Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1902-03-22
LAST AMERICAN KING.
Poems Once Written In His Praise
by the students at Cambridge.

The coming coronation Of Edward
VII. is naturally suggestive of the time
when Americans were called upon TO
do honor to the last American king,
George Ill, who was crowned on OCT.
25. 1850. Harvard college, which soon
afterward was to take so influential
part in the struggle for independence,
was in 1850 still loyal to the British
sovereign and on that one occasion FOL
lowed the time hOnOred custom OF the
English universities by transmitting to
the new ruler a printed volume of con-
gratulatory Latin, Greek and English
verse.
The suggestion for the volume, how
ever. came from Francis Bernard, the
newly arrived royal governor, who OF
fered members and recent graduates OF
the college six prizes of a guinea each
for the best LaNn Grafton, the best
Latin poem In heXameters, the BEST
Latin elegy in heXameters and pentam-
eters. the best Latin ode, the oest Eng
lish poem in long verse and the best
English ode.
With this incentive the poets of Cam
bridge went to work, and two years
after the coronation the volume enu-
tied "Pietas ct Gratulatio," or mourn
ing for the old king and congratula-
tions for the new. was printed by j.
Green and j. Russell of Boston and
formally transmitted to King George
bv the president and fellows OF the
very college that was so soon after
ward to give shelter to General Wash
ington and the officers Of the Colonial
army.
The little book, copies of which can
still be found in some Of the libraries
around Boston. was most lavish in Its
praise Of the dead monarch, George
H.. as well as of his grandson and sue
cessor. The address of the president
and fellows sounds most strangely to
modern ears, ascribing as it does to
the king, whose forces were soon to
be fought and finally whipped, all the
known graces and virtues. Yet all
these complimentary phrases were
part Of the etiquette of the day, which
was considered serious only in Its
breach, for, as even the stout old Eng
lish Tory and dictionary maker, Or.
Samuel Johnson, so frequently pointed
out. flattering the king was but little
more than a formula of loyalty to the
institutions of the kingdom. The verse
naturally went to even greater lengths
in its adulation. One of the poems,
which is of special interest because
written by John Lowell, the grandpa
Their Of James Russell Lowell, closes
as follows:
These tears the muse TO her late sovereign
pays;
These signs unfeign'd to his dear tomb
conveys.
She now with transport halls the happy
day
Which gives another George the British
sway
Exulting Britain in his youthful face
Can the bright transcript of his grandsire
trace,
And sees. with Joy unfeign'd. ascend the
throne
A blooming monarch. who is all her own,
While at his feet her conq'ring armies
bend
And his command her thund'ring fleets
attend.
Long may he reign. his rightful scepter
bear
And Britain's crown in peace distinguished
wear,
While all her free born sons in chorus
sing.
Happy and glorious ever live the king.
Yet in spite of all this high flown Ian
guage a certain memorable logic in be-
half Of freedom runs all through the
volume, and even in their ''pOetical OBJ
lations' the monarch was credited
with a love Of freedom equal to that or
the colonists themselves.