THE TEARS OF A GRATEFUL PEOPLE1 A Hebrew Dirge and Hymn, chaunted in the Great Synagogue, St. James' pl. Aldgate, on the Day of the Funeral of King George III. of blessed memory. By Hyman Hurwitz of Highgate, Translated by a Friend. Dirge OPPRESS'D, confused, with grief and pain, In vain I seek the dirgeful strain, The wonted words refuse to flow. A fear in every face I find, Each voice is that of one who grieves; 5 The Day-Star of our glory sets! Our King has breathed his latest breath! 10 As if it own'd the pow'r of death. Our Crown, our heart's Desire is fled! Raise up a mourning for our King. Lo! of his beams the Day-Star shorn,* Sad gleams the Moon through cloudy veil! No age records a King so just, His virtues numerous as his days; 15 20 And truth with mercy ruled his ways. His Love was bounded by no Clime; 25 'God only knows the heart—not man.' First published with the Hebrew in pamphlet form in 1820. First collected in 1893. 2 The author, in the spirit of Hebrew Poetry, here represents the Crown, the Peerage, and the Commonalty, by the figurative expression of the Sun, Moon, and Stars. His word appall'd the sons of pride, He sooth'd the wretched, and the prey A safety dawning like the morn. Thy doom was hard, and keen thy grief; The moonlight splendour of his sway, The mightier Nation mourns her Chief: In tears of fervour, love and grief. Britannia mourns in silent grief; Her heart a prey to inward woe. In vain she strives to find relief, Her pang so great, so great the blow. Full fain would I console thy woe. United then let us repair, As round our common Parent's grave; And pouring out our heart in prayer, Our heav'nly Father's mercy crave. Until Jehovah from his throne Shall heed his suffering people's fears; To smiles of joy the Nation's tears. Hymn O thron'd in Heav'n! Sole King of kings, Jehovah hear thy Children's prayers and sighs! Thou Binder of the broken heart! with wings Of healing on thy people rise! Thy mercies, Lord, are sweet; When angry clouds thy throne surround, E'en from the cloud thou bid'st thy mercy shine: And ere thy righteous vengeance strikes the wound, Thy grace prepares the balm divine! Thy mercies, Lord, are sweet; etc. The Parent tree thy hand did spareIt fell not till the ripen'd fruit was won: Beneath its shade the Scion flourish'd fair, And for the Sire thou gav'st the Son. etc. This thy own Vine, which thou didst rear, And train up for us from the royal root, Protect, O Lord! and to the Nations near Long let it shelter yield, and fruit. etc. Lord, comfort thou the royal line: Let Peace and Joy watch round us hand and hand. Our Nobles visit with thy grace divine, 1820. And banish sorrow from the land! Thy mercies, Lord, are sweet; Before thy Judgment seat; YOUTH AND AGE1 VERSE, a breeze mid blossoms straying, When I was young?-Ah, woful When! That fear no spite of wind or tide! 5 ΤΟ 15 'First published in its present shape in 1834. Lines 1-38, with the heading 'Youth and Age', were first published in the Literary Souvenir, 1828, and also in the Bijou, 1828: included in 1828, 1829. Lines 39-49 were first published in Blackwood's Magazine for June 1882, entitled 'An Old Man's Sigh: a Sonnet', as 'an out-slough or hypertrophic stanza of a certain poem called "Youth and Age". Of lines 1-43 three MSS. are extant. (1) A fair copy (MS. 1) presented to Derwent Coleridge, and now in the Editor's possession. In MS. 1 the poem is divided into three stanzas: (i) lines 1-17; (ii) lines 18-38; (iii) lines 39-43. The watermark of this MS. on a quarto sheet of Bath Post letter-paper is 1822. (2) A rough draft, in a notebook dated Sept. 10, 1823; and (3) a corrected draft of forty-three lines (vide for MSS. 2, 3 Appendices of this edition). A MS. version of An Old Man's Sigh, dated Grove, Highgate, April 1832', was contributed to Miss Rotha Quillinan's Album; and another version numbering only eight lines was inscribed in an album in 1828 when Coleridge was on his Rhine tour with Wordsworth. After line 42 this version continues: As we creep feebly down life's slope, Yet courteous dame, accept this truth, T. Colley Grattan's Beaten Paths, 1862, ii. 139. There can be little doubt that lines 1-43 were composed in 1823, and that the last six lines of the text which form part of An Old Man's Sigh were composed, as an afterthought, in 1832. 1 Verse, a] Verse is a with the alternative? Verse à breeze MS. 1. 2 clung] clings MS. 1, Bijou. house of clay MS. 1, Bijou. MS. 1, Bijou. 11 then] then 6 When I] When I 1828, 1829. 8 This 10 O'er hill and dale and sounding sands 1828, 1829. 12 skiffs] boats MS. 1, Bijou. Nought cared this body for wind or weather Flowers are lovely; Love is flower-like; Ere I was old? Ah woful Ere, Dew-drops are the gems of morning, That only serves to make us grieve 20 came] come Bijou. 23 Ere 1] Ere I 1828, 1829. merry Bijou. make believe 1828, 1829. 42-4 44-5 20 25 30 35 40 45 21 Of Beauty, Truth, and Liberty MS.1, Bijou. woful] mournful Literary Souvenir. 25 many] 32 make believe] 34 drooping] dragging MS. 1, Bijou. 27 fond] false MS. 1, Bijou. In our old age Whose bruised wings quarrel with the bars of the still narrowing cage. Inserted in 1832. |