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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=395887" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Tale I</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">That all men would be cowards if they dare,<br>Some men we know have courage to declare;<br>And this the life of many a hero shows,<br>That, like the tide, man's courage ebbs and flows:<br>With friends and gay companions round them, then<br>Men boldly speak and have the hearts of men;<br>Who, with opponents seated miss the aid<br>Of kind applauding looks, and grow afraid;<br>Like timid travelers in the night, they fear<br>Th' assault of foes, when not a friend is near.<br>In contest mighty, and of conquest proud,<br>Was Justice Bolt, impetuous, warm, and loud;<br>His fame, his prowess all the country knew,<br>And disputants, with one so fierce, were few:<br>He was a younger son, for law design'd,<br>With dauntless look and persevering mind;<br>While yet a clerk, for disputation famed,<br>No efforts tired him, and no conflicts tamed.<br>Scarcely he bade his master's desk adieu,<br>When both his brothers from the world withdrew.<br>An ample fortune he from them possessed,<br>And was with saving care and prudence bless'd.<br>Now would he go and to the country give<br>Example how an English 'squire should live;<br>How bounteous, yet how frugal man may be,<br>By well-order'd hospitality;<br>He would the rights of all so well maintain.<br>That none should idle be, and none complain.<br>All this and more he purposed--and what man<br>Could do, he did to realise his plan;<br>But time convinced him that we cannot keep<br>A breed of reasoners like a flock of sheep;<br>For they, so far from following as we lead,<br>Make that a cause why they will not proceed.<br>Man will not follow where a rule is shown,<br>But loves to take a method of his own:<br>Explain the way with all your care and skill,<br>This will he quit, if but to prove he will. -<br>Yet had our Justice honour--and the crowd,<br>Awed by his presence, their respect avow'd.<br>In later years he found his heart incline,<br>More than in youth, to gen'rous food and wine;<br>But no indulgence check'd the powerful love<br>He felt to teach, to argue, and reprove.<br>Meetings, or public calls, he never miss'd -<br>To dictate often, always to assist.<br>Oft he the clergy join'd, and not a cause<br>Pertain'd to them but he could quote the laws;<br>He upon tithes and residence display'd<br>A fund of knowledge for the hearer's aid;<br>And could on glebe and farming, wool and grains<br>A long discourse, without a pause, maintain.<br>To his experience and his native sense<br>He join'd a bold imperious eloquence;<br>The grave, stern look of men inform'd and wise,<br>A full command of feature, heart, and eyes,<br>An awe-compelling frown, and fear-inspiring size.<br>When at the table, not a guest was seen<br>With appetite so lingering, or so keen;<br>But when the outer man no more required,<br>The inner waked, and he was man inspired.<br>His subjects then were those, a subject true<br>Presents in fairest form to public view;<br>Of church and state, of law, with mighty strength<br>Of words he spoke, in speech of mighty length:<br>And now, into the vale of years declined,<br>He hides too little of the monarch-mind:<br>He kindles anger by untimely jokes,<br>And opposition by contempt provokes;<br>Mirth he suppresses by his awful frown,<br>And humble spirits, by disdain, keeps down;<br>Blamed by the mild, approved by the severe,<br>The prudent fly him, and the valiant fear.<br>For overbearing is his proud discourse,<br>And overwhelming of his voice the force;<br>And overpowering is he when he shows<br>What floats upon a mind that always overflows.<br>This ready man at every meeting rose,<br>Something to hint, determine, or propose;<br>And grew so fond of teaching, that he taught<br>Those who instruction needed not or sought:<br>Happy our hero, when he could excite<br>Some thoughtless talker to the wordy fight:<br>Let him a subject at his pleasure choose,<br>Physic or law, religion or the muse;<br>On all such themes he was prepared to shine, -<br>Physician, poet, lawyer, and divine.<br>Hemm'd in by some tough argument, borne down<br>By press of language and the awful frown,<br>In vain for mercy shall the culprit plead;<br>His crime is past, and sentence must proceed:<br>Ah! suffering man, have patience, bear thy woes -<br>For lo! the clock--at ten the Justice goes.<br>This powerful man, on business, or to please<br>A curious taste, or weary grown of ease,<br>On a long journey travelled many a mile<br>Westward, and halted midway in our isle;<br>Content to view a city large and fair,<br>Though none had notice--what a man was there!<br>Silent two days, he then began to long<br>Again to try a voice so loud and strong;<br>To give his favourite topics some new grace,<br>And gain some glory in such distant place;<br>To reap some present pleasure, and to sow<br>Seeds of fair fame, in after-time to grow:<br>Here will men say, 'We heard, at such an hour,<br>The best of speakers--wonderful his power.'<br>Inquiry made, he found that day would meet<br>A learned club, and in the very street:<br>Knowledge to gain and give, was the design;<br>To speak, to hearken, to debate, and dine:<br>This pleased our traveller, for he felt his force<br>In either way, to eat or to discourse.<br>Nothing more easy than to gain access<br>To men like these, with his polite address:<br>So he succeeded, and first look'd around,<br>To view his objects and to take his ground;<br>And therefore silent chose awhile to sit,<br>Then enter boldly by some lucky hit;<br>Some observation keen or stroke severe,<br>To cause some wonder or excite some fear.<br>Now, dinner past, no longer he supprest<br>His strong dislike to be a silent guest;<br>Subjects and words were now at his command -<br>When disappointment frown'd on all he plann'd;<br>For, hark!--he heard amazed, on every side,<br>His church insulted and her priests belied;<br>The laws reviled, the ruling power abused,<br>The land derided, and its foes excused: -<br>He heard and ponder'd--What, to men so vile,<br>Should be his language?--For his threat'ning style<br>They were too many;--if his speech were meek,<br>They would despise such poor attempts to speak:<br>At other times with every word at will,<br>He now sat lost, perplex'd, astonish'd, still.<br>Here were Socinians, Deists, and indeed<br>All who, as foes to England's Church, agreed;<br>But still with creeds unlike, and some without a </div><div style="margin:10px 0">creed:<br>Here, too, fierce friends of liberty he saw,<br>Who own'd no prince and who obey no law;<br>There were reformers of each different sort,<br>Foes to the laws, the priesthood, and the court;<br>Some on their favourite plans alone intent,<br>Some purely angry and malevolent:<br>The rash were proud to blame their country's laws;<br>The vain, to seem supporters of a cause;<br>One call'd for change, that he would dread to see;<br>Another sigh'd for Gallic liberty!<br>And numbers joining with the forward crew,<br>For no one reason--but that numbers do.<br>'How,' said the Justice, 'can this trouble rise,<br>This shame and pain, from creatures I despise?'<br>And Conscience answer'd--'The prevailing cause<br>Is thy delight in listening to applause;<br>Here, thou art seated with a tribe, who spurn<br>Thy favourite themes, and into laughter turn<br>Thy fears and wishes: silent and obscure,<br>Thyself, shalt thou the long harangue endure;<br>And learn, by feeling, what it is to force<br>On thy unwilling friends the long discourse:<br>What though thy thoughts be just, and these, it </div><div style="margin:10px 0">seems,<br>Are traitors' projects, idiots' empty schemes;<br>Yet minds, like bodies, cramm'd, reject their food,<br>Nor will be forced and tortured for their good!'<br>At length, a sharp, shrewd, sallow man arose,<br>And begg'd he briefly might his mind disclose;<br>'It was his duty, in these worst of times,<br>T'inform the govern'd of their rulers' crimes:'<br>This pleasant subject to attend, they each<br>Prepare to listen, and forbore to teach.<br>Then voluble and fierce the wordy man<br>Through a long chain of favourite horrors ran: -<br>First of the Church, from whose enslaving power<br>He was deliver'd, and he bless'd the hour;<br>'Bishops and deans, and prebendaries all,'<br>He said, 'were cattle fatt'ning in the stall;<br>Slothful and pursy, insolent and mean,<br>Were every bishop, prebendary, dean,<br>And wealthy rector: curates, poorly paid,<br>Were only dull;--he would not them upbraid.'<br>From priests he turn'd to canons, creeds, and </div><div style="margin:10px 0">prayers,<br>Rubrics and rules, and all our Church affairs;<br>Churches themselves, desk, pulpit, altar, all<br>The Justice reverenced--and pronounced their fall.<br>Then from religion Hammond turn'd his view<br>To give our Rulers the correction due;<br>Not one wise action had these triflers plann'd;<br>There was, it seem'd, no wisdom in the land,<br>Save in this patriot tribe, who meet at times<br>To show the statesman's errors and his crimes.<br>Now here was Justice Bolt compell'd to sit,<br>To hear the deist's scorn, the rebel's wit;<br>The fact mis-stated, the envenom'd lie,<br>And, staring spell-bound, made not one reply.<br>Then were our Laws abused--and with the laws,<br>All who prepare, defend, or judge a cause:<br>'We have no lawyer whom a man can trust,'<br>Proceeded Hammond--'if the laws were just;<br>But they are evil; 'tis the savage state<br>Is only good, and ours sophisticate!<br>See! the free creatures in their woods and plains,<br>Where without laws each happy monarch reigns,<br>King of himself--while we a number dread,<br>By slaves commanded and by dunces led:<br>Oh, let the name with either state agree -<br>Savage our own we'll name, and civil theirs shall </div><div style="margin:10px 0">be.'<br>The silent Justice still astonish'd sat,<br>And wonder'd much whom he was gazing at;<br>Twice he essay'd to speak--but in a cough,<br>The faint, indignant, dying speech went off:<br>'But who is this?' thought he--'a demon vile,<br>With wicked meaning and a vulgar style:<br>Hammond they call him: they can give the name<br>Of man to devils.--Why am I so tame?<br>Why crush I not the viper?'--Fear replied,<br>Watch him awhile, and let his strength be tried:<br>He will be foil'd, if man; but if his aid<br>Be from beneath, 'tis well to be afraid.'<br>'We are call'd free!' said Hammond--'doleful </div><div style="margin:10px 0">times,<br>When rulers add their insult to their crimes;<br>For should our scorn expose each powerful vice,<br>It would be libel, and we pay the price.'<br>Thus with licentious words the man went on,<br>Proving that liberty of speech was gone;<br>That all were slaves--nor had we better chance<br>For better times, than as allies to France.<br>Loud groan'd the Stranger--Why, he must relate,<br>And own'd, 'In sorrow for his country's fate;'<br>'Nay, she were safe,' the ready man replied,<br>'Might patriots rule her, and could reasoners </div><div style="margin:10px 0">guide;<br>When all to vote, to speak, to teach, are free,<br>Whate'er their creeds or their opinions be;<br>When books of statutes are consumed in flames,<br>And courts and copyholds are empty names:<br>Then will be times of joy--but ere they come,<br>Havock, and war, and blood must be our doom.'<br>The man here paused--then loudly for Reform<br>He call'd, and hail'd the prospect of the storm:<br>The wholesome blast, the fertilizing flood -<br>Peace gain'd by tumult, plenty bought with blood:<br>Sharp means, he own'd; but when the land's disease<br>Asks cure complete, no med'cines are like these.<br>Our Justice now, more led by fear than rage,<br>Saw it in vain with madness to engage;<br>With imps of darkness no man seeks to fight,<br>Knaves to instruct, or set deceivers right:<br>Then as the daring speech denounced these woes,<br>Sick at the soul, the grieving Guest arose;<br>Quick on the board his ready cash he threw,<br>And from the demons to his closet flew:<br>There when secured, he pray'd with earnest seal,<br>That all they wish'd these patriot-souls might </div><div style="margin:10px 0">feel;<br>'Let them to France, their darling country, haste,<br>And all the comforts of a Frenchman taste;<br>Let them his safety, freedom, pleasure know,<br>Feel all their rulers on the land bestow;<br>And be at length dismiss'd by one unerring blow, -<br>Not hack'd and hew'd by one afraid to strike,<br>But shorn by that which shears all men alike;<br>Nor, as in Britain, let them curse delay<br>Of law, but borne without a form away -<br>Suspected, tried, condemn'd, and carted in a day;<br>Oh! let them taste what they so much approve,<br>These strong fierce freedoms of the land they love</div><div style="margin:10px 0">.' <br>Home came our hero, to forget no more<br>The fear he felt and ever must deplore:<br>For though he quickly join'd his friends again,<br>And could with decent force his themes maintain,<br>Still it occurr'd that, in a luckless time,<br>He fail'd to fight with heresy and crime;<br>It was observed his words were not so strong,<br>His tones so powerful, his harangues so long,<br>As in old times--for he would often drop<br>The lofty look, and of a sudden stop;<br>When conscience whisper'd, that he once was still,<br>And let the wicked triumph at their will;<br>And therefore now, when not a foe was near,<br>He had no right so valiant to appear.<br>Some years had pass'd, and he perceived his </div><div style="margin:10px 0">fears<br>Yield to the spirit of his earlier years -<br>When at a meeting, with his friends beside,<br>He saw an object that awaked his pride;<br>His shame, wrath, vengeance, indignation--all<br>Man's harsher feelings did that sight recall.<br>For, lo! beneath him fix'd, our Man of Law<br>That lawless man the Foe of Order saw;<br>Once fear'd, now scorn'd; once dreaded, now </div><div style="margin:10px 0">abhorrd:<br>A wordy man, and evil every word:<br>Again he gazed--'It is,' said he 'the same<br>Caught and secure: his master owes him shame;'<br>So thought our hero, who each instant found<br>His courage rising, from the numbers round.<br>As when a felon has escaped and fled,<br>So long, that law conceives the culprit dead;<br>And back recall'd her myrmidons, intent<br>On some new game, and with a stronger scent;<br>Till she beholds him in a place, where none<br>Could have conceived the culprit would have gone;<br>There he sits upright in his seat, secure,<br>As one whose conscience is correct and pure;<br>This rouses anger for the old offence,<br>And scorn for all such seeming and pretence:<br>So on this Hammond look'd our hero bold,<br>Rememb'ring well that vile offence of old;<br>And now he saw the rebel dar'd t'intrude<br>Among the pure, the loyal, and the good;<br>The crime provok'd his wrath, the folly stirr'd his </div><div style="margin:10px 0">blood:<br>Nor wonder was it, if so strange a sight<br>Caused joy with vengeance, terror with delight;<br>Terror like this a tiger might create,<br>A joy like that to see his captive state,<br>At once to know his force and then decree his fate.<br>Hammond, much praised by numerous friends, was </div><div style="margin:10px 0">come<br>To read his lectures, so admired at home;<br>Historic lectures, where he loved to mix<br>His free plain hints on modern politics:<br>Here, he had heard, that numbers had design,<br>Their business finish'd, to sit down and dine;<br>This gave him pleasure, for he judged it right<br>To show by day that he could speak at night.<br>Rash the design--for he perceived, too late,<br>Not one approving friend beside him sate;<br>The greater number, whom he traced around,<br>Were men in black, and he conceived they frown'd.<br>'I will not speak,' he thought; 'no pearls of mine<br>Shall be presented to this herd of swine;'<br>Not this avail'd him, when he cast his eye<br>On Justice Bolt; he could not fight, nor fly:<br>He saw a man to whom he gave the pain,<br>Which now he felt must be return'd again;<br>His conscience told him with what keen delight<br>He, at that time, enjoy'd a stranger's fright;<br>That stranger now befriended--he alone,<br>For all his insult, friendless, to atone;<br>Now he could feel it cruel that a heart<br>Should be distress'd, and none to take its part;<br>'Though one by one,' said Pride, 'I would defy<br>Much greater men, yet meeting every eye,<br>I do confess a fear--but he will pass me by.'<br>Vain hope! the Justice saw the foe's distress,<br>With exultation he could not suppress;<br>He felt the fish was hook'd--and so forbore,<br>In playful spite to draw it to the shore.<br>Hammond look'd round again; but none were near,<br>With friendly smile to still his growing fear;<br>But all above him seem'd a solemn row<br>Of priests and deacons, so they seem'd below;<br>He wonder'd who his right-hand man might be -<br>Vicar of Holt cum Uppingham was he;<br>And who the man of that dark frown possess'd -<br>Rector of Bradley and of Barton-west;<br>'A pluralist,' he growl'd--but check'd the word,<br>That warfare might not, by his zeal, be stirr'd.<br>But now began the man above to show<br>Fierce looks and threat'nings to the man below;<br>Who had some thoughts his peace by flight to seek -<br>But how then lecture, if he dar'd not speak! -<br>Now as the Justice for the war prepared,<br>He seem'd just then to question if he dared:<br>'He may resist, although his power be small,<br>And growing desperate may defy us all;<br>One dog attack, and he prepares for flight -<br>Resist another, and he strives to bite;<br>Nor can I say, if this rebellious cur<br>Will fly for safety, or will scorn to stir.'<br>Alarm'd by this, he lash'd his soul to rage,<br>Burn'd with strong shame, and hurried to engage.<br>As a male turkey straggling on the green,<br>When by fierce harriers, terriers, mongrels seen,<br>He feels the insult of the noisy train<br>And skulks aside, though moved by much disdain;<br>But when that turkey, at his own barn-door,<br>Sees one poor straying puppy and no more,<br>(A foolish puppy who had left the pack,<br>Thoughtless what foe was threat'ning at his back)<br>He moves about, as ship prepared to sail,<br>He hoists his proud rotundity of tail,<br>The half-seal'd eyes and changeful neck he shows,<br>Where, in its quick'ning colours, vengeance glows;<br>From red to blue the pendent wattles turn,<br>Blue mix'd with red, as matches when they burn;<br>And thus th' intruding snarler to oppose,<br>Urged by enkindling wrath, he gobbling goes.<br>So look'd our hero in his wrath, his cheeks<br>Flush'd with fresh fires and glow'd in tingling </div><div style="margin:10px 0">streaks,<br>His breath by passion's force awhile restrain'd,<br>Like a stopp'd current greater force regain'd;<br>So spoke, so look'd he, every eye and ear<br>Were fix'd to view him, or were turn'd to hear.<br>'My friends, you know me, you can witness all,<br>How, urged by passion, I restrain my gall;<br>And every motive to revenge withstand -<br>Save when I hear abused my native land.<br>'Is it not known, agreed, confirm'd, confess'd,<br>That, of all people, we are govern'd best?<br>We have the force of monarchies; are free,<br>As the most proud republicans can be;<br>And have those prudent counsels that arise<br>In grave and cautious aristocracies;<br>And live there those, in such all-glorious state.<br>Traitors protected in the land they hate?<br>Rebels, still warring with the laws that give<br>To them subsistence?--Yes, such wretches live.<br>'Ours is a Church reformed, and now no more<br>Is aught for man to mend or to restore;<br>'Tis pure in doctrines, 'tis correct in creeds,<br>Has nought redundant, and it nothing needs;<br>No evil is therein--no wrinkle, spot,<br>Stain, blame, or blemish: --I affirm there's not.<br>'All this you know--now mark what once befell,<br>With grief I bore it, and with shame I tell:<br>I was entrapp'd--yes, so it came to pass,<br>'Mid heathen rebels, a tumultuous class;<br>Each to his country bore a hellish mind,<br>Each like his neighbour was of cursed kind;<br>The land that nursed them, they blasphemed; the </div><div style="margin:10px 0">laws,<br>Their sovereign's glory, and their country's cause:<br>And who their mouth, their master-fiend, and who<br>Rebellion's oracle?--You, catiff, you!'<br>He spoke, and standing stretch'd his mighty arm,<br>And fix'd the Man of Words, as by a charm.<br>'How raved that railer! Sure some hellish power<br>Restrain'd my tongue in that delirious hour,<br>Or I had hurl'd the shame and vengeance due<br>On him, the guide of that infuriate crew;<br>But to mine eyes, such dreadful looks appear'd,<br>Such mingled yell of lying words I heard,<br>That I conceived around were demons all,<br>And till I fled the house, I fear'd its fall.<br>'Oh! could our country from our coasts expel<br>Such foes! to nourish those who wish her well:<br>This her mild laws forbid, but we may still<br>From us eject them by our sovereign will;<br>This let us do.'--He said, and then began<br>A gentler feeling for the silent man;<br>E'en in our hero's mighty soul arose<br>A touch of pity for experienced woes;<br>But this was transient, and with angry eye<br>He sternly look'd, and paused for a reply.<br>'Twas then the Man of many Words would speak -<br>But, in his trial, had them all to seek:<br>To find a friend he look'd the circle round,<br>But joy or scorn in every feature found;<br>He sipp'd his wine, but in those times of dread<br>Wine only adds confusion to the head;<br>In doubt he reason'd with himself--'And how<br>Harangue at night, if I be silent now?'<br>From pride and praise received, he sought to draw<br>Courage to speak, but still remain'd the awe;<br>One moment rose he with a forced disdain,<br>And then, abash'd, sunk sadly down again;<br>While in our hero's glance he seem'd to read,<br>'Slave and insurgent! what hast thou to plead?'<br>By desperation urged, he now began:<br>'I seek no favour--I--the rights of man!<br>Claim; and I--nay!--but give me leave--and I<br>Insist--a man--that is--and in reply,<br>I speak,'--Alas! each new attempt was vain:<br>Confused he stood, he sate, he rose again;<br>At length he growl'd defiance, sought the door,<br>Cursed the whole synod, and was seen no more.<br>'Laud we,' said Justice Bolt, 'the Powers above:<br>Thus could our speech the sturdiest foe remove.'<br>Exulting now, he gain'd new strength of fame,<br>And lost all feelings of defeat and shame.<br>'He dared not strive, you witness'd--dared not </div><div style="margin:10px 0">lift<br>His voice, nor drive at his accursed drift:<br>So all shall tremble, wretches who oppose<br>Our Church or State--thus be it to our foes.'<br>He spoke, and, seated with his former air,<br>Look'd his full self, and fill'd his ample chair;<br>Took one full bumper to each favourite cause,<br>And dwelt all night on politics and laws,<br>With high applauding voice, that gain'd him high </div><div style="margin:10px 0">applause.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=George+Crabbe">George Crabbe</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=395887" data-title="Tale I de George Crabbe" data-description="That all men would be cowards if they dare,
Some men we know have courage to declare;
And this the life of many a hero shows,
That, like the tide, man's courage ebbs and flows:
With friends and gay companions round them, then
Men boldly speak and ..."></div>
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