Next died the Lady who yon Hall possess'd; And here they brought her noble bones to rest. In Town she dwelt;--forsaken stood the Hall: Worms ate the floors, the tap'stry fled the wall; No fire the kitchen's cheerless grate display'd; No cheerful light the long-closed sash convey'd; The crawling worm, that turns a summer-fly, Here spun his shroud and laid him up to die 240 The winter-death:--upon the bed of state, The bat shrill-shrieking woo'd his flickering mate; To empty rooms the curious came no more, } From empty cellars turn'd the angry poor, } And surly beggars cursed the ever-bolted door. } To one small room the steward found his way, Where tenants follow'd to complain and pay; Yet no complaint before the Lady came, The feeling servant spared the feeble dame; Who saw her farms with his observing eyes, 250 And answer'd all requests with his replies. She came not down, her falling groves to view; Why should she know, what one so faithful knew? Why come, from many clamorous tongues to hear, What one so just might whisper in her ear? Her oaks or acres why with care explore; Why learn the wants, the sufferings of the poor; When one so knowing all their worth could trace, And one so piteous govern'd in her place? Lo! now, what dismal sons of Darkness come, 260 To bear this daughter of Indulgence home; Tragedians all, and well arranged in black! Who nature, feeling, force, expression lack; Who cause no tear, but gloomily pass by, And shake their sables in the wearied eye, That turns disgusted from the pompous scene, Proud without grandeur, with profusion, mean! The tear for kindness past affection owes; For worth deceased the sigh from reason flows; E'en well-feign'd passion[s] for our sorrows call, 270 And real tears for mimic miseries fall-- But this poor farce has neither truth nor art, To please the fancy or to touch the heart; Unlike the darkness of the sky, that pours On the dry ground its fertilizing showers; Unlike to that which strikes the soul with dread, When thunders roar and forky fires are shed; Dark but not awful, dismal but yet mean, With anxious bustle moves the cumbrous scene; Presents no objects tender or profound, 280 But spreads its cold unmeaning gloom around. When woes are feign'd, how ill such forms appear; And oh! how needless, when the wo's sincere. Slow to the vault they come, with heavy tread, Bending beneath the Lady and her lead; A case of elm surrounds that ponderous chest, Close on that case the crimson velvet's press'd; Ungenerous this, that to the worm denies, With niggard-caution, his appointed prize; For now, ere yet he works his tedious way, 290