'One fond kiss before we part,
Drop a tear and bid adieu;
Though we sever, my fond heart,
Till we meet, shall pant for you,' &c.—
seems to have suggested to Burns his 'Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;' —John Brown, author of certain tragedies and other works, including the once famous 'Estimate of the Manners and Principles of Modern Times,' of which Cowper says—
'The inestimable Estimate of Brown
Rose like a paper kite and charmed the town;
But measures planned and executed well
Shifted the wind that raised it, and it fell:'
and who went mad and died by his own hands;—John Gilbert Cooper, author of a fine song to his wife, one stanza of which has often been quoted:—
'And when with envy Time transported
Shall think to rob us of our joys;
You'll in your girls again be courted,
And I'll go wooing in my boys;'—
Cuthbert Shaw, an unfortunate author of the Savage type, who wrote an affecting monody on the death of his wife;—Thomas Scott, author of 'Lyric Poems, Devotional and Moral: London, 1773;'—Edward Thompson, a native of Hull, and author of some tolerable sea-songs;—Henry Headley, a young man of uncommon talents, a pupil of Dr Parr in Norwich, who, when only twenty-one, published 'Select Beauties of the Ancient English Poets,' accompanied by critical remarks discovering rare ripeness of mind for his years, who wrote poetry too, but was seized with consumption, and died at twenty-two;—Nathaniel Cotton, the physician, under whose care, at St Alban's, Cowper for a time was;—William Hayward Roberts, author of 'Judah Restored,' a poem of much ambition and considerable merit;—John Bampfylde, who went mad, and died in that state, after having published, when young, some sweet sonnets, of which the following is one:—
'Cold is the senseless heart that never strove
With the mild tumult of a real flame;
Rugged the breast that music cannot tame,
Nor youth's enlivening graces teach to love
The pathless vale, the long-forsaken grove,
The rocky cave that bears the fair one's name,
With ivy mantled o'er. For empty fame
Let him amidst the rabble toil, or rove
In search of plunder far to western clime.
Give me to waste the hours in amorous play
With Delia, beauteous maid, and build the rhyme,
Praising her flowing hair, her snowy arms,
And all that prodigality of charms,
Formed to enslave my heart, and grace my lay;'—
Lord Chesterfield, who wrote some lines on 'Beau Nash's Picture at full length, between the Busts of Newton and Pope at Bath,' of which this is the last stanza—
'The picture placed the busts between,
Adds to the thought much strength;
Wisdom and Wit are little seen,
But Folly's at full length;'—
Thomas Penrose, who is more memorable as a warrior than as a poet, having fought against Buenos Ayres, as well as having written some elegant war-verses;—Edward Moore, a contributor to the World;—Sir John Henry Moore, a youth of promise, who died in his twenty-fifth year, leaving behind him such songs as the following:—