Lines Sung at the Dinner Given to Charles Kemble When He Retired from the Stage

Farewell! all good wishes go with him to-day,
Rich in name, rich in fame, he has play'd out the play.
Though the sock and the buskin for aye be removed
Still he serves in the train of the drama he loved.
We now who surround him, would make some amends
For past years of enjoyment — we court him as friends.
Our chief, nobly born, genius crown'd, our zeal shares,
O, his coronet's hid by the laurel he wears.

Shall we never again see his spirit infuse
Life, life in the gay gallant forms of the Muse,
Through the lovers and heroes of Shakespeare he ran,
All the soul of a soldier, the heart of the man—
Shall we never in Cyprus his spirit retrace.
See him stroll into Angiers with indolent grace,
Or greet him in bonnet at fair Dunsinane—
Or meet him in moonlight Verona again!

Let the curtain come down. Let the scene pass away—
There's an autumn when summer has squander'd her day:
We sit by the fire when we can't by the lamp,
And re-people the banquet, re-soldier the camp.
O, nothing can rob us of memory's gold:
And though he quit the gorgeous, and we may grow old,
With our Shakespeare in hand, and bright forms in our brain.
We can dream up our Siddons and Kembles again.