Elegiac Sonnets, and Other Poems.

PREFACE

TO THE
SIXTH EDITION.

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When a sixth edition of these little Poems was lately called for, it was proposed to me to add such Sonnets, or other pieces, as I might have written since the publication of the fifth. Of these, however, I had only a few; and on showing them to a friend, of whose judgment I had a high opinion, he remarked that some of them, particularly "The Sleeping Woodman," and "The Return of the Nightingale," resembled in their subjects, and still more in the plaintive tone in which they are written, the greater part of those in the former editions, and that, perhaps, some of a more lively cast might be better liked by the public­"Toujours perdrix," said my friend­" 'Toujours perdrix,' you know, 'ne vaut rien.'­I am far from supposing that your compositions can be neglected or disapproved, on whatever subject; but perhaps 'toujours rossignols, toujours des chansons tristes,' may not be so

well received as if you attempted, what you would certainly execute as successfully, a more cheerful style of composition." "Alas!" replied I, 'Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles?' Or can the effect cease, while the cause remains? You know that when in the Beech Woods of Hampshire, I first struck the chords of the melancholy lyre, its notes were never intended for the public ear! It was unaffected sorrows drew them forth: I wrote mournfully because I was unhappy, and I have unfortunately no reason yet, though nine years have since elapsed, to change my tone. The time is indeed arrived, when I have been promised by 'the honourable men' who, nine years ago, undertook to see that my family obtained the provision their grandfather designed for them,­ that 'all should be well, all should be settled. But still I am condemned to feel the 'hope delayed that maketh the heart sick.' Still to receive­not a repetition of promises indeed­but of scorn and insult, when I apply to those gentlemen, who, though they acknowledge that all impediments to a division of the estate they have undertaken to manage, are done away­will neither tell me when they will proceed to divide it, nor whether they will ever do so at all. You know the circumstances under which I have now so long been labouring; and you have done me the honour to say, that few women could so long have contended with them. With these, however

as they are some of them of a domestic and painful nature, I will not trouble the public now; but while they exist in all their force, that indulgent public must accept all I am able to achieve­'Toujours des chansons tristes!' "

Thus ended the short dialogue between my friend and me, and I repeat it as an apology for that apparent despondence, which, when it is observed for a long series of years, may look like affectation. I shall be sorry, if on some future occasion, I should feel myself compelled to detail its causes more at length; for, notwithstanding I am thus frequently appearing as an authoress, and have derived from thence many of the greatest advantages of my life, since it has procured me friends whose attachment is most invaluable, I am well aware that for a woman­

"The post of honour is a private station."

London, May 14th, 1792.