Excerpt from Lays of Leisure In earlier cim it was the mus'e's task To strip from hated vice its gilded'fiia'sk 3. With coarse broad humour, to assail the crowd, With keener strokes of satire sting the Till even Folly shrunk, abashed to see Herself in all h'er true deformity. G Now times are changed, the muse no more may seek To call a blush on guilty Pleasure's cheek, Boldly he stands, and her rebuke defies, For if she lop one crime, a thousand rise. Her only aim must now be to impart A few short hours of peace, and wean the heart From sights and scenes of real wo, to dwell On fictions that, perhaps, may paint too well The griefs that make this blooming world a hell. To-night she Opens not the classic page Of history - the Roman's iron age, As erst to our young bard - 'tis a sad tale Of woman proud, yet erring - fair, yet frail 5 Of wayward man, who even While he kills, Would die himself to spare the blood he spills Of Love, that found a bower all gay and bright, And left on it his never-changing blight Of Love, that with his desolating power, Blasted the hopes of many a happy hour of.l0ve, deep-dwelling, passionate, that gave His only lasting boon - ah early grave Of stern Revenge, whose hopelessness ne'er knew, A joy, save in the pangs of him he slew; Nay, who could dare to smile, and madly trace. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.