BLIND-MAN'S BUFF.
WHEN silver snow decks Susan's clothes,
And jewel hangs at th' shepherd's nose,
The blushing bank is all my care,
With hearth so red, and walls so fair.
'Heap the sea-coal, come, heap it higher ;
The oaken log lay on the fire.'
The well-washed stools, a circling row,
With lad and lass, how fair the show!
The merry can of nut-brown ale,
The laughing jest, the love-sick tale,—
Till, tired of chat, the game begins.
The lasses prick the lads with pins.
Roger from Dolly twitched the stool;
She, falling, kissed the ground, poor fool!
She blushed so red, with sidelong glance
At hobnail Dick, who grieved the chance.
But now for Blind-man's Buff they call;
Of each incumbrance clear the hall.
Jenny her silken 'kerchief folds,
And blear-eyed Will the black lot holds.
Now laughing stops, with 'Silence, hush !'
And Peggy Pout gives Sam a push.
The Blind-man's arms; extended wide,
Sam slips between :-'Oh woe betide
Thee, clumsy Will!'-But tittering Kate
Is penned up in the corner strait !
And now Will's eyes beheld the play;
He thought his face was t'other way.
'Now, Kitty, now ! what chance hast thou?
Roger so near thee trips, I vow!'
She catches him-then Roger ties
His own head up-but not his eyes;
For through the slender cloth he sees,
And runs at Sam, who slips with ease
His clumsy hold; and, dodging round,
Sukey is tumbled on the ground.—
'See what it is to play unfair!
Where cheating is, there's mischief there.'
But Roger still pursues the chase,-
'He sees! he sees !' cries softly Grace;
'O Roger, thou, unskilled in art,
Must, surer bound, go through thy part !'
Now Kitty, pert, repeats the rhymes,
And Roger turns him round three times.
Then pauses ere he starts. But Dick
Was mischief-bent upon a trick;
Down on his hands and knees he lay
Directly in the Blind-man's way,
Then cries out Hem !'-Hodge heard, and ran With hoodwinked chance-sure of his man ;
But down he came.-Alas, how frail
Our best of hopes, how soon they fail !
With crimson drops he stains the ground;
Confusion startles all around.
Poor piteous Dick supports his head,
And fain would cure the hurt he made.
But Kitty hasted with a key,
And down his back they straight convey
The cold relief: the blood is stayed,
And Hodge again holds up his head,
Such are the fortunes of the game;
And those who play should stop the same
By wholesome laws, such as-All those
Who on the blinded man impose
Stand in his stead; as, long agone
When men were first a nation grown,
Lawless they lived, till wantonness
And liberty began to increase,
And one man lay in another's way;
Then laws were made to keep fair play.
WILLIAM, Dagworth's man.
PETER BLUNT, a common soldier.
SCENE, The Coast of France.
KING EDWARD and Nobles before it. The Army.
O THOU to whose fury the nations are
But as dust! maintain thy servant's right.
Without thine aid, the twisted mail, and spear, And forged helm, and shield of seven times beaten brass,
Are idle trophies of the vanquisher.
When confusion rages, when the field is in a flame, When the cries of blood tear horror from heaven, And yelling Death runs up and down the ranks,
Let Liberty, the chartered right of Englishmen,
Won by our fathers in many a glorious field,
Enerve my soldiers; let Liberty
Blaze in each countenance, and fire the battle.
The enemy fight in chains, invisible chains, but heavy; Their minds are fettered; then how can they be
While, like the mounting flame,
We spring to battle o'er the floods of death!
And these fair youths, the flower of England,
Vent'ring their lives in my most righteous cause,
Oh sheathe their hearts with triple steel, that they
May emulate their fathers' virtues !
And thou, my son, be strong; thou fightest for a crown
That death can never ravish from thy brow,
A crown of glory; but from thy very dust
Shall beam a radiance, to fire the breasts
Of youth unborn! Our names are written equal
In Fame's wide-trophied hall; 'tis ours to gild
The letters, and to make them shine with gold
That never tarnishes: whether Third Edward,
Or the Prince of Wales, or Montacute, or Mortimer,
Or ev❜n the least by birth, shall gain the brightest fame,
Is in His hand to whom all men are equal.
The world of men are like the numerous stars
That beam and twinkle in the depth of night,
Each clad in glory according to his sphere;
But we, that wander from our native seats
And beam forth lustre on a darkling world,
Grow larger as we advance: and some perhaps,
The most obscure at home, that scarce were seen
To twinkle in their sphere, may so advance
That the astonished world, with upturned eyes,
Regardless of the moon, and those that once were
Stand only for to gaze upon their splendour.
[He here knights the Prince and other young Nobles. Now let us take a just revenge for those
Brave lords who fell beneath the bloody axe
At Paris. Thanks, noble Harcourt, for 'twas
By your advice we landed here in Brittany,
A country not yet sown with destruction,
And where the fiery whirlwind of swift war
Has not yet swept its desolating wing.-
Into three parties we divide by day,
And separate march, but join again at night :
Each knows his rank, and Heaven marshal all.
LIONEL, DUKE OF CLARENCE, QUEEN PHILIPPA,
Lords, Bishop, &c.
My Lords, I have by the advice of her
Whom I am doubly bound to obey, my parent
And my sovereign, called you together.
My task is great, my burden heavier than
Yet with your kind assistance, Lords, I hope
England shall dwell in peace: that, while my father
Toils in his wars, and turns his eyes on this
His native shore, and sees Commerce fly round
With his white wings, and sees his golden London
And her silver Thames, thronged with shining spires
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