DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61904#0221
RIEVAUX ABBEY.
209
Great Villiers lies*—alas ! how changed from him,
That life of pleafure, and that foul of whim !
Gallant and gay, in Clevedon’s proud alcove,
The bower of wanton Shrewlbury,f and love,
Or juft as gay, at council, in a ring
Of mimick’d ftatefmen, and their merry king.
No wit to flatter, left of all his ftore ;
No fool to laugh at, which he valued more.
There, victor of his health, of fortune, friends,
And fame, this lord of ufelefs thoufands ends !
His grace’s fate fage Cutler* could forefee,
And well (he thought) advifed him, “ Live like me.”
As well his grace replied, “ Like you, Sir John ?
That I can do, when all I have is gone !”
Refolve me, Reafon, which of thefe is worfe,
. Want with a full or with an empty purfe ?
Thy life more wretched, Cutler, was confelT’d,
Arife, and tell me, was thy death more blefT’d ?”
Pope’s Moral Essays.
The ftranger, in vifiting Rievaux, fhould take his firft view
of it from what is called the Duncombe-terrace. Proceeding
along a winding carriage-drive, you are admitted at a lodge-
gate, and fuddenly find yourfelf on one of the finefi: natural
terraces imaginable. This is now kept beautifully fmooth,
and is adorned at each end by Grecian temples, the interiors of
which have been enriched with paintings by Bernici. But the
moft ftriking fcene is without; for you find yourfelf on the edge
of the noble terrace, looking down into a deep valley, out of
which rifes, like an apparition of the paft, the ruined pile of
Rievaux. The effect is moft impreflive. There deep below
* This lord, yet more famous for his vices than his misfortunes, after having been
poflefled of about £50,000 a-year, and patted through many of the higheft pofts in
the kingdom, died in the year 1687 in a remote inn in Yorkfliire, reduced to the
utmoft mifery.
f “ Shrewlbury.”—The Countefs of Shrewlbury, a woman abandoned to gallantries.
The Earl, her hulband, was killed by the Duke of Buckingham in a duel; and it has
been faid that during the combat Ihe held the Duke’s horfe in the habit of a page.
$ “ Cutler,” a notorious mifer.
2 E
209
Great Villiers lies*—alas ! how changed from him,
That life of pleafure, and that foul of whim !
Gallant and gay, in Clevedon’s proud alcove,
The bower of wanton Shrewlbury,f and love,
Or juft as gay, at council, in a ring
Of mimick’d ftatefmen, and their merry king.
No wit to flatter, left of all his ftore ;
No fool to laugh at, which he valued more.
There, victor of his health, of fortune, friends,
And fame, this lord of ufelefs thoufands ends !
His grace’s fate fage Cutler* could forefee,
And well (he thought) advifed him, “ Live like me.”
As well his grace replied, “ Like you, Sir John ?
That I can do, when all I have is gone !”
Refolve me, Reafon, which of thefe is worfe,
. Want with a full or with an empty purfe ?
Thy life more wretched, Cutler, was confelT’d,
Arife, and tell me, was thy death more blefT’d ?”
Pope’s Moral Essays.
The ftranger, in vifiting Rievaux, fhould take his firft view
of it from what is called the Duncombe-terrace. Proceeding
along a winding carriage-drive, you are admitted at a lodge-
gate, and fuddenly find yourfelf on one of the finefi: natural
terraces imaginable. This is now kept beautifully fmooth,
and is adorned at each end by Grecian temples, the interiors of
which have been enriched with paintings by Bernici. But the
moft ftriking fcene is without; for you find yourfelf on the edge
of the noble terrace, looking down into a deep valley, out of
which rifes, like an apparition of the paft, the ruined pile of
Rievaux. The effect is moft impreflive. There deep below
* This lord, yet more famous for his vices than his misfortunes, after having been
poflefled of about £50,000 a-year, and patted through many of the higheft pofts in
the kingdom, died in the year 1687 in a remote inn in Yorkfliire, reduced to the
utmoft mifery.
f “ Shrewlbury.”—The Countefs of Shrewlbury, a woman abandoned to gallantries.
The Earl, her hulband, was killed by the Duke of Buckingham in a duel; and it has
been faid that during the combat Ihe held the Duke’s horfe in the habit of a page.
$ “ Cutler,” a notorious mifer.
2 E