Читать книгу The Castle of Otranto - Horace Walpole - Страница 7

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

LADY MARY COKE

The gentle maid, whose hapless tale

These melancholy pages speak

Say, gracious lady, shall she fail

To draw the tear adown thy cheek?

No; never was thy pitying breast

Insensible to human woes;

Tender, though firm, it melts distrest

For weaknesses it never knows.

Oh! guard the marvels I relate

Of fell ambition scourg’d by fate,

From reason’s peevish blame.

Blest with thy smile, my dauntless sail

I dare expand to fancy’s gale.

For sure thy smiles are fame.

—H. W