J. Catnach, Printer, 2, Monmouth Court, 7 Dials.
Immediately following the Queen’s death, there were published a whole host of monodies, elegies, and ballads in her praise. Catnach made a great hit with one entitled—“Oh! Britons Remember your Queen’s Happy Days,” together with a large broadside, entitled “An Attempt to Exhibit the Leading Events in the Queen’s Life, in Cuts and Verse. Adorned with Twelve splendid Illustrations. Interspersed with Verses of Descriptive Poetry. Entered at Stationers’ Hall. By Jas. Catnach, Printer, 7 Dials. Price 2d.” A copy is preserved in the British Museum. Press Mark. Tab. 597, a, 1-67, and arranged under Catnach, from which we select two pieces as a fair sample of Jemmy’s “poetry-making!”—Which please to read carefully, and “Mind Your Stops!” quoth John Berkshire.
An Elegy on the Death of the Queen.
Curs’d be the hour when on the British shore,
She set her foot—whose loss we now deplore;
For, from that hour she pass’d a life of woe,
And underwent what few could undergo:
And lest she should a tranquil hour know,
Against her peace was struck a deadly blow;
A separation hardly to be borne,—
Her only daughter from her arms was torn!
And next discarded—driven from her home,
An unprotected Wanderer to roam!
Oh, how each heart with indignation fills,
When memory glances o’er the train of ills,
Which through her travels followed everywhere
In quick succession till this fatal year!
Here let us stop—for mem’ry serves too well,
To bear the woes which Caroline befel,
Each art was tried—at last to crush her down,
The Queen of England was refus’d a crown!
Too much to bear—Thus robb’d of all her state
She fell a victim to their hate!
“They have destroy’d me,”—with her parting breath,
She died—and calmly yielded unto death.
Forgiving all, she parted with this life,
A Queen, and no Queen—wife, and not a wife!
To Heaven her soul is borne on Seraph’s wings,
To wait the Judgment of the KING of Kings;
Trusting to find a better world than this,
And meet her Daughter in the realms of bliss.
CAROLINE
THE INJURED
QUEEN
OF ENGLAND.