Poetry > Ballads in the Cumberland dialect

192
NOTES.
symposiums of Greece and Rome. Had old Anacreon
composed one of the party, with what rapture would
he have surveyed the capacious vessel that contained a
pool of liquor of superior quality to the famed nectar
of the gods !—With what animation would he have ,
shaken his hoary locks ! What a glow would all his '
features have received from the spirituous fluid! And -
with what vigour would he have struck his lyre ir
praise!
The party here alluded to were our author and a
few jovial friends. Archy, to whose comfortable
cabin they were invited, is a well-known, industrious, .
and respectable tradesman—the scourge of pretenders, [
but the friend of humble merit; a man who possesses
the endearing qualities, benevolence of heart and
cheerfulness of disposition.
“ By Nature form’d in her most sportive mood.”
He is one of the few who can put Care to the rout, •
make his friends happy, and keep the table in a
roar.
R. A.
Note 34, p. 72.
At town, kurk, market, &c.
A beautiful country girl makes a swain feel the
force of her charms wherever she beholds him: even
“ Sunday shines no Sabbath-day to him. ” At his very
devotion she points against him the artillery of her
eye. In short, she attacks him in every place, and,
what is still more cruel, when she has subdued his
heart, often plays with his passion, refusing her hand
to the man whose affections she has gained. She
ought, however, to observe, that a conqueror’s glory
is his lenity, and that her behaviour to her captives
ought to be humane, if not generous; and not like
that of a heathen victor, who dragged them at the
wheels of his triumphant chariot.