I - Miscellaneous Material by Aaron Hill Enclosed in his Correspondence with Samuel Richardson
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 June 2022
Summary
‘Verses, sent to the Bookseller, for the Unknown Author of the beautiful New Piece call’d Pamela.’
This poem was enclosed in Hill's letter to Richardson of 6 January 1741. A MS copy in Gilbert Hill's hand can be found in FM XVI, 1, ff. 40–1. Gilbert Hill transcribed the original letter (FM XIII, 2, ff. 36–9 and FMXVI, 1, f. 39) and the poem accompanying it. His MS copy has been used here as the copy-text. The poem was first published in the prefatory material to the second edition of Pamela (February 1741). The first printed version omits six lines present in the MS copy. The poem was first reprinted in the Weekly Miscellany of 28 February 1741 and later appeared in Hill, Works, III, 348–50. Both of these printed versions reproduce the text without the additional six lines present in the MS. For the significance of the poem and its place in the selection of Hill's letters which Richardson appended to the introduction of the second edition of Pamela, see Pamela, ed. Keymer and Wakely, pp. 505–19.
Blest be thy powerfull Pen, who-ere thou art,
Thou skill’d, great, Moulder of the master’d Heart.
—Where has thou lain conceal’d? – or why thought fit,
At this dire Period, to unveil thyWit?
O! late befriended Isle! had this broad Blaze,
With earlier Beamings, bless’d our Fathers Days,
The Pilot Radiance, pointing out the Source,
Whence Public Health derives its vital Course,
Each timely Draught some healing Pow’r had shown,
E’re, General Gangrene blacken’d to the Bone.
But, festering now, beyond all Sense of Pain,
Tis Hopeless: and the Helper's Hand is Vain.
Sweet Pamela! Forever blooming Maid!
Thou dear, unloving, yet immortal Shade!
Why are thy Vertues scatter’d to the Wind?
Why are thy Beauties flash’d upon the Blind?
What tho’ thy flutt’ring Sex might learn from Thee,
That Merit forms a Rank, above Degree?
That Pride, too conscious, falls, from ev’ry Claim;
While Humble Sweetness climbs, beyond its Aim?
What, tho’ Religion, smiling from thy Eyes,
Shews her plain Pow’r, and charms without Disguise?
What, tho thy warmly-pleasing moral Scheme
Gives livelier Rapture, than the Loose can dream?
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- Correspondence with Aaron Hill and the Hill Family , pp. 353 - 370Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013