That when the brains were out, the man would die, And there an end; but now they rise again, Macbeth. The Father of Peter a Fisherman His Grief for the old Man - Peter's early Conduct He takes an Apprentice The Boy's Suffering and Fate - A second Boy: how he died. Peter acquitted— A third Apprentice - A Voyage - Evil Report on Peter: by Sea: the Boy does not return he is tried and threatened Lives alone His Melancholy and incipient Madness Is observed and visited - He escapes and is taken: is lodged in a Parish-house: Women attend and watch him He speaks in a Delirium: grows more collected - His Account of his Feelings and visionary Terrors previous to his Death. THE BOROUGH. LETTER XXII. PETER GRIMES. (1) OLD Peter Grimes made fishing his employ, His father's love he scorn'd, his power defied, (1) [The original of Peter Grimes was an old fisherman of Aldborough, while Mr. Crabbe was practising there as a surgeon. He had a succession of apprentices from London, and a certain sum with each. As the boys all disappeared under circumstances of strong suspicion, the man was warned by some of the principal inhabitants, that if another followed in like manner, he should certainly be charged with murder.] Yes! then he wept, and to his mind there came Much of his conduct, and he felt the shame,How he had oft the good old man reviled, And never paid the duty of a child; How, when the father in his Bible read, He in contempt and anger left the shed: "It is the word of life," the parent cried; "This is the life itself," the boy replied; And while old Peter in amazement stood, Gave the hot spirit to his boiling blood: How he, with oath and furious speech, began Το prove his freedom and assert the man; And when the parent check'd his impious rage, How he had cursed the tyranny of age,— Nay, once had dealt the sacrilegious blow On his bare head, and laid his parent low; The father groan'd—“If thou art old," said he, "And hast a son - thou wilt remember me: 66 Thy mother left me in a happy time, "Thou kill'dst not her- Heav'n spares the double crime." On an inn-settle, in his maudlin grief, This he revolved, and drank for his relief. Now lived the youth in freedom, but debarr'd |