LADY CAROLINE LAMB
hands two years earlier, with the injunction not to publish it then or to name the author. It contains the following verses, which had been written many years before:
"If thou couldst know what 'tis to weep,
To weep unpitied and alone.
The livelong night, whilst others sleep,
Silent and mournful watch to keep.
Thou wouldst not do what I have done.
If thou couldst know what 'tis to smile.
To smile whilst scorn'd by every one.
To hide, by many an artful wile,
A heart that knows more grief than guile.
Thou wouldst not do what I have done.
And oh! if thou couldst think how drear.
When friends are changed, and health is gone.
The world would to thine eyes appear.
If thou, like me, to none wert dear.
Thou wouldst not do what I have done."
Her last excursion into fiction was Ada Reis, published in three volumes in 1823, a fantastic Eastern tale, very Byronic in character. Her husband, somewhat disturbed by his wife's literary labours, wrote to John Murray severely criticising this book before publication, and begging him to prevail on the author to amend it. It contains two songs, one of which, beginning, "Weep for what thou'st lost, love," is accompanied by the music specially composed for it
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