Now's the moment--who shall first
Catch the bubbles ere they burst?
Run, ye Squires, ye Viscounts, run,
Brogden, Teynham, Palmerston;--
John Wilks junior runs beside ye!
Take the good the knaves provide ye!
See, with upturned eyes and hands,
Where the _Share_man, Brogden, stands,
Gaping for the froth to fall
Down his gullet--_lye_ and all.
See!--
But, hark, my time is out--
Now, like some great water-spout,
Scattered by the cannon's thunder,
Burst ye bubbles, all asunder!
[_Here the stage darkens--a discordant crash is heard from the orchestra
--the broken bubbles descend in a saponaceous but uncleanly mist over the
heads of the_ Dramatis Personae_, and the scene drops, leaving the
bubble-hunters--all in the suds_.]
[1] Strong indications of character may be sometimes traced in the rhymes
to names. Marvell thought so when he wrote "Sir Edward Button, The foolish
Knight who rhymes to mutton."
[2] The member, during a long period, for Coventry.
[3] An humble imitation of one of our modern poets, who, in a poem against
War, after describing the splendid habiliments of the soldier, thus
apostrophizes him--"thou rainbow ruffian!"
A DREAM OF TURTLE.
BY SIR W. CURTIS.
1826.
'Twas evening time, in the twilight sweet
I sailed along, when--whom should I meet
But a Turtle journeying o'er the sea,
"On the service of his Majesty.
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