The flowers and growing fields, the leafy forests and circling and singing birds seemed to say good-bye, good luck and God bless you!
We felt happy and hopeful ourselves, and consequently Dame Nature echoed the feeling of our souls. All was joy, song, feasting and laughter.
William, on our way to Oxford, in one of his original flights taken from an ode of Horace, impulsively exclaimed:
Laugh and the world laughs with you;
Weep and you weep alone,
This grand old earth must borrow its mirth,
It has troubles enough of its own.
Sing and the hills will answer,
Sigh, it is lost on the air,
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.
Be glad and your friends are many;
Be sad and you lose them all;
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone we must drink life's gall.
There's room in the halls of pleasure,
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on;
Through the narrow aisles of pain.
Feast, and your halls are crowded,
Fast, and the world goes by,
Succeed and give, 'twill help you live;
But no one can help you die!
Rejoice, and men will seek you,
Grieve, and they turn and go,
They want full measure of all your pleasure
But they do not want your woe!
These lines impressed me very much at the time and from that day to this I have never ceased to act on the philosophy of the poem.
It has been part of my nature, and during my wanderings for the past three hundred and twenty years I have never failed to carry in my train of thought and action—sunshine, beauty, song, love and laughter—advance agents to secure welcome in all hearts and homes throughout the world.
We were beautifully entertained by Mrs. Daisy Davenant at the Crown Tavern in Oxford, and many of the college "boys," who heard of our arrival in the city, hurried to pay their classic friendship to the "Divine" William.
We arrived in London on the 20th of September, and found that our old maid landlady had died of the plague, but had kindly sent all our literary and wardrobe effects to Florio, who was still alive and well at the Red Lion.