Let no unworthy marks of grief be heard,
No wild laments, not one unseemly word;
Let sober triumphs wait upon my bier;
I won't forgive that friend who drops one tear.
Whether he's ravish'd in life's early morn,
Or in old age drops like an ear of corn, 390
Full ripe he falls, on Nature's noblest plan,
Who lives to Reason, and who dies a Man.
* * * * *
Footnotes:
[182] 'The Conference:' this poem was published by our author in
November 1763, soon after his elopement with Miss Carr.
[183] 'Dares starve:' this will suggest Burns's noble line, 'We daur be
poor, for a' that.'
[184] 'Shore:' Churchill, sunk in deep debt, was delivered from the
impending horrors of a jail, by Dr Peirson Lloyd, second master of
Westminster school.
[185] 'Ralph:' Mr James Ralph a hack author. See 'The Dunciad,' and
Franklin's 'Autobiography.' He was hired by Pelham to abuse Sir R.
Walpole, whom he had supported before.
[186] 'Whitehead:' author of 'Manners, a Satire.'
[187] 'Shelburne:' William Petty, Earl of Shelburne, afterwards
Marquis of Lansdowne.
Pages:
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282