There is in the second stanza here a close resemblance to one of the
madrigals of Montreuil, a French poet, to whom Sir J. Moore was indebted
for the point of his well known verses, "If in that breast, so good, so
pure." [Footnote:

The grief that on my quiet preys,
That rends my heart and checks my tongue,
I fear will last me all my days,
And feel it will not last me long.

It is thus in Montreuil:

C'est un mal que j'aurai tout le terns de ma vie
Mais je ne l'aurai pas long-tems.]

Mr. Sheridan, however, knew nothing of French, and neglected every
opportunity of learning it, till, by a very natural process, his
ignorance of the language grew into hatred of it. Besides, we have the
immediate source from which he derived the thought of this stanza, in
one of the essays of Hume, who, being a reader of foreign literature,
most probably found it in Montreuil. [Footnote: Or in an Italian song of
Menage, from which Montreuil, who was accustomed to such thefts, most
probably stole it. The point in the Italian is, as far as I can remember
it, expressed thus:

In van, o Filli, tu chiedi
Se lungamente durera Pardore

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