Included among the "Inscriptions."--ED.
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he embowering rose, the acacia, and the pine,Will[1] not unwillingly their place resign;If but the Cedar thrive that near them stands,Planted by Beaumont's and by Wordsworth's hands.One wooed the silent Art with studious pains: 5These groves have heard the Other's pensive strains;Devoted thus, their spirits did uniteBy interchange of knowledge and delight.May Nature's kindliest powers sustain the Tree,And Love protect it from all injury! 10And when its potent branches, wide out-thrown,Darken the brow of this memorial Stone,[2]Here may some Painter sit in future days,Some future Poet meditate his lays;Not mindless of that distant age renowned 15When Inspiration hovered o'er this ground,The haunt of him who sang how spear and shieldIn civil conflict met on Bosworth-field;And of that famous Youth, full soon removedFrom earth, perhaps by Shakspeare's self approved, 20Fletcher's Associate, Jonson's Friend beloved. About twelve years after the last visit of Wordsworth to Coleorton,referred to in the Fenwick note--of which the date should, I think, be1842, not 1841--this cedar tree fell, uprooted during a storm. It was,however, as the Coleorton gardener who was then on the estate told me,replanted with much labour, and protected with care; although, the topbranches being injured, it was never quite the same as it had been.During the night of the great storm on the 13th October 1880, however,it fell a second time, and perished irretrievably. The memorial stoneremains, injured a good deal by the wear and tear of time; and theinscription is more than half obliterated. It is in a situation muchmore exposed to the elements than the other two inscriptions atColeorton. He who sang how spear and shieldIn civil conflict met on Bosworth-field, was Sir John Beaumont, the brother of the dramatist, who wrote a poem onthe battle of Bosworth. (See one of Wordsworth's notes to the _Song atthe Feast of Brougham Castle_, p. 84.) The famous Youth, full soon removedFrom earth, was Francis Beaumont, the dramatist, who wrote in conjunction withFletcher. He died at the age of twenty-nine. In an undated letter addressed to Sir George Beaumont, Wordsworth wrote,"I like your ancestor's verses the more, the more I see of them. Theyare manly, dignified, and extremely harmonious. I do not remember in anyauthor of that age such a series of well-tuned couplets." In another letter written from Grasmere (probably in 1811) to SirGeorge, he says in reference to his own poems, "These inscriptions haveall one fault, they are too long; but I was unable to do justice to thethoughts in less room. The second has brought Sir John Beaumont and hisbrother Francis so livelily to my mind that I recur to the plan ofrepublishing the former's poems, perhaps in connection with those ofFrancis." On November 16, 1811, he wrote to him again, "I am glad that theinscriptions please you. It did always appear to me, that inscriptions,particularly those in verse, or in a dead language, were never supposed_necessarily_ to be the composition of those in whose name theyappeared. If a more striking or more dramatic effect could be produced,I have always thought, that in an epitaph or memorial of any kind, afather or husband, etc., might be introduced speaking, without anyabsolute deception being intended; that is, the reader is understood tobe at liberty to say to himself,--these verses, or this Latin, may bethe composition of some unknown person, and not that of the father,widow, or friend, from whose hand or voice they profess to proceed.... Ihave altered the verses, and I have only to regret that the alterationis not more happily done. But I never found anything more difficult. Iwished to preserve the expression _patrimonial grounds_,[A] but I foundthis impossible, on account of the awkwardness of the pronouns, he andhis, as applied to Reynolds, and to yourself. This, even when it doesnot produce confusion, is always inelegant. I was, therefore, obliged todrop it; so that we must be content, I fear, with the inscription as itstands below. I hope it will do. I tried a hundred different ways, butcannot hit upon anything better...."--ED. VARIANTS: [1] 1815. Shall ... 1820.
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