Woman Speaker.
In innocence and youth complaining,
Next appear’d a lovely maid—
Affliction o’er each feature reigning,
Kindly came in beauty’s aid;
Every grace that grief dispenses,
Every glance that warms the soul,
In sweet succession charm’d the senses,
While pity harmoniz’d the whole.
“The garland of beauty”—’tis thus she would say—
“No more shall my crook or my temples adorn;
I’ll not wear a garland—Augusta’s away,
I’ll not wear a garland until she return.
“But, alas! that return I never shall see,
The echoes of Thames shall my sorrows proclaim;
There promis’d a lover to come—but, O me!
’Twas death—’twas the death of my Mistress that came.
“But ever, for ever, her image shall last,
I’ll strip all the spring of its earliest bloom;
On her grave shall the cowslip and primrose be cast,
And the new-blossom’d thorn shall whiten her tomb.”
Song.—By a Woman.—Pastorale.
With garlands of beauty the Queen of the May
No more will her crook or her temples adorn;
For who’d wear a garland when she is away,
When she is remov’d, and shall never return?
On the grave of Augusta these garlands be plac’d,
We’ll rifle the spring of its earliest bloom;
And there shall the cowslip and primrose be cast,
And the new-blossom’d thorn shall whiten her tomb.
Chorus.—Altro modo.