The Legendary and Poetical Remains of John Roby Part 6

FOOTNOTES:

[A] The recovery of Mr. Roby's papers from the wreck of the Orion, June, 1850, when G.o.d, in His inscrutable providence, cut short a life so incomparably precious, was even then matter of thankfulness. Many portions of the MS., from which the legends in this volume were printed, bear traces of the sad catastrophe.

[B] The notion of this huge stone being a boulder stone--perhaps from Norway, which was long believed, is now exploded. A friend at Keswick (Sept. 1853) writes me word that the Porphyritic greenstone of which it is composed, runs through many parts of the Lake district, in the immediate neighbourhood, and that this stone must have fallen from the cliff just above. My informant adds, that Mr. Wright, the well known guide, in company with a gentleman, measured the stone and the cavity whence it fell, and found them to correspond; though the cavity is now somewhat overgrown by gra.s.s, it is not difficult to perceive.

[C] Esther, in the Jew of York. See Frazer's Mag. for Sept. 1836.

[D] Robert Langland's Visions of Pierce Plowman, were written about the year 1362. He represents himself as falling asleep on the Malvern Hills, and there beholding a series of visions, in describing which, he takes occasion to satirise the vices prevailing in the different cla.s.ses of society, particularly the corruptions of the clergy. His prediction of the Reformation in England is most remarkable. As the date of these visions preceded Chaucer twenty years, the author must be considered the first English poet. He was a native of Shrops.h.i.+re, and fellow of Oriel College. Whitaker, who styles him the father of English Poetry, does not confirm the supposition that he was a monk of Worcester or Malvern. He thus paraphrases the opening lines.

"In early summer while suns.h.i.+ne was mild, I withdrew myself into a solitary place, surrounded with shrubs, in habit not like an Anchorite who keeps his cell, but like one of those unholy hermits who wander about the world to see and hear wonders; and on a May morning, reclining in a glade among the Malvern Hills, I slept from fatigue, and dreaming, beheld all the wealth and woe of the world."--_Whitaker's (of Whalley) Ed. of Pierce Plowman:_ 1813.

[E] To strangers as well as residents we were much indebted. We received both the warmest sympathy and personal kindness from the Rev. J. Clarke, Inc.u.mbent of Stretford near Manchester, whose interesting narrative, published under the t.i.tle of "_The Wreck of the Orion_," contains a full account of the mournful catastrophe. And never can be erased from memory the debt of kindness due to an English clergyman of the Episcopal Church in Scotland--the Rev. ---- Pugh--who had come to seek his lovely little girl who had just perished in the wreck. The sympathy and encouragement he afforded touching that one supreme desire, and his offer, beyond all price, to take charge of the remains so unutterably dear, with those of his own beloved child, fill the heart with a weight of thankfulness that cannot be expressed. I can only look forward to that world where all the lovely will be gathered together, and the tears wiped from the mourner's eyes, as they already have been from those of the beloved ones we weep over.

[F] He would sometimes ventriloquise for the amus.e.m.e.nt of his friends.

The incessant invention required to sustain the wit of three, and sometimes four, interlocutors, combined with the physical effort, kept the powers of both mind and body on the stretch to a degree that exhausted him more than anything else in which he engaged. See _Stewart's Phil. Hum. Mind_. III. 229--224.

[G] Foster represents as "the _last_ attainment of a zealously good man, the resignation to be as diminutive an agent as G.o.d pleases and as unsuccessful an one."--_Essay on the Application of the Epithet Romantic._ Letter V.

[H] It is not perhaps always borne in mind, that corn, when cut, is not immediately ready to be carried home. It requires to stand some little time in shock--that the process of ripening may be completed.

[I] Since the above was prepared for the press, the writer has met with an interesting ill.u.s.tration of the power of the consolation there indicated, in that _unique_ biography, the Life of Mrs. Fletcher of Madeley. Conder's exquisite poem "the Reverie" treats of the same thought. It is the poet's subject, in the poet's hands.

MUSIC.

AIR FROM A MODERN CONCERTO

[Music:

WORDS BY J. ROBY. AIR FROM A MODERN CONCERTO.

_Slow._

Father, hear a suppliant's cry; Hear, oh hear, for Thou art nigh.

Though the clouds of sorrow rise Darkly o'er these troubled skies; Speak the word, "Let there be light!"

Bid the morning chase the night.

Father, hear a suppliant's prayer; Darkness flies when Thou art there!]

SHEW PITY, LORD

[Music:

THE MELODY BY J. ROBY; THE HARMONIES VARIED BY V. NOVELLO.

[_Extracted, by permission, from the Congregational and Chorister's Psalm and Hymn-Book. Dufour, Piccadilly._]

_Slow._

TREBLE Shew pity, Lord! O Lord, forgive; ALTO. Shew pity, Lord! O Lord, forgive; TENOR. Shew pity, Lord! O Lord, forgive; See _lower_.

Ba.s.s. Shew pity, Lord! O Lord, forgive;

_Slow._

Let a repenting rebel live.

Let a repenting rebel live.

Let a repenting rebel live.

Let a repenting rebel live.

Are not thy mercies large and free?

Are not thy mercies large and free?

Are not thy mercies large and free?

Are not thy mercies large and free?

May not a sinner trust in Thee?

May not a sinner trust in Thee?

May not a sinner trust in Thee?

May not a sinner trust in Thee?

My lips with shame my sins confess.

Against thy law, against thy grace; Lord, should thy judgment grow severe, I am condemned, but Thou art clear.

Yet save a humbling sinner, Lord, Whose hope, still hovering round thy word, Would light on some sweet promise there, Some sure support against despair.]

LYRICS.

Some of the following short poems were composed early in life, while two or three of those last in order are of a very recent date. Those to which dates are appended are from another pen. It was intended by Mr.

Roby that they should appear with his own productions. The survivor will be forgiven the mournful pleasure of thus partially fulfilling one of those purposes whose "inward light," was wont to

"Keep the path before him always bright."

LINES