But far from us and from our mimic scene Such things should be--if such have ever been; Ours be the gentler wish, the kinder task, To give the tribute Glory need not ask, To mourn the vanished beam, and add our mite Of praise in payment of a long delight. 100 Ye Orators! whom yet our councils yield, Mourn for the veteran Hero of your field! The worthy rival of the wondrous _Three!_[102] Whose words were sparks of Immortality! Ye Bards! to whom the Drama's Muse is dear, He was your Master--emulate him _here_! Ye men of wit and social eloquence![103] He was your brother--bear his ashes hence! While Powers of mind almost of boundless range,[104] Complete in kind, as various in their change, 110 While Eloquence--Wit--Poesy--and Mirth, That humbler Harmonist of care on Earth, Survive within our souls--while lives our sense Of pride in Merit's proud pre-eminence, Long shall we seek his likeness--long in vain, And turn to all of him which may remain, Sighing that Nature formed but one such man, And broke the die--in moulding Sheridan![105] FOOTNOTES: [98] {71}[Compare-- "As 'twere the twilight of a former Sun." _Churchill's Grave,_ line 26, _vide ante,_ p. 48.] [99] {72}[Sheridan's first speech on behalf of the Begum of Oude was delivered February 7, 1787. After having spoken for five hours and forty minutes he sat down, "not merely amidst cheering, but amidst the loud clapping of hands, in which the Lords below the bar and the strangers in the Gallery joined" (_Critical ... Essays,_ by T. B. Macaulay, 1843, iii. 443). So great was the excitement that Pitt moved the adjournment of the House. The next year, during the trial of Warren Hastings, he took part in the debates on June 3,6,10,13, 1788. "The conduct of the part of the case relating to the Princesses of Oude was intrusted to Sheridan. The curiosity of the public to hear him was unbounded.... It was said that fifty guineas had been paid for a single ticket. Sheridan, when he concluded, contrived ... to sink back, as if exhausted, into the arms of Burke, who hugged him with the energy of generous admiration" (_ibid.,_iii 451, 452).] [100] [_The Rivals, The Scheming Lieutenant_, and _The Duenna_ were played for the first time at Covent Garden, January 17, May 2, and November 21, 1775. _A Trip to Scarborough_ and the _School for Scandal_ were brought out at Drury Lane, February 24 and May 8, 1777; the _Critic_, October 29, 1779; and _Pizarro_, May 24, 1799.] [101] {73}[Only a few days before his death, Sheridan wrote thus to Rogers: "I am absolutely undone and broken-hearted. They are going to put the carpets out of window, and break into Mrs. S.'s room and _take me_. For God's sake let me see you!" (Moore's _Life of Sheridan_, 1825, ii. 455).