Whereas 'tis spread about the Town
Title:
Advertisement for the Gazetter, Flying post, Weekly journal, &c.
Primary Text:
MS Wellesley, 84-7*.
An excerpt:
Music whether of the spheres,
Or what's contrived for mortal ears
I relish as a moving thing.
From tuneful breath or from the string
When sprightly hands the spinet plays
Or the more serious viol dies,
When trumpets with loud notes revive
Or lutes enchant though scarce alive,
When rosin'd bows the violin
Fare as some spirit were within,
And notes on notes so thick are hurried
That on the rapid sound were carried
Beyond the reach of sober thought
And to ecstatic wonder wrought . . .
Secondary Ed:
1988 Ellis d'Alessandro prints Wellesley text, 11-7; McGovern & Hinnant, 49-52.
Comment:
In sharp musically effective octosyllabic couplets she vindicates her love of music and denies she at any time denigrated the musical talent of Catherine and Ann Fleming. This poem suggests that Finch's friendship with Catherine began with a shared love of music. It's not what the family relationship between Catherine and Anne Fleming is; they appear to be of an age in an unacknowleged poem by Anne Finch in which she shows them singing and playing the lyre (see 1719, "Sullen Green Or Wully's Farewell").
Date:
A reference to Bishop Bangor dates this after March 1717.
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