' 'She complied in
a manner so exquisitely pathetic,' continues Dr. Primrose, 'as moved
me.' The charm of the words, and the graceful way in which they are
introduced, seem to have blinded criticism to the impropriety, and even
inhumanity, of requiring poor Olivia to sing a song so completely
applicable to her own case. No source has been named for this piece; and
its perfect conformity with the text would appear to indicate that
Goldsmith was not indebted to any earlier writer for his idea.
His well-known obligations to French sources seem, however, to have
suggested that, if a French original could not be discovered for the
foregoing lyric, it might be desirable to invent one. A clever
paragraphist in the 'St. James's Gazette' for January 28th, 1889,
accordingly reproduced the following stanzas, which he alleged, were to
be found in the poems of Segur, 'printed in Paris in 1719':--
Lorsqu'une femme, apres trop de tendresse,
D'un homme sent la trahison,
Comment, pour cette si douce foiblesse
Peut-elle trouver une guerison?
Le seul remede qu'elle peut ressentir,
La seul revanche pour son tort,
Pour faire trop tard l'amant repentir,
Helas! trop tard -- est la mort.
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