The Poems of Philip Freneau Volume III Part 13

[A] Maria Antoinette, late queen of France.--_Freneau's note._

What shall relieve her sad distress, What power recall that former state When drinking deep her seas of bliss, She smil'd and look'd so sweet!-- With aching heart and haggard eye She views the palace,[B] towering high, Where, once, were pa.s.s'd her brightest days, And nations stood, in wild amaze, Louis! to see you eat.

[B] Thuilleries--within view of which the royal family of France were at this time imprisoned.--1792.--_Ib._

This gaudy vision to restore Shall fate its laws repeal, And cruel despots rise once more To plan a new Bastille!

Shall, from their sheathes, ten thousand blades[C]

In glittering vengeance start To mow down slaves, and slice off heads, Taking a monarch's part?-- Ah no!--the heavens this hope refuse; Despots! they send you no such news-- Nor Conde, fierce, nor Frederick, stout, Nor Catharine brings this work about, Nor Brunswick's warlike art:

[C] Alluding to Mr. Edmund Burke's rant upon this subject.--_Ib._ The poet here refers to the well-known pa.s.sage in Burke's _Reflections on the Revolution in France_, published October, 1790, in which after describing the queen of France as he had seen her in 1774 and the "prostrate homage" which her nation had paid to her at that time, he dwells upon the contrast of 1789: "Oh, what a revolution! and what a heart must I have, to contemplate without emotion that elevation and that fall!

Little did I dream when she added t.i.tles of veneration to those of enthusiastic, distant, respectful love, that she should ever be obliged to carry the sharp antidote against disgrace concealed in that bosom; little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honour and of cavaliers. I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, oeconomists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever."

Nor He,[D] that once, with fire and sword, This western world alarm'd: Throughout our clime whose thunders roar'd, Whose legions round us swarm'd-- Once more his tyrant arm invades A race[E] that dare be free: His Myrmidons, with murdering blades, In one base cause agree!-- Ill fate attend on every scheme That tends to darken Reason's beam: And, rising with gigantic might In Virtue's cause, I see unite Worlds, under Freedom's Tree!

[D] George III.--_Freneau's note._

[E] The French Republicans.--_Ib._

Valour, at length, by Fortune led, The Rights of Man restores; And Gallia, now from bondage freed, Her rising sun adores: On Equal Rights, her fabric plann'd, Storms idly round it rave, No longer breathes in Gallic land A monarch, or a slave!

At distance far, and self-remov'd From all he own'd and all he lov'd, See!--turn'd his back on Freedom's blaze, In foreign lands the Emigrant strays, Or finds an early grave!

Enroll'd with these--and close immur'd, The gallant chief[F] is found, That, once, admiring crowds ador'd, Through either world renown'd, Here, bold in arms, and firm in heart, He help'd to gain our cause, Yet could not from a tyrant part, But, turn'd to embrace his laws!-- Ah! hadst thou stay'd in fair Auvergne,[G]

And Truth from Paine vouchsaf'd to learn; There, happy, honour'd, and retir'd, Both hemispheres had still admir'd, Still crown'd you with applause.

[F] La Fayette; at this time in the Prussian prison of Spandau.--_Freneau's note._

[G] The province of France, where the Marquis's family estate lay.--_Ib._

See!--doom'd to fare on famish'd steeds, The rude Hungarians fly; Brunswick, with drooping courage leads Death's meagre family: In dismal groups, o'er hosts of dead, Their madness they bemoan, No friendly hand to give them bread, No Thionville their own!

The Gaul, enrag'd as they retire, Hurls at their heads his blaze of fire-- What hosts of Frederick's reeking crew

Dying, have bid the world adieu, To dogs their flesh been thrown!

Escap'd from death, a mangled train In scatter'd bands retreat: Where, bounding on Silesia's plain, The Despot[H] holds his seat; With feeble step, I see them go The heavy news to tell Where Oder's lazy waters flow, Or glides the swift Moselle; Where Rhine his various journey moves Through marshy lands and ruin'd groves, Or, where the vast Danubian flood (So often stain'd by Austrian blood) Foams with the autumnal swell.

[H] The Monarch of Prussia.--_Freneau's note._

But shall they not some tidings bear Of Freedom's sacred flame, And shall not groaning millions hear The long abandon'd name?-- Through ages past, their spirits broke, I see them spurn old laws, Indignant, burst the Austrian yoke, And clip the Eagle's[I] claws: From sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e, from sea to sea They join, to set the wretched free, And, driving from the servile court Each t.i.tled slave--they help support The Democratic Cause!

[I] The imperial standard of Germany.--_Ib._

O France! the world to thee must owe A debt they ne'er can pay: The Rights of Man you bid them know, And kindle Reason's Day!

Columbia, in your friends.h.i.+p blest, Your gallant deeds shall hail-- On the same ground our fortunes rest, Must flourish, or must fail: But--should all Europe's slaves combine Against a cause so fair as thine, And Asia aid a league so base-- Defeat would all their aims disgrace, And Liberty Prevail!

PHILADELPHIA, December 19, 1792.

[63] First published in the _National Gazette_, December 19, 1792, under the t.i.tle "Present View of France and Her combined Enemies," and reproduced in the editions of 1795 and 1809. Text from the former edition.

ON THE FRENCH REPUBLICANS[64]

These gallant men that some so much despise Did not, like mushrooms, spring up in a night: By them instructed, France again shall rise, And every Frenchman learn his native right.

American! when in your country's cause You march'd, and dar'd the English lion's jaws, Crush'd Hessian slaves, and made their hosts retreat, Say, were you not Republican--complete?

Forever banish'd, now, be prince and king, To Nations and to Laws our reverence due: And let not language to my memory bring, A word that might recall the infernal crew, Monarch!--henceforth I blot it from my page, Monarchs and slaves too long disgrace this age; But thou, Republican, that some disclaim, Shalt save a world, and d.a.m.n a tyrant's fame.

Friends to Republics, cross the Atlantic brine, Low in the dust see regal splendour laid: Hopeless forever, sleeps the Bourbon line Long practis'd adepts in the murdering trade!

With patriot care the nation's will expressing Republicans shall prove all Europe's blessing, Pull from his height each bl.u.s.tering n.o.ble down And chace all modern Tarquins from the throne.

[64] I have found this only in the 1795 version.

ON THE PORTRAITS

Of Louis and Antoinette, in the Senate Chamber[65]

Discharg'd by France, no more the royal pair Claim from a nation's love a nation's care: Their splendid race no more a palace holds,-- While Louis frets, Antonietta scolds; Folly's sad victims, fortune's bitter sport, They take their stand among the "common sort,"

Doom'd through the world, in sad reverse, to roam, Perhaps--without a shelter or a home!

To shew our pity for their short-liv'd reign What shall we do, or how express our pain?

Since for their persons no relief is found But cruel mobs degrade them to the ground, To shew how deeply we regret their fall We hang their portraits in our Senate Hall!

[65] Published Dec. 22, 1792, in the _National Gazette_ and republished only in the 1795 edition. "These large and elegantly framed _pictures_ [of the King and Queen of France] arrived at Philadelphia in the s.h.i.+p Queen of France, being presents from the king. They were set up in the large committee-room of the senate, at the south-east corner of Sixth and Chestnut streets--thence went to Was.h.i.+ngton city, and were burned, I believe, by the British under General Ross."--_Watson's Annals of Philadelphia._

TO A REPUBLICAN

With Mr. Paine's Rights of Man[66]

Thus briefly sketch'd the sacred Rights of Man, How inconsistent with the Royal Plan!

Which for itself exclusive honour craves, Where some are masters born, and millions slaves.

With what contempt must every eye look down On that base, childish bauble call'd a crown, The gilded bait, that lures the crowd, to come, Bow down their necks, and meet a slavish doom; The source of half the miseries men endure, The quack that kills them, while it seems to cure.

Rous'd by the Reason of his manly page, Once more shall Paine a listening world engage: From Reason's source, a bold reform he brings, In raising up mankind, he pulls down kings, Who, source of discord, patrons of all wrong, On blood and murder have been fed too long: Hid from the world, and tutor'd to be base, The curse, the scourge, the ruin of our race, Theirs was the task, a dull designing few, To shackle beings that they scarcely knew, Who made this globe the residence of slaves, And built their thrones on systems form'd by knaves-- Advance, bright years, to work their final fall, And haste the period that shall crush them all.

Who, that has read and scann'd the historic page But glows, at every line, with kindling rage, To see by them the rights of men aspers'd, Freedom restrain'd, and Nature's law revers'd, Men, rank'd with beasts, by monarchs will'd away, And bound young fools, or madmen to obey: Now driven to wars, and now oppress'd at home, Compell'd in crowds o'er distant seas to roam, From India's climes the plundered prize to bring To glad the strumpet, or to glut the king.

Columbia, hail! immortal be thy reign: Without a king, we till the smiling plain; Without a king, we trace the unbounded sea, And traffic round the globe, through each degree; Each foreign clime our honour'd flag reveres, Which asks no monarch, to support the Stars: Without a king, the Laws maintain their sway, While honour bids each generous heart obey.

Be ours the task the ambitious to restrain, And this great lesson teach--that kings are vain; That warring realms to certain ruin haste, That kings subsist by war, and wars are waste: So shall our nation, form'd on Virtue's plan, Remain the guardian of the Rights of Man, A vast Republic, fam'd through every clime, Without a king, to see the end of time.