Analysis of Epilogue To Tancred And Sigismunda
James Thomson 1700 (Port Glasgow) – 1748 (London)
Cramm'd to the throat with wholesome moral stuff,
Alas! poor audience! you have had enough.
Was ever hapless heroine of a play
In such a piteous plight as ours to-day?
Was ever woman so by love betray'd?
Match'd with two husbands, and yet—die a maid.
But bless me!—hold—What sounds are these I hear!—
I see the Tragic Muse herself appear.
[The back scene opens, and discovers a romantic sylvan landscape; from which Mrs. Cibber, in the character of the Tragic Muse, advances slowly to music, and speaks the following lines]:
Hence with your flippant epilogue, that tries
To wipe the virtuous tear from British eyes;
That dares my moral, tragic scene profane,
With strains—at best, unsuiting, light and vain.
Hence from the pure unsullied beams that play
In yon fair eyes where virtue shines—Away!
Britons, to you from chaste Castalian groves,
Where dwell the tender, oft unhappy loves!
Where shades of heroes roam, each mighty name,
And court my aid to rise again to fame;
To you I come, to Freedom's noblest seat,
And in Britannia fix my last retreat.
In Greece and Rome, I watch'd the public weal,
The purple tyrant trembled at my steel:
Nor did I less o'er private sorrows reign,
And mend the melting heart with softer pain.
On France and you then rose my brightening star,
With social ray—The arts are ne'er at war.
O, as your fire and genius stronger blaze,
As yours are generous Freedom's bolder lays,
Let not the Gallic taste leave yours behind,
In decent manners and in life refined;
Banish the motley mode to tag low verse,
The laughing ballad to the mournful hearse.
When through five acts your hearts have learnt to glow,
Touch'd with the sacred force of honest woe;
O keep the dear impression on your breast,
Nor idly loose it for a wretched jest.
Scheme | AABBCCXX X DDEEBBXXFFGGBXEEXXHHIIJJKKLL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101110101 01110011101 11010100101 0101111011 1101011101 1111001101 1111111111 1101010101 0111000100010101111010010010101010101100101001 111101011 11010011101 1111010101 11111101 1101010111 0111110101 10111111 1101010101 1111011101 0111110111 1111110101 00010011101 0101110101 0101010111 11111010101 0101011101 11011111001 1101011111 11110010101 11110010101 1101011101 0101000101 1001011111 0101010101 1111111111 1101011101 1101010111 1101110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,780 |
Words | 312 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 1, 28 |
Lines Amount | 37 |
Letters per line (avg) | 37 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 460 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 103 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:36 min read
- 98 Views
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