And he pathetically concludes—
“Should I live to perform those things that are already begun, I trust that your realm shall so well be known, once painted with its native colours, that it shall give place to the glory of no other region.”
The grandeur of this design was a constituent part of the genius of Leland, but not less, too, was that presaging melancholy which even here betrays itself, and even more frequently in his verses. Everything about Leland was marked by his 175 own greatness; his country and his countrymen were ever present; and, by the excitement of his feelings, even his humbler pursuits were elevated into patriotism. Henry died the year after he received the “New Year’s Gift.” From that moment, in losing the greatest patron for the greatest work, Leland appears to have felt the staff which he had used to turn at pleasure for his stay, break in his hands.
He had new patrons to court, while engaged in labours for which a single life had been too short. The melancholy that cherishes genius may also destroy it. Leland, brooding over his voluminous labours, seemed to love and to dread them; sometimes to pursue them with rapture, and sometimes to shrink from them with despair. His generous temper had once shot forwards to posterity; but he now calms his struggling hopes and doubts, and confines his literary ambition to his own country and his own age.
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POSTERITATIS AMOR DUBIUS.
Posteritatis amor mihi perblanditur, et ultro Premittit libris secula multa meis. At non tam facile est oculato imponere, nosco Quàm non sim tali dignus honore frui. Græcia magniloquos vates desiderat ipsa, Roma suos etiam disperiisse dolet. Exemplis quum sim claris edoctus ab istis, Quî sperem Musas vivere posse meas? Certè mî sat erit præsenti scribere sæclo, Auribus et patriæ complacuisse meæ. IMITATED. Posterity, thy soothing love I feel, That o’er my volumes many an age may steal: But hard it is the well-clear’d eye to cheat With honours undeserved, too fond deceit! Greece, greatly eloquent, and full of fame, Sighs for the want of many a perish’d name; And Rome o’er her illustrious children mourns, Their fame departing with their mouldering urns. How can I hope, by such examples shown, More than a transient day, a passing sun? Enough for me to win the present age, And please a brother with a brother’s page. |
By other verses, addressed to Cranmer, it would appear that Leland was experiencing anxieties to which he had not been accustomed,—and one may suspect, by the opening image of his “Supellex,” that his pension was irregular, and that he began, as authors do in these hard cases, to value “the furniture” of his mind above that of his house.
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AD THOMAM CRANMERUM, CANT. ARCHIEPISCOP.
Est congesta mihi domi Supellex Ingens, aurea, nobilis, venusta, Quâ totus studeo Britanniarum Vero reddere gloriam nitori. Sed Fortuna meis noverca cœptis Jam felicibus invidet maligna. Quare, ne pereant brevi vel horâ Multarum mihi noctium labores Omnes, et patriæ simul decora Ornamenta cadant, &c. &c. IMITATED. The furnitures that fill my house, The vast and beautiful disclose, All noble, and the store is gold; Our ancient glory here unroll’d. But fortune checks my daring claim, A step-mother severe to fame. A smile malignantly she throws Just at the story’s prosperous close. And thus must the unfinish’d tale, And all my many vigils fail, And must my country’s honour fall; In one brief hour must perish all? |
But, conscious of the greatness of his labours, he would obtain the favour of the Archbishop, by promising a share of his own fame—
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——pretium sequetur amplum— Sic nomen tibi litteræ elegantes Rectè perpetuum dabunt, suosque Partim vel titulos tibi receptos Concedet memori Britannus ore: Sic te posteritas amabit omnis, Et famâ super æthera innotesces. IMITATED. But take the ample glorious meed, To letter’d elegance decreed, When Britain’s mindful voice shall bend, And with her own thy honours blend, As she from thy kind hands receives Her titles drawn on Glory’s leaves, And back reflects them on thy name, Till time shall love thy mounting fame. |