TRANSLATION OF THE FOLLOWING LINES, WRITTEN UNDER A PRINT REPRESENTING PERSONS SKATING SUR un mince cristal l'hiver conduit leurs pas, Le précipice est sous la glace: Telle est de nos plaisirs la légère surface: Glissez, mortels; n'appuyez pas. O'ER ice the rapid skater flies, With sport above, and death below; Where mischief lurks in gay disguise, Thus lightly touch and quickly go. IMPROMPTU TRANSLATION OF THE SAME O'ER crackling ice, o'er gulfs profound, TO MRS. THRALE ON HER COMPLETING HER THIRTY-FIFTH YEAR AN IMPROMPTU OFT in danger, yet alive, Long may better years arrive, Time his hours should never drive High to soar, and deep to dive, Ladies, stock and tend your hive, For, howe'er we boast and strive, And all, who wisely wish to wive, Must look on Thrale at thirty-five. IMPROMPTU TRANSLATION OF AN AIR IN THE CLEMENZA DI TITO OF METASTASIO WOULD you hope to gain my heart, TRANSLATION OF A SPEECH OF AQUILEIO, IN THE ADRIANO OF METAS TASIO BEGINNING "TU CHE IN CORTE INVECCHIASTIS.” GROWN Old in courts, thou surely art not one Who keeps the rigid rules of ancient honour; Well skill'd to sooth a foe with looks of kindness, 8 The character of Cali, in Irene, is a masterly sketch of the old and practised dissembler of a despotic court.-ED. VOL. 6-18 273 To sink the fatal precipice before him, And then lament his fall, with seeming friend ship: Open to all, true only to thyself, [praise, Thou know'st those arts, which blast with envious BURLESQUE OF THE MODERN VERSIFICATIONS OF ANCIENT LEGENDARY TALES AN IMPROMPTU THE tender infant, meek and mild, Fell down upon the stone: The nurse took up the squealing child, FRIENDSHIP AN ODE1. FRIENDSHIP, peculiar boon of heaven, To men and angels only given, To all the lower world deny'd. This ode originally appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1743. See Boswell's Life of Johnson, under that year. It was afterwards printed in Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies, in 1766, with several variations, which are pointed out, on next page.-J. B. While love, unknown among the blest, With bright, but oft destructive, gleam, Thy gentle flows of guiltless joys And hugs a flatt'rer for a friend. Directress of the brave and just', O! guide us through life's darksome way! And let the tortures of mistrust On selfish bosoms only prey. Nor shall thine ardours cease to glowTM, Shall aid our happiness above. 1 Parent of rage and hot desires.-Mrs. W. J Inflames alike with equal fires. *In vain for thee the monarch sighs. 1 This stanza is omitted in Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies, and instead of it, we have the following, which may be suspected, from internal evidence, not to have been Johnson's: When virtues, kindred virtues meet, And sister-souls together join, mO! shall thy flames then cease to glow. ON SEEING A BUST OF MRS. MONTAGUE HAD this fair figure, which this frame displays, Her statue would have breath'd an added grace, IMPROVISO ON A YOUNG HEIR'S COMING OF AGE LONG expected one-and-twenty, Ling'ring year, at length is flown; Great are now your own. Loosen'd from the minor's tether, Call the Betseys, Kates, and Jennies, All that prey on vice or folly |