To give with feign'd affright the pittance sought; For now the father cried--"It is too late For trial more--I leave him to his fate"-- 240 Yet left him not; and with a kind of joy The mother heard of her desponding boy: At length he sicken'd, and he found, when sick, All aid was ready, all attendance quick; A fever seized him, and at once was lost The thought of trespass, error, crime and cost; Th' indulgent parents knelt beside the youth; They heard his promise and believed his truth; And, when the danger lessen'd on their view, They cast off doubt, and hope assurance grew;-- 250 Nursed by his sisters, cherish'd by his sire, Begg'd to be glad, encouraged to aspire, His life, they said, would now all care repay, And he might date his prospects from that day; A son, a brother to his home received, They hoped for all things, and in all believed. And now will pardon, comfort, kindness, draw The youth from vice? will honour, duty, law? Alas! not all: the more the trials lent, The less he seem'd to ponder and repent; 260 Headstrong, determined in his own career, He thought reproof unjust and truth severe; The soul's disease was to its crisis come, He first abused and then abjured his home; And when he chose a vagabond to be, He made his shame his glory--"I'll be free." Friends, parents, relatives, hope, reason, love, With anxious ardour for that empire strove; In vain their strife, in vain the means applied, They had no comfort, but that all were tried; 270 One strong vain trial made, the mind to move, Was the last effort of parental love. Ev'n then he watch'd his father from his home, And to his mother would for pity come, Where, as he made her tender terrors rise, He talk'd of death, and threaten'd for supplies. Against a youth so vicious and undone All hearts were closed, and every door but one: The players received him; they with open heart Gave him his portion and assign'd his part; 280 And ere three days were added to his life, He found a home, a duty, and a wife. His present friends, though they were nothing nice, Nor ask'd how vicious he, or what his vice, Still they expected he should now attend To the joint duty as an useful friend; The leader too declared, with frown severe, That none should pawn a robe that kings might wear; And much it moved him, when he Hamlet play'd, To see his Father's Ghost so drunken made. 290 Then too the temper, the unbending pride Of this ally would no reproof abide:-- So, leaving these, he march'd away and join'd Another troop, and other goods purloin'd; And other characters, both gay and sage, Sober and sad, made stagger on the stage; Then to rebuke, with arrogant disdain, He gave abuse, and sought a home again.