A SONNET.
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his little piece first appears in _The Bee_ for October 20,1759 (No. iii). It is there called ‘A Sonnet,’ a title which is onlyaccurate in so far as it is ‘a little song.’ Bolton Corney affirms that itis imitated from the French of Saint-Pavin (i.e. Denis Sanguin deSaint-Pavin, d. 1670), whose works were edited in 1759, the year in whichGoldsmith published the collection of essays and verses in which it is tobe found. The text here followed is that of the ‘new edition’ of _TheBee_, published by W. Lane, Leadenhall Street, no date, p. 94.Neither by its motive nor its literary merits—it should be added—didthe original call urgently for translation; and the poem is here includedsolely because, being Goldsmith’s, it cannot be omitted from his completeworks.
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