Wife, Children, and Friends (Beethoven: Irish Songs, WoO 152)
When the black-lettr'd list to the gods was presented, The list of what Fate to each mortal intends, At the long string of ills a kind Goddess relented And slipt in three blessing: wife, children and friends. In vain surly Pluto maintain'd he was cheated; For justice divine could not compass its ends: The scheme of man's penance he swore was defeated For earth becomes heaven with wife, children and friends.
Though spice-breathing gales o'er his caravan hover, Though round him Arabia's whole fragrance ascends, The merchant still thinks of the woodbines that cover The bow where he sat with wife, children and friends. The day-spring of youth, still unclouded by sorrow, Alone on itself for enjoyment depends: But drear is the twilight of age, if it borrow No warmth from the smiles of wife, children and friends.
Let the breath of renown ever freshen and nourish The laurel which o'er her dead favourite bends; O'er me wave the willow, and long may it flourish, Bedew'd with the tears of wife, children and friends. Let us drink, for my song, growing graver and graver, To subjects too solemn insensibly tends; Let us drink, pledge me hig, Love and Virtue shall flavour The glass wich I fill to wife, children and friends.