SONG.
BY ROGERO.
I.
Whene’er with haggard eyes I view
This dungeon that I’m rotting in,
I think of those companions true
Who studied with me at the U—
—niversity of Gottingen—
—niversity of Gottingen.
[Weeps, and pulls out a blue kerchief, with which he wipes his eyes; gazing tenderly at it, he proceeds—
II.
Sweet kerchief, check’d with heavenly blue,
Which once my love sat knotting in!—
Alas! Matilda then was true!
At least I thought so at the U—
—niversity of Gottingen—
—niversity of Gottingen.
[At the repetition of this line Rogero clanks his chains in cadence.
III.
Barbs! Barbs! alas! how swift you flew
Her neat post-waggon trotting in!
Ye bore Matilda from my view;
Forlorn I languish’d at the U—
—niversity of Gottingen—
—niversity of Gottingen.
IV.
This faded form! this pallid hue!
This blood my veins is clotting in,
My years are many—they were few
When first I entered at the U—
—niversity of Gottingen—
—niversity of Gottingen.
V.
There first for thee my passion grew,
Sweet! sweet Matilda Pottingen!
Thou wast the daughter of my tu—
—tor, law professor at the U—
—niversity of Gottingen—
—niversity of Gottingen.
VI.
Sun, moon, and thou vain world, adieu,
That kings and priests are plotting in:
Here doomed to starve on water gru—
—el,[[273]] never shall I see the U—
—niversity of Gottingen—
—niversity of Gottingen.
[During the last stanza Rogero dashes his head repeatedly against the walls of his prison; and, finally, so hard as to produce a visible contusion; he then throws himself on the floor in an agony. The curtain drops; the music still continuing to play till it is wholly fallen.
[The character of Rogero is a quiz upon Sir Robert Adair, who received his education at Göttingen, and fell in love with his tutor’s daughter. His relative, Lord Albemarle, says in his Reminiscences: “Throughout life my kinsman was an enthusiastic admirer of the fair sex, which he generally ‘loved, not wisely, but too well’”. He married, in 1805, Mdlle. Angélique Gabrielle, daughter of the Marquis d’Hazincourt and the Comtesse de Champagne.
Adair was the son of Mr. Robert Adair, sergeant-surgeon to K. George III., by his wife Lady Caroline Keppel, daughter of Wm. Anne, second Earl of Albemarle. He was educated at Westminster School and Göttingen University; called to the Bar, but never practised. He contested Camelford in 1796; and was M.P. for Appleby, 1799–1802, for Camelford, 1802–1812. He was sent by Fox as Minister Plenipotentiary to Vienna in 1806; and by his old adversary Canning to Constantinople in 1808; and also to Berlin. He was Ambassador to Constantinople, 1809–11, and to Belgium, 1831–5. He was a facile writer, and wrote several spirited pamphlets, including defences of his relatives, Francis, Duke of Bedford, and Admiral Keppel, Fox, and other Whigs. He contributed to the Political Eclogues a poem called Margaret Nicholson, in which George III., Pitt, Jenkinson, &c., were ridiculed, and the Song of Scrutina (on the “Westminster Scrutiny”), in the style of Ossian, in the Probationary Odes for the Laureateship. He was the author also of an account of his Mission to the Court of Vienna; and his Negotiations for the Peace of the Dardanelles: 3 vols., 8vo. For his services in the latter business he was made G.C.B. He was born 24th May, 1763, and died 3rd Oct., 1855.
There is a curious circumstance connected with the composition of this song, the first five stanzas of which were written by Canning. Having been accidentally seen, previous to its publication, by Pitt, who was cognisant of the proceedings of the “Anti-Jacobin” writers, he was so amused with it, that he took up a pen and composed the last stanza on the spot.—Ed.]
[This drama was produced at the Haymarket Theatre, July 26, 1811, with alterations and additions, and some introductory matter, which contained smart hits at the Quadrupeds, which then desecrated the stage of Covent Garden Theatre. Liston performed Rogero; Munden, Casimere; Mrs. Glover, Matilda; Mrs. Gibbs, Cecilia. The following Prologue, written by George Colman the younger, in imitation of Pope’s prologue to Cato, was spoken by Elliston:—
To lull the soul by spurious strokes of art,
To warp the genius, and mislead the heart;
To make mankind revere wives gone astray,[[274]]
Love pious sons who rob on the highway;[[275]]
For this the foreign muses trod our stage
Commanding German schools to be the rage.
Hail to such schools! Oh, fine false feeling, hail!
Thou badst non-natural nature to prevail;
Through thee, soft super-sentiment arose,
Musk to the mind like civet to the nose;
Till fainting taste (as invalids do wrong),
Snuff’d the sick perfume, and grew weakly strong.
Dear Johnny Bull! you boast much resolution,
With, thanks to Heaven! a glorious Constitution:
Your taste, recovered half from foreign quacks,
Takes airings, now, on English horses’ backs;
While every modern bard may raise his name,
If not on lasting praise, on stable fame.
Think that to Germans you have given no check,
Think how each actor hors’d has risk’d his neck;
You’ve shewn them favour: Oh, then, once more shew it
To this night’s Anglo-German, Horse-Play Poet!—Ed.]
