The Poems of Jonathan Swift

-Baucis and Philemon

[1] ON THE EVER-LAMENTED LOSS OF THE TWO YEW-TREES

IN THE PARISH OF CHILTHORNE, SOMERSET.

1706.

IMITATED FROM THE EIGHTH BOOK OF OVID

[Footnote 1: I here give the original version of this poem, which Forster found in Swift's handwriting at Narford; and which has never been published. It is well known that, at Addison's suggestion, Swift made extensive changes in this, "one of the happiest of his poems," concerning which Forster says, in his "Life of Swift," at p. 165: "The poem, as printed, contains one hundred and seventy-eight lines; the poem, as I found it at Narford, has two hundred and thirty; and the changes in the latter bringing it into the condition of the former, by which only it has been thus far known, comprise the omission of ninety-six lines, the addition of forty-four, and the alteration of twenty-two. The question can now be discussed whether or not the changes were improvements, and, in my opinion, the decision must be adverse to Addison."--W. E. B.]

[Footnote 2: The "village hard by Rixham" of the original has as little connection with "Chilthorne" as the "village down in Kent" of the altered version, and Swift had probably no better reason than his rhyme for either.--Forster.]

[Footnote 3: See the next poem for note on this line. Chevy Chase seems more suitable to the characters than the Joan of Arc of the altered version.--W. E. B.]

[Footnote 4: A lace so called after the celebrated French Minister, M. Colbert Planche's "Costume," p. 395.--W. E. B.]

Baucis and Philemon

[Note: This is the version of the poem as altered by Swift in accordance with Addison's suggestions.--W. E. B.]

ON THE EVER-LAMENTED LOSS OF THE TWO YEW-TREES IN THE PARISH OF

CHILTHORNE, SOMERSET.

1706.

IMITATED FROM THE EIGHTH BOOK OF OVID

[Footnote 2: La Pucelle d'Orleans. See "Hudibras," "Lady's Answer," verse 285, and note in Grey's edition, ii, 439.--W. E. B.]

[Footnote 3: Mary Ambree, on whose exploits in Flanders the popular ballad was written. The line in the text is from "Hudibras," Part I, c. 2, 367, where she is compared with Trulla:

The ballad is preserved in Percy's "Reliques of English Poetry," vol. ii, 239.--W. E. B.]

[Footnote 4: The tribes of Israel were sometimes distinguished in country churches by the ensigns given to them by Jacob.--Dublin Edition.]

[Footnote 5: In the churchyard to fetch a walk.--Dublin Edition.]