Venta (Winchester Races)
Headnote
Austen’s last work of any kind: six stanzas on the Winchester races and the revenge of St. Swithun — ’When once we are buried you think we are dead’ — composed at College Street, Winchester, on 15 July 1817, three days before her death. First printed in full in the 1906 Jane Austen’s Sailor Brothers, whose chapter frame is omitted here.
WINCHESTER, July 15, 1817.
When Winchester races first took their beginning
’Tis said that the people forgot their old saint,
That they never applied for the leave of St. Swithun,
And that William of Wykeham’s approval was faint.
’Tis said that the people forgot their old saint,
That they never applied for the leave of St. Swithun,
And that William of Wykeham’s approval was faint.
The races however were fixed and determined,
The company met, and the weather was charming;
The lords and the ladies were satined and ermined,
And nobody saw any future alarming.
The company met, and the weather was charming;
The lords and the ladies were satined and ermined,
And nobody saw any future alarming.
But when the old saint was informed of their doings,
He made but one spring from his shrine to the roof
Of the palace that now stands so sadly in ruins,
And thus he addressed them, all standing aloof:
He made but one spring from his shrine to the roof
Of the palace that now stands so sadly in ruins,
And thus he addressed them, all standing aloof:
’Oh, subject rebellious! Oh, Venta depraved!
When once we are buried you think we are dead;
But behold me immortal — by vice you’re enslaved,
You have sinned, and must suffer,’ then further he said —
When once we are buried you think we are dead;
But behold me immortal — by vice you’re enslaved,
You have sinned, and must suffer,’ then further he said —
’These races, and revels, and dissolute measures,
With which you’re debasing a neighbouring plain;
Let them stand — you shall meet with a curse in your pleasures.
Set off for your course. I’ll pursue with my rain.
With which you’re debasing a neighbouring plain;
Let them stand — you shall meet with a curse in your pleasures.
Set off for your course. I’ll pursue with my rain.
’You cannot but know my command o’er July;
Thenceforward I’ll triumph in showing my powers;
Shift your race as you will, it shall never be dry,
The curse upon Venta is July in showers.’
Thenceforward I’ll triumph in showing my powers;
Shift your race as you will, it shall never be dry,
The curse upon Venta is July in showers.’