Condemned to drudge, the meanest of the mean,
And furbish falsehoods for a magazine,
Devotes to scandal his congenial mind;
Himself a living libel on mankind.980
Oh! dark asylum of a Vandal race![1]
At once the boast of learning, and disgrace!
So lost to Phœbus, that nor Hodgson's[2] verse
Can make thee better, nor poor Hewson's[3] worse.[4]
But where fair Isis rolls her purer wave,
The partial Muse delighted loves to lave;
On her green banks a greener wreath she wove,[5]
- ↑ "Into Cambridgeshire the Emperor Probus transported a considerable body of Vandals."—Gibbon's Decline and Fall, ii. 83. There is no reason to doubt the truth of this assertion; the breed is still in high perfection.
We see no reason to doubt the truth of this statement, as a large stock of the same breed are to be found there at this day.—British Bards.
[Lines 981-984 do not occur in the MS. Lines 981, 982, are inserted in MS. in British Bards.]
- ↑ This gentleman's name requires no praise: the man who [has surpassed Dryden and Gifford as a Translator.—MS. British Bards.] in translation displays unquestionable genius may be well expected to excel in original composition, of which, it is to be hoped, we shall soon see a splendid specimen. [Francis Hodgson (1781-1852) was Byron's life-long friend. His Juvenal appeared in 1807; Lady Jane Grey and other Poems, in 1809; Sir Edgar, a Tale, in 1810. For other works and details, see Life of the Rev. Francis Hodgson, by the Rev. James T. Hodgson (1878).]
- ↑ Hewson Clarke, Esq., as it is written.
- ↑
So sunk in dullness and so lost in shame
That Smythe and Hodgson scarce redeem thy fame.—[MS. Addition to British Bards. First to Fourth Editions.] - ↑ —— is wove.—[MS. British Bards and First to Fourth Editions.]
