Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 3.djvu/85

Rh That only waste their odours o'er the tomb.

Such Drury claimed and claims—nor you refuse

One tribute to revive his slumbering muse;

With garlands deck your own Menander's head,

Nor hoard your honours idly for the dead!

Dear are the days which made our annals bright,

Ere Garrick fled, or Brinsley ceased to write.

Heirs to their labours, like all high-born heirs,

Vain of our ancestry as they of theirs;

While thus Remembrance borrows Banquo's glass

To claim the sceptred shadows as they pass,

And we the mirror hold, where imaged shine

Immortal names, emblazoned on our line,

Pause—ere their feebler offspring you condemn,

Reflect how hard the task to rival them!

Friends of the stage! to whom both Players and Plays

Must sue alike for pardon or for praise, Variants Notes