Still this did not please his fancy; he tried again, and hit it off in the simple, perfect form in which it now stands:—
‘Until wi’ daffin weary grown,
Upon a knowe they sat them down.’ ”
[10] Campbell’s alterations were, generally, decided improvements; but in one instance he failed lamentably. The noble peroration of Lochiel is familiar to most readers:—
“Shall victor exult, or in death be laid low,
With his back to the field and his feet to the foe;
And leaving in battle no blot on his name,
Look proudly to heaven from the death-bed of fame.”
In the quarto edition of Gertrude of Wyoming, when the poet collected and reprinted his minor pieces, this lofty sentiment was thus stultified:—
“Shall victor exult in the battle’s acclaim,
Or look to yon heaven from the death-bed of fame.”
The original passage, however, was wisely restored in the subsequent editions.
[11] Abridged from “Practical Essays on the Fine Arts,” by John Burnet, F.R.S., an acute and amusing work.
[12] See Haydon’s graphic letter in Brownlow’s “Memoranda; or, Chronicles of the Foundling Hospital.”
[13] Peg Woffington was for some time President of the Club; and often, after she had been portraying on the stage