logged, when, having re¬
ceived through her leaks a great quantity of water into
her Hold, she has become so heavy and inactive on
the Sea, as to yield without resistance to the efforts
of every wave that rushes over the deck. As in this
dangerous situation the centre of gravity is no longer
fixed, but fluctuates from place to place, the stability
of the Ship is utterly lost: she is therefore almost
totally deprived of the use of her Sails, which operate
to overset her, or press the head under water : hence
there is no resource for the Crew, except to free her by
the Pumps, or to abandon her for the boats as soon as
possible.
Both Stay-sail Sheets to mid-ships were conr.eyed.
P. 100. 1. 16.
The fore Stay sail being one of the Sails which com¬
mand the fore part of the Ship, is for that reason
hoisted at this time, to bear her fore-part round before
the Wind; for the same reason, after it is split, the
foremast Yards are braced aback; that is, so as to
176
NOTES ON CANTO II.
form right angles with the direction of the wind. For
a further illustration of this see the subsequent note.
And hew at once the Mizen-mast away !—P. 101.1. 10.
When a Ship is forced by the violence of a contrary
Wind to furl all her Sails, if the Storm increases, and
the Sea continue to rise, she is often strained to so
great a degree, that, to ease her, she must be made to
run before their mutual direction ; which however is
rarely done but in cases of the last necessity ; now as
she has no head-way, the Helm is deprived of its go¬
verning power, as the latter effect is only produced in
consequence of the former; it therefore necessarily
requires an uncommon effort to wheel, or turn her, into
any different position. It is an axiom in Natural Philo¬
sophy, that ' Every body will persevere in its state of
' rest, or moving uniformly in a right line, unless it be
' compelled to change its state by forces impressed;
' and that the change of motion is proportional to the
' moving force impressed, and is made according to the
' right line in which that force acts.'
By this principle it is easy to conceive, how a Ship
is compelled to turn into any direction, by the force
of the Wind acting upon her Sails in lines parallel to
the plane of the horizon; for the Sails may be so set
as to receive the current of air either directly, or more
or less obliquely; and the motion communicated to the
NOTES ON CANTO II. 177
Ship must of necessity conspire with that of the Wind,
As therefore the Ship lies in such a situation as to have
the Wind and Sea directly on her side; and these in¬
crease to such a height, that she must either founder,
or scud before the Storin ; the aftmost Sails are first
taken in, or so placed that the Wind has very little
power on them; and the Head-Sails, or foremast Sails,
are spread abroad, so that the whole force of the Wind
is exerted on the Ship's forepart, which must therefore
of necessity yield to its impulse. The Prow being thus
put in motion, its motion must conspire with that of
the Wind, and will be pushed about so as to run im¬
mediately before it; for this reason, when no more Sail
can be carried, the foremast Yards are braced aback,
that is, in such a position as to receive all the current
of air they can contain directly to perform the opera¬
tion of Head-Sails; and the Mizen-Yard is lowered to
produce the same effect as furling, or placing obliquely
the aftmost Sails; and this attempt being found insuf¬
ficient, the Mizen-Mast is cut away, which must have
been followed by the Main-Mast, if the expected effect
bad not taken place.
M
NOTES
on
CANTO THIRD.
While round, before th' enlarging Wind it falls,
" Square fore and aft the Yards," the Master calls.
P. 108.1.17, 18.
The Wind is said to enlarge, when it veers from the
side towards the Stern. To square the Yards, is, in this
place, to haul them directly across the Ship's length.
So, steady ! meet her !—P. 109.1. 1.
Steady ! is an order to steer the Ship according to
the line on which she then advances, without deviating
to the right or left.
Then back to Port, 4'C-—P. 109. 1. 5.
The left side of a Ship is called Port in steering,
that the Helmsman may not mistake larboard for star-
NOTES ON CANTO III.
179
board. In all large Ships, the Tiller, (or long bar of
Timber, that is fixed horizontally to the upper end of
the Rudder,) is guided by a Wheel, which acts upon
it with the powers of a Crane, or Windlass.
Poop, Bow.—P. ill. 1. 5.
Poop, from the Latin word Puppis, is the hindmost
and highest deck of a Ship. The Bow, is the rounding
part of a Ship's side forward, beginning at the place
where the planks arch inwards, and terminating vvhqre
they close at the Stem, or Prow.
.... when past the Beam it flies.—P. 112. 1. 1.
On the Beam, implies any distance from the Ship
on a line with the Beams, or at right Angles with the
Keel; thus, if the Ship steers northward, any object
lying east, or west, is said to be on her starboard or
larboard beam.
... .still they dread her broaching-to.—P. 130.1. 4.
The great difficulty of steering the Ship at this time
before the Wind, is occasioned by its striking her on
the quarter, when she makes the least angle on either
side; which often forces her stern round, and brings
her broadside to the Wind and Sea; this is an effect of
the same c. use which is explained in the last note of
the second Canto.
180 NOTES ON CANTO IIU
the faithful Stay
Drags the Main top-mast by the Cap away.
P. 134. I. 17, 18.
The Main top-mast Stay comes to the fore-mast
head, and consequently depends upon the fore-mast as
its support. The Cap is a strong thick block of wood,
used to confine the upper and lower Masts together,
as the one is raised at the head of the other. The
principal Caps of a Ship are those of the lower Masts.
For every Wave now smiles the quivering Yard.
P. 137. 1. 6.
The Sea at this time ran so high, that it was impos¬
sible to descend front the Mast-head without being
washed over-board.
All thoughts of Happiness on Earth are vain !
P. 149. 1. 16.
" sed scilicet ultima semper
Eipeclanda dies homini; dicique beatus
Ante obitum nemo suprsmaque funera debet."
finis.
Edinburgh:
Printed by James iSallantyue & Co.
November 1811.
NEW WORKS AND REPUBLICATIONS,
PRINTED FOR AND PUBLISHED BY
JOHN BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY.
1. THE LADY of the LAKE, a Poem, in six Cantos,
by Walter ScoTt, Esq. embellished with a Portrait of
the Author, engraved by Ileath. Printed in Quarto, in the
best manner, by Ballantyne, price 2l. 2s. A few Copies
are taken off on Royal Paper, price Four Guineas. Demy
8vo Copies, 12s. in boards. Royal, One Guinea.
2. ENGLISH MINSTRELSY, being a Selection of
Fugitive Poetry from the best English Authors, with some
Original Pieces hitherto unpublished. In Two Volumes
small 8vo, price 14s. boards.
3. A VIE W of the ANCIENT and PRESENT STATE
of the ZETLAND ISLANDS ; including their general
History from the earliest Times, an Account of their Agri¬
culture, Fisheries, Commerce, and the itate of Society and
n
182
books published
Manners. By Arthur Edmonston, M. U. In Two
Volumes 8vo, illustrated with a Map of the Islands, price
18s. in boards.
4. An HISTORICAL and CRITICAL ESSAY on the
LIFE and CHARACTER of PETRARCH. To which
are added a few of his Sonnets, translated into English;
with Portraits, &c, in One Volume Post 8vo, printed in
the finest manner. Price 10s. 6d. boards.
5. A CRITICISM on GRAY'S ELEGY written in a
Country Church-yard, being a Continuation of Dr John¬
son's Criticism on the Poems of Gray. The Second Edi¬
tion, with Additions, price 5s. 6d. boards.
6. BRITISH GEORGICS, a Poem, by James Gra-
hame, Author of the " Sabbath," " Birds of Scotland,"
&c. beautifully printed in 4to, price ll. lis. 6d. in extra
boards.
7. HUME'S HISTORY of ENGLAND, with SMOL¬
LETT'S CONTINUATION, in 16 volumes. Beautifully
printed by Buhner, Bensley, Ballantyne, &c. in Demy 8vo,
and embellished with upwards of 140 Engravings, Por¬
traits, &c. from original Designs, price 111. 4s. in boards.—
A few Copies are printed on Royal Paper, in the finest
manner, price 191.
g. ELEMENTS of GEOMETRY, GEOMETRICAL
ANALYSIS, and PLANE TRIGONOMETRY, by John
Leslie, Professor of Mathematics in the University of
Edinburgh. In One Volume Demy 8vo, price 12s. boards.
The Second Edition, enlarged and improved.
9. The LIFE of LORD HERBERT of CIIERBURY,
by john ballantyne and co.
183
handsomely printed in Demy 8vo, from the Strawberry-Hill
Edition, with an original prefatory Memoir, and character¬
istic Portrait, painted by Stoddart, and engraved by Pye,
price 10s. 6d. in boards.
10. THE EDINBURGH ANNUAL REGISTER, for
1808, containing the History of Europe for that Period.
To which is added, a copious Appendix of State Papers—
Chronicle of Remarkable Events during the Year—History
of the Physical Sciences—of the Fine Arts—the Drama—
View of the Changes in the Administration of Justice in
Scotland—general View of Literature—of the Living Poets
of Great Britain—Poetry—a correct List of New Publica¬
tions—State of the Public Funds—Births, Deaths, Marri¬
ages, and Promotions, &c. in Two Volumes Demy 8vo,
price 24s. boards.
11. THE EDINBURGH ANNUAL REGISTER, for
1809. Contents:—Historyof Europe—Appendix of State
Papers, and other Public Documents—Chronicle of Re¬
markable Events; Lists of Births, Marriages, and Deaths;
Promotions, &c.—Public Financial Accounts of Great Bri¬
tain and Ireland—The Drama—State of the University of
Oxford—Review of Science—Accounts of the Useful Arts,
Meteorology, &c.—Listof Patents—Original Account of an
Attempt to rescue La Fayette from the Prison of Olmutz—
Observations on Bonaparte's Military Tactics—Account of
the Bell Rock Light-house—Original Letters of Shenstone,
David Hume, and Joseph Spence—Account of the present
State of Criticism—The Inferno of Altisidora, a Vision—
Original Poetry, including the Vhion of Don l{o /crick, by
184
BOOKS PUBLISHED
Mr Walter Scott; and the Bridal of Ferrandez, by Mr
Southey—List of Books published, and General Index. In
Two Volumes, price 24s boards.
12. The WORKS of DANIEL DE FOE, in Twelve Vo¬
lumes Foolscap 8vo, handsomely printed and hot-pressed,
price 31. 12s. boards.
13. THE MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER, by DE FOE,
Two Volumes, price 12s. boards.
14. HISTORY OF COLONEL JACK, by DE FOE,
Two Volumes, price 12s. boards.
15. ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN SINGLETON, by
DE FOE, Two Volumes, price 12s. board.
16. NEW VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, by DE
FOE, Two Volumes, price 12s. boards.
17. HISTORY OF THE PLAGUE IN LONDON, price
6s. boards.
18. THOMSON'S SEASONS, and POEMS; with a Life
of the Author. Beautifully printed in Foolscap 8vo, price
6s. boards.
19. FERGUSON'S ASTRONOMY, explained upon Sir
Isaac Newton's Principles, with Notes and Supplementary
Chapters, adapted to the present State of the Science. By
DAVID BREWSTER, L.L.D. F.R S. and F.A-S E. In
Two Volumes 8vo, and one 4to Volume of Plates, price 36s.
boards.
20. The FAMILY LEGEND, a Tragedy, by JOANNA
BAILLIE, the second edition, price 3s. 6d. sewed.
21. HOGARTH'S WORKS Complete, with 90 Plates
BY JOHN BALLANTYNE AND CO.
185
and an Account of his Life, in Two Volumes Royal 8vo,
price 31. 12s. boards.
22. POEMS, by ANNA SEWARD, with Extracts from
her Literary Correspondence, and a Biographical Memoir
by WALTER SCOTT, Esq. Beautifully printed in Three
Volumes Octavo. Price 3is. 6d. boards.
23. An HISTORICAL ACCOUNT of the ANCIENT
CULDEES, by JOHN JAMIESON, D.D. F.R.S.E. and
S.A. Author of an " Etymological Dictionary of the Scot¬
tish Language," &c. In One Volume Quarto, with Engra¬
vings, price 31s. 6d. boards.
24. SECRET HISTORY of the COURT of JAMES the
FIRST; containing Osborne's Traditional Memoirs—Sir
Anthony Welldon's Court and Character of King James—
Aulicus Coquinariae—Sir Edward Peyton's Divine Catas¬
trophe of the House of Stuart, &c. with Notes and Intro¬
ductory Remarks; and an Appendix, containing the Court
and Kitchin of Joan Cromwell. Handsomely printed in
Two Volumes 8vo, with curious fac simile Engravings, price
24s. boards.—A few Copies on Roval Paper, price Two
Guineas.
25. SERMONS by Dr CRAIG, late Minister of St An¬
drew's Church, Glasgow: the Third Edition, with Additions.
In Two Volumes 8vo, price 15s. boards.
26. An ESSAY on the LIFE and CHARACTER of
JESUS CHRIST, by Dr CRAIG. The Third Edition,
price 7s. 6d. boards.
27. The WORKS of JOSEPH BUTLER, late Bishop
18t)
books published, &c.
of Durham, in Two Volumes, with a Portrait, price 18s.
boards.
28. The CASTLE of OTRANTO, with an Introductory
Critical Dissertation : Splendidly printed in Quarto,
with an Emblematical Engraving, price 26s. boards.
29. A VINDICATION of the Character of the late
Right Hon. William Pitt, from the Calumnies of the Edin¬
burgh Review, price Is. Gd. sewed.
30. OBSERVATIONS suggested by the Strictures of the
Edinburgh Review upon Oxford, by Henry Home Drum-
mond, Esq. price 2s. sewed.
31. The VISION of DON RODERICK, a Poem; by
W ALTER SCOTT, Esq. Demy Quarto Copies, 15s. boards;
Royal, (of which only 60 are printed,) ll. 10s. Demy Oc¬
tavo, with several Additional Pieces, 9s.
32. ILLUSTRATIONS of the LADY of the LAKE,
beautifully engraved by Warren, Heath, A. Smith, EDgle-
heart, &c. from Paintings by George Cook; Demy Copies,
15s. stitched, Royal Quarto, Proofs, 30s.
33. The SHIPWRECK, by FALCONER: Printed by
Ballantyne, in Foolscap Svo. and Ilotpressed, price 5s.
boards.
34. The CHASE, RURAL GAMES, and FIELD
SPORTS, by SOMERVILLE: Printed uniformly with
the " Seasons" and " Shipwreck," in Foolscap 8vo, price
6s. boards.
9
773 840