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Tell, too, how his ghost, all bloody, Frighten'd once a neighb'ring goody; And how, still at twelve he stalks, Groaning o'er the wild-wood walks.

Then, when fear usurps her sway,
Let us creep to bed away;

Each for ghosts, but little bolder,
Fearfully peeping o'er his shoulder.

SONG

SWEET Jessy! I would fain caress
That lovely cheek divine;
Sweet Jessy, I'd give worlds to press
That rising breast to mine.

Sweet Jessy! I with passion burn
Thy soft blue eyes to see;
Sweet Jessy, I would die to turn
Those melting eyes on me!

Yet Jessy, lovely as

Thy form and face appear, I'd perish ere I would consent

To buy them with a tear.

SONG.

OH, that I were the fragrant flower that kisses My Arabella's breast that heaves on high; Pleased should I be to taste the transient blisses, And on the melting throne to faint, and die.

Oh, that I were the robe that loosely covers
Her taper limbs, and Grecian form divine;
Or the entwisted zones, like meeting lovers,

That clasp her waste in many an aëry twine.

Oh, that my soul might take its lasting station
In her waved hair, her perfumed breath to sip;
Or catch, by chance, her blue eyes' fascination!
Or meet, by stealth, her soft vermilion lip.

But chain'd to this dull being, I must ever

Lament the doom by which I'm hither placed;

Must pant for moments I must meet with never, And dream of beauties I must never taste.

FRAGMENT

OF AN 1

ECCENTRIC DRAMA

WRITTEN AT A VERY EARLY AGE.

In a little volume which Henry had copied out, apparently for the press, before the publication of Clifton Grove, the Song with which this fragment commences was inserted, under the title of "The Dance of the Consumptives, in imitation of Shakspeare, taken from an eccentric Drama, written by H. K. W. when very young." The rest was discovered among his loose papers, in the first rude draught, having, to all appearance, never been transcribed. The song was extracted when he was sixteen, and must have been written at least a year before, probably more, by the hand-writing. There is something strikingly wild and original in the fragment.

THE DANCE OF THE CONSUMPTIVES.

1.

DING-DONG! ding-dong!

Merry, merry, go the bells,

Ding-dong! ding-dong!

Over the heath, over the moor, and over the dale,

"Swinging slow with sullen roar,"

Dance, dance away the jocund roundelay!

Ding-dong, ding-dong, calls us away.

2.

Round the oak, and round the elm,
Merrily foot it o'er the ground ↓
The sentry ghost it stands aloof,
So merrily, merrily foot it round.
Ding-dong! ding-dong!
Merry, merry, go the bells,
Swelling in the nightly gale,
The sentry ghost,

It keeps its post,

And soon, and soon, our sports must fail: But let us trip the nightly ground,

While the merry, merry bells ring round.

3.

Hark! hark! the death-watch ticks!

See, see, the winding-sheet!

Our dance is done,

Our race is run,

And we must lie at the alder's feet!

Ding-dong! ding-dong!

Merry, merry go the bells, Swinging o'er the weltering wave!

And we must seek

Our death-beds bleak,

Where the green sod grows upon the grave.

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