M DCC XLVIII. 1802: William Wordsworth, Stanzas written in my Pocket-Copy of Thomson's Castle of Indolence. Comes fluttering forth a gaudy spendthrift Heir, All glossy gay, enamel'd all with Gold, The silly Tenant of the Summer-Air. Yet not in thoughtless Slumber were they past: For oft the heavenly Fire, that lay conceal'd Beneath the sleeping Embers, mounted fast, And all its native Light anew reveal'd; Oft as he travers'd the Cerulean Field, And mark'd the Clouds that drove before the Wind, Ten thousand glorious Systems would he build, Ten thousand great Ideas fill'd his Mind; But with the Clouds they fled, and left no Tract behind. Heaps pour'd on Heaps, and yet they slip'd along In silent Ease: as when beneath the Beam Of Summer-Moons, the distant Woods among, Or by some Flood all silver'd with the Gleam, The soft-embodied Fays through airy Portal stream. It was enough; it needed no second part. Who can with Her for easy Pleasure vie? 1786: Anonymous, The House of Care. who will be Slaves, Must drink a bitter wrathful Cup of Woe: But some there be, thy Song, as from their Graves, Shall raise. William Bayne: "No work of poetry written between the time of Spenser and Thomson is so marked by this absolutely delicate idealising tendency; nothing like it appears again till the time of Keats. Noté /5. Those pleas'd the most, where, by a cunning Hand, Depeinted was the Patriarchal Age; What Time Dan Abraham left the Chaldee Land, And pastur'd on from verdant Stage to Stage, Where Fields and Fountains fresh could best engage. "O grievious Folly! [Sir Martyn.]. Access: Full text online. James Thomson. Industry triumphs over idleness in an innovative turn on the house poem genre. James Montgomery: "The quaint yet sweet, the homely yet venerable style in which [the Faerie Queene] is composed has become well known; less, indeed, from the original than from the numerous imitations of it, especially Thomson's Castle of Indolence, a structure of genuine talent, certainly not piled when that 'bard, more fat than bard beseems,' was, where he delighted to he, on the spot itself, though so witchingly framed for voluptuous ease, that the reader is ready to lie down under its influence, — not, however, to sleep" Lectures on General Literature, Poetry, &c. (1833; 1836) 132. and well-a-day! Of Limbs enormous, but withal unsound, Soft-swoln and pale. Liberty, The Castle of Indolence, and Other Poems - James Thomson - Oxford University Press the Change! with soft Perdition please: Entangled deep in its enchanting Snares, The listening Heart forgot all Duties and all Cares. Near the Pavilions where we slept, still ran Soft-tinkling Streams, and dashing Waters fell, And sobbing Breezes sigh'd, and oft began (So work'd the Wizard) wintry Storms to swell, As Heaven and Earth they would together mell: At Doors and Windows, threatening, seem'd to call The Demons of the Tempest, growling fell, Yet the least Entrance found they none at all; Whence sweeter grew our Sleep, secure in massy Hall. 1801: Leigh Hunt, The Palace of Pleasure; an Allegorical Poem. Canto II. Not Titian's Pencil e'er could so array, So fleece with Clouds the pure Etherial Space; Ne could it e'er such melting Forms display, As loose on flowery Beds all languishingly lay. Its satire and its moral allegory is the very essence of Augustinism. From Mead to Mead with gentle Wing to stray, From Flower to Flower on balmy Gales to fly, Is all she has to do beneath the radiant Sky. You have an apartment in it as a night pensioner; which you may remember I filled up for you during our delightful party at North End" 1748; Goodhugh, The English Gentleman's Library Manual (1827) 267. In imitation of Shenstone's Schoolmistress. Dyce (1835; 1866) lxi. "Behold the merry Minstrels of the Morn, The swarming Songsters of the careless Grove, Ten thousand Throats! It resembles the well-known air of pastoral simplicity, to which all the skill of an inventive master, could not furnish a second. Written in imitation of Spenser. 1748: [Additional Stanza for the Castle of Indolence]. The poem is in two cantos — the first describing the embowered castle of the false enchanter, Indolence, and all the lotus-eating captives that it harboured; while the second recounts the conquest of this wicked one by a certain Knight of Arts and Industry. Now must I mark the Villainy we found, But ah! The Demon INDOLENCE threats Overthrow To All that to Mankind is good and dear: Come, PHILOMELUS! "But if a little Exercise you chuse, Some Zest for Ease, 'tis not forbidden here. W. Davenport Adams: "The poet, it may be added, was probably indebted not only to Tasso, but to Alexander Barclay's Castle of Labour, and to a poem by [Joseph] Mitchell on Indolence" Dictionary of English Literature (1878) 120. Yet through the Gate they cast a wishful Eye: Not to move on, perdie, is all they can; For do their very Best they cannot fly, But often each Way look, and often sorely sigh. O fair Undress, best Dress! This done, right fain, Sir Porter sat him down, and turn'd to Sleep again. 1797: Anna Laetitia Barbauld, To Mr. C—ge. You choose either Dark Crystal, Tallum, Nightmare, or Majestic and then you randomly receive either a design or a recipe for the helm, boot, glove of the type you chose. 1748: James Thomson, [Additional Stanza for the Castle of Indolence]. He is indeed the eldest born of Spenser, and he has often confessed that if he had any thing excellent in poetry, he owed it to the inspiration he first received from reading the Fairy Queen, in the very early part of his life" Lives of the Poets (1753) 1:99, 5:217. It certainly contains as good poetry as any he wrote; and the tone of Spenser is charmingly imitated, with an arch but delighted reverence" Selections from English Authors, in Works (1854) 3:14, 15. By JAMES THOMSON. James Holme, The Castle of Despair. 1748: Richard Owen Cambridge, Archimage, a Poem written in imitation of Spencer, and descriptive of the Author and four of his Boat's Crew. Mean while, unceaſing at the maſſy Gate, Beneath a ſpacious Palm, the wicked Wight 1751: Anonymous, Industry and Genius: or, the Origin of Birmingham. artful Phantoms, no! what can it be? Robert Shiels? Thus, from the Source of tender Indolence, With milky Blood the Heart is overflown, Is sooth'd and sweeten'd by the social Sense; For Interest, Envy, Pride, and Strife are banish'd hence. 1826: Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Spenserian Stanzas on a Boy of Three Years Old. New Monthly Magazine: "The Castle of Indolence has never been so popular as his Seasons, doubtless because of its allegory; but, as a poetical composition, it is as much superior to the other poems of Thomson as the Schoolmistress of Shenstone is to the rest of his meagre and uninteresting performances" 11 (May 1819) 327. Canto I. One night, Mathias struggles from his sickbed and tells Leon that the appearance of the monsters is tied to a vampire, who has a castle in the Forest, called Eternal Night, and that Leon's betrothed, Sara, has been kidnapped and brought to that castle. Attempted in the Manner of Spencer. We liv'd right jollity. Mean time unnumber'd glittering Streamlets play'd, And hurled every-where their Waters sheen; That, as they bicker'd through the sunny Glade, Though restless still themselves, a lulling Murmur made. We liv'd right jollily. Edmund Gosse: "In May 1748 was printed the most exquisite of Thomson's productions, the famous poem in Spenserian stanza entitled The Castle of Indolence. O mortal Man, who livest here by Toil, Do not complain of this thy hard Estate; That like an Emmet thou must ever moil, Is a sad Sentence of an ancient Date: And, certes, there is for it Reason great; For, though sometimes it makes thee weep and wail, It will certainly travel as far as Barbadoes. True Golden Age indeed! The poem is a curious mixture of romantic melancholy and slippered mirth, of descriptive passages which rise into a clear Aeolian melody, and portraits of real people sketched in the laughter of a gentle caricature. Of nothing took they Heed, But with wild Beasts the silvan War to wage, And o'er vast Plains their Herds and Flocks to feed: Blest Sons of Nature they! 1742: Rev. Full in the Passage of the Vale, above, A sable, silent, solemn Forest stood; Where nought but shadowy Forms were seen to move, As Idless fancy'd in her dreaming Mood. To knot, to twist, to range the vernal Bloom; But far is cast the Distaff, Spinning-Wheel, and Loom. In Two Cantos. The Castle hight of Indolence, And its false luxury; Where for a little time, alas! Le Château d'Indolence [N 1], poème allégorique, écrit en imitation de Spenser (The Castle of Indolence, An Allegorical Poem, Written in imitation of Spenser en anglais) est un poème de James Thomson (1700-1748) paru en 1748. Ah me! A certain Music, never known before, Here lull'd the pensive melancholy Mind; Full easily obtain'd. The fingering of the stanza, in the First Part of the Castle of Indolence especially, is nearly faultless: it is the inferiority of the lexicon that, whenever the subject admits of it, prevents Thomson from coming quite close to his master. It was, I ween, a lovely Spot of Ground; And there a Season atween June and May, Half prankt with Spring, with Summer half imbrown'd, A listless Climate made, where, Sooth to say, No living Wight could work, ne cared even for Play. Countess of Hertford to Lady Luxborough: "I conclude you will read Mr. Thomson's Castle of Indolence: it is after the manner of Spenser; but I think he does not always keep so close to his style as the author of the School-Mistress [Shenstone], whose name I never knew until you were so good as to inform me of it, — I believe the Castle of Indolence will afford you much entertainment; there are many pretty paintings in it; but I think the wizard song deserves a preference: 'He needs no muse who dictates from the heart'" 15 May 1748; in Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05) 3:263. Not to be found among the papers of Thomson MILLAR, over against Catherine-street, in Soul-deadening! Thomson by Thomson, James ( ISBN: 9781379837008 ) from Amazon 's Book Store low and. Here dwells kind Ease and unreproving joy: he little merits Bliss who Others annoy... Any reviews in the Manner of Spenser that falls on him from above Wordsworth, Stanzas written in Pocket-Copy. 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