AN

HEROIC EPISTLE

FROM

DONNA TERESA PINNA Ÿ RUIZ,

OF

MURCIA,

то

RICHARD TWISS, Esq. F.R.S.

WITH SEVERAL EXPLANATORY NOTES,

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.

Young Adam Cupid-he who shot so trim,
When king Cophetua lov'd the beggar maid.-

SHAKESPEARE.

Printed originally in the year 1777.

AN

HEROIC EPISTLE

FROM

DONNA TERESA PINNA Ÿ RUIZ.

YE western winds, from ocean's bosom rise,
And bear to perjur'd Twiss his Pinna's sighs!
Ye newborn gales, that fan the lemon grove,
In clouds of essence waft the voice of love!

Yes

L. 2. Pinna.] "During my short stay in Murcia, I spent every evening at the house of Donna Teresa Pinna y Ruiz. That lady and her daughter were so obliging as to assemble all their musical acquaintance, themselves singing Tonadillas and Segue dillas, in a far superior manner than 1 bad ever heard them sung before; the young lady had made a great proficiency in musick, and accompanies herself with the harpsichord and guitar, as perfectly as a professed mistress of the science; so that it was with the greatest regret I parted from this amiable family, which I did the 8th of May." Twiss's Travels through

Portugal and Spain, Dubl. Ed. vol. 1. p. 244,

Yes-waft my sorrows to th' Iërnian plains,
And bid their Author share Teresa's pains.
Fly, fly, my nightingale! the tale to bear;
Or thou, my parrot! pour it on his ear;
Ah! could my monkey swim the watery way,
And grin my woes, and chide his long delay.

Half naked, shiv'ring at the midnight air,
With mangled bosom and dishevell'd hair,
One stocking off, I sit,and weep,and write;
The streaming tears have drown'd my taper's light.
Where does my brave, my beauteous Briton rove,
That star of courtesy, that soul of love!
What yielding heart partakes the wand'ring fire?
Whom does thy fiddle melt to fond desire

That fiddle, where the loves encradled sleep,
Squeak in its tones, and thro' its opens peep,
To mark their prey; then many a bow they bend,
And many an arrow 'midst the croud they send.
What fair Hibernian, with superior charms,
Withholds the wanderer from Teresa's arms?

20

Blest

Blest be the fates that grac'd my charmer's birth
With Quixote's gallantry, and Sancho's mirth!
What sweet extremes adorn his various mind,
Wild as the Zebra, as the Jack-Ass kind!
Full many a tear for thee, brave stranger! falls,
Full many a sigh resounds to Murcia's walls,
Full many a lute is tun'd to Richard's name,

And many a sonnet speaks the Briton's fame.
Return, return, ye lightly-pacing hours!

30

When Love and Twiss endear'd the Murcian bow'rs,
When Twiss, the slave of dalliance and desire,
Sung like a cricket in his cage of wire;

Each hour, each minute brought it's joys along,
Fandango, concert, alamede, or song.

O say,

L. 28. Zebra.] Zebra, or wild ass; they never can be sufficiently broke to endure a bit or rein: though it was attempted to enable six of them to draw the Prince of Beira's chariot. T. T. Vol. 1. p. 14.

L. 36. Cricket.] In most parts of spain, crickets are kept in small wire cages, placed on the window ledges; they are each in a separate cage, with a bit of sallad, and kept continually chirping. T. T. Vol. 2. p. 100.

L. 38. Fandango.] There are two kinds of Fandangos, though they are danced to the same tune: the one is the decent dance, the other is gallant [for in this gentleman's vocabulary,