Note 446 — BOOK 1. (continued 2)
Reading edition
Three of the following stanzas have been finely paraphrased by Dr. Goldsmith, in his charming ballad of Edwin and Emma; the reader of taste will have a pleasure in comparing them with the original.
"'And' still I try'd each fickle art, Importunate and vain; And while his passion touch'd my heart, I triumph'd in his pain. "'Till quite dejected with my scorn, He left me to my pride, And sought a solitude forlorn, In secret, where he dy'd. "But mine the sorrow, mine the fault, And well my life shall pay; I'll seek the solitude he sought, And stretch me where he lay. "And there forlorn despairing hid, I'll lay me down and die: 'Twas so for me that Edwin did And so for him will I."
[Goldsmith did not follow the last two verses, but made his ending much more sentimental than that of the old ballad.]