UC-NRLF 
 
 III 111 II I 
 
 
 
 i . _ 
 
 B 
 
 3 315 b2£ 
 
 
 
THE STATUE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 DYING GLADIATOR, 
 
 A poem; 
 
 Being the Prize-Subject at Oxford, but not written for the 
 
 Prize. 
 
 Bp a ^pn-acafcemic. 
 
 DEDICATED TO THE 
 
 RIGHT HON. LORD GRENVILLE, 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR; 
 
 And Sold by Cadell and Davies, Strand, 
 1810. 
 
J. Nichotfs and Son, Printers, 
 Red Lion Passage, Fleet Street, Louden. 
 
TO THE 
 
 RIGHT HON. LORD GREXVILLE, 
 
 Chancellor of the University of Oxford, $c. fyc. &;c. 
 
 Every liberal and enlightened mind 
 throughout the kingdom must rejoice at your 
 Lordship's exaltation to the high and important 
 situation of Chancellor of the University of Ox- 
 ford ; a situation which your transcendant abilities 
 and enlarged views of policy qualify you so emi- 
 nently to fill, both to your own honour and that 
 of the learned body over which you preside; as 
 well as to the universal diffusion and encourage- 
 ment of the arts and classical learning in general. 
 Under these impressions, permit me, my Lord, 
 to solicit your Lordship's notice of the following 
 pages, as the production of one who wishes well 
 to the University of Oxford, the most eminent 
 seat of Literature and the Muses; and who looks 
 forward with confidence to its increasing reputa- 
 tion, while under your Lordship's auspices, from 
 your known discrimination of talent, and impar- 
 tial distribution of patronage. 
 
 I am, 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's most obedient servant, 
 
 The Author. 
 
 M84S44 
 
TO THE READER. 
 
 When a young Author submits his labours to public criticism, 
 it is generally expected that he should avow his motives; 
 and this exposition may, perhaps, be looked for from the 
 writer of the following pages. He is, however content with 
 only dis-avowing two motives, which might be thought incen- 
 tives to publication : the first— vanity and a confidence in his 
 own abilities ; the second — an intention that this effusion should 
 be considered a competition-poem with that of the successful 
 Candidate for the University-Prize. His concealed character, 
 allowing that he were partial to his own production, will pre- 
 vent the imputation of the former inducement, as it will not 
 permit him either to enjoy the praise, or to suffer from the cen- 
 sure that may be attached to his publication: and with respect 
 to the latter, his limited pretentions preclude the possibility 
 of his being considered a competitor with those who have 
 had such superior opportunities of cultivating a classical taste. 
 The Author, however, cannot avoid cherishing the hope, that 
 it may give rise to a spirit of liberal criticism among the stu- 
 dents of Oxford. Had this effusion issued from the cloisters 
 of a University, he has no doubt it would have been more 
 worthy of himself, and of the liberal patronage that might have 
 encouraged him. 
 
THE STATUE 
 
 OF 
 
 THE DYING GLADIATOR. 
 
 Imperial Rome and trophied Greece uo more 
 O er prostrate realms their conqu 'ring legions pour ; 
 All their vain hopes of boundless empire crush'd, 
 The victor-shout, the storm of war is hush'd : 
 Yet, in the relics of a milder fame, 
 Still lives the Roman, still the Grecian name. 
 Hoar boasts of genius, rescued wrecks of time, 
 Tell their proud height, when science soar'd sublime, 
 And Learning there unveil'd her mystic charms — 
 They rul'd in arts, triumphant as in arms. 
 
 Yon carv'd memorial of their peerless skill, 
 Sculpture! 'twas thine to model at thy will ; 
 Who from the rude rock call'st the perfect form, 
 Canst soften stone, and flinty marble warm : 
 
Tne sr.atuy* |of the riying 
 gladiator 
 
 R84844 
 
 53 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY