seas.

Uncommon things, and rare, were his delight;

THE SPLENDID SHILLING.* From musings deep his brain ne'er gotten

“Sing, heavenly Muse. ease,

Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme;"
Nor ceased he from study, day or night,

A shilling, breeches, and chimeras dire.
Until (advancing onward by degrees)
He knew whatever breeds on earth or air or in silken or in leathern purse retains

HAPPY the man, who, void of cares and strife,
A Splendid Shilling : he nor hears with pain

New oysters cried, nor sighs for cheerful ale ; He many a creature did anatomize,

But with his friends, when nightly mists arise, Almost unpeopling water, air, and land ; To Juniper's Magpie, or Town Hall repairs ; Beasts, fishes, birds, snails, caterpillars, flies, Where, mindful of the nymph, whose wanton eye

Were laid full low by his relentless hand, Transfixed his soul, and kindled amorous flames, That oft with gory crimson was distained ; Chloe or Phyllis, he each circling glass

He many a dog destroyed, and many a cat ; Wisheth her health and joy and equal love. Of fleas his bed, of frogs the marshes drained, Meanwhile he smokes, and laughs at merry tale,

Could tellen if a mite were lean or fat, Or pun ambiguous or conundrum quaint.
And read a lecture o'er the entrails of a But I, whom griping penury surrounds,
gnat.

And hunger, sure attendant upon want,
With scanty offals, and small acid tiff

( Wretched repast !) my meagre corpse sustain : He knew the various modes of ancient times, Their arts and fashions of each different guise, In garret vile, and with a warming puff

Then solitary walk, or doze at home Their weddings, funerals, punishments for

Regale chilled fingers ; or from tube as black crimes,

As winter-chimney or well-polished jet, Their strength, their learning eke, and rarities ;

Exhale mundungus, ill-perfuming scent. Of old habiliments, each sort and size,

Not blacker tube, nor of a shorter size, Male, female, high and low, to him were known;

Smokes (ambro-Briton (versed in pedigree, Each gladiator dress, and stage disguise ; With learned, clerkly phrase he could have Full famous in romantic tale) when he

Sprung from Cadwollador and Arthur, kings shown

O'er How the Greek tunic differed from the Roman

many a craggy hill and barren cliff,

Upon a cargo of famed Cestrian cheese, gown.

High overshadowing rides, with a design

To wend his wares at the Arvonian mart, A curious medallist, I wot, he was,

Or Maridunum, or the ancient town And boasted many a course of ancient coin ; Ycleped Brechinia, or where Vaga's stream Well as his wife's he knewen every face,

Encircles Ariconiuin, fruitful soil ! From Julius Cæsar down to Constantine : Whence flow nectareous wines, that well may vie For some rare sculpture he would oft ypine, With Massic, Setin, or renowned Falern.

(As green-sick damosels for husbands do ;) Thus, while my joyless minutes tedious Aow, And when obtained, with enraptured eyne, With looks demure, and silent pace, a Dun,

He'd run it o'er and o'er with greedy view, Horrible monster! hated by gods and men,
And look, and look again, as he would look it to my aerial citadel ascends. +
through.

With vocal heel thrice thundering at my gate,
With hideous accent thrice he calls ; I know

The voice ill-boding, and the solemn sound, His rich museum, of dimensions fair,

What should I do? or whither turn? Amazed, With goods that spoke the owner's mind was

('onfounded, to the dark recess I fly fraught :

Of wood-hole ; straight my bristling hairs erect Things ancient, curious, value-worth, and rare, From sea and land, from Greece and Rome, My shuddering limbs, and (wonderful to tell !)

Through sudden fear ; a chilly sweat bedews were brought, Which he with mighty sums of gold had bought : So horrible he seems ! His faded brow

My tongue forgets her faculty of speech ; On these all tides with joyous eyes he porul; Intrenched with many a frown, and conic beard, And, sooth to say, himself he greater thought,

And spreading band, admired by modern saints, When he beheld his cabinets thus stored,

Disastrous arts forebode ; in his right hand Than if he'd been of Albion's wealthy cities lord.

* A burlesque imitation of Milton's style.

MARK AKENSIDE.

+ To wit, his garret.

Long scrolls of paper solemnly he waves, Finds no relief, nor heavy eyes repose : With characters and figures dire inscribed, But if a slumber haply does invade Grievous to mortal eyes, (ye gods, avert My weary limbs, my fancy, still awake, Such plagues from righteous men !) Behind him Thoughtful of drink, and eager, in a dream, stalks

Tipples imaginary pots of ale ; Another monster, not unlike itself,

In vain ;- awake 1 find the settled thirst Sullen of aspect, by the vulgar called

Still gnawing, and the pleasant phantom curse. A Catchpole, whose polluted hands the gods Thus do I live, from pleasure quite de barred, With force incredible, and magic charms, Nor taste ‘he fruits that the sun's genial rays First have endued : if he his ample palm Mature, john-apple, nor the downy peach, Should haply on ill-fated shoulder lay

Nor walnut in rough-furrowed coat secure, Of debtor, straight his body to the touch Nor medlar fruit delicious in decay ; Obsequious (as whilom knights were wont) Afflictions great! yet greater still remain. To some enchanted castle is conveyed,

My galligaskins, that have long withstood Where gates impregnable, and coercive chains, The winter's fury and encroaching frosts, In durance strict detain him, till, in form By time subdued, (what will not time subduz! Of money, Pallas sets the captive free.

An horrid chasm disclose with orifice Beware, ye debtors ! when ye walk, beware, Wide, discontinuous ; at which the winds Be circumspect ; oft with insidious ken

Eurus and Auster and the dreadful force The caitiff eyes your steps aloof, and oft Of Boreas, that congeals the Cronian waves, Lies perdue in a nook or gloomy cave,

Tumultuous enter with dire chilling blasts, Prompt to enchant some inadvertent wretch Portending agues. Thus a well-fraught ship, With his unhallowed touch. So (poets sing) Long sails secure, or through the Ægean deep, Grimalkin to domestic vermin sworn

Or the Ionian, till cruising near An everlasting foe, with watchful eye

The Lily bean shore, with hideous crush Lies nightly brooding o'er a chinky gap, On Scylla or Charybdis (dangerous rocks) Portending her fell claws, to thoughtless mice She strikes rebounding ; whence the shattered Sure ruin. So her disembowelled web

oak, Arachne, in a hall or kitchen, spreads

So fierce a shock unable to withstand, Obvious to vagrant flies : she secret stands

Admits the sea. In at the gaping side Within her woven cell ; the humming prey, The crowding waves gush with impetuous rage, Regardless of their fate, rush on the toils Resistless, overwhelming ; horrors seize Inextricable, nor will aught avail

The mariners ; Death in their eyes appears, Their arts, or arms, or shapes of lovely hue. They stare, they lave, they pump, they swear, The wasp insidious, and the buzzing drone,

they pray: And butterfly proud of expanded wings

(Vain efforts !) still the battering waves rush in, Distinct with gold, entangled in her snares, Implacable, till, deluged by the foam, Useless resistance make ; with eager strides, The ship sinks foundering in the vast abyss. She towering flies to her expected spoils :

JOHN L'HILIPS Then with envenomed jaws the vital bloodl Drinks of reluctant foes, and to her cave Their bulky carcasses triumphant drags. ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF A MAD DOG,

So pass my days. But when nocturnal shades This world envelop, and the inclement air

Good people all, of every sort,
Persuades men to repel benumbing frosts

Give ear unto my song ;
With pleasant wines and crackling blaze of wood, And if you find it wondrous short,
Me, lonely sitting, nor the glimmering light

It cannot hold you long.
Of make-weight candle, nor the joyous talk
Of loving friend, delights ; distressed, forlorn, In Islington there was a man
Amidst the horrors of the tedious night,

Of whom the world might say,
Darkling I sigh, and feed with dismal thoughts That still a godly race he ran -
My anxious mind ; or sometimes mournful verse

Whene'er he went to pray.
Indite, and sing of groves and myrtle shades,
Or desperate lady near a purling stream,

A kind and gentle heart he had,
Or lover pendent on a willow-tree.

To comfort friends and foes : Meanwhile I labor with eternal drought,

The naked every day he clad And restless wish, and rave; my parched throat When he put on his clothes.

He saw a pig rapidly

Down a river float;
The pig swam well, but every stroke

Was cutting his own throat ;

His countenance fell for a moment

When he felt the stitches go ;
“Ah!" thought he, “there's a job now

That I've made for my tailor below.”

And Satan gave thereat his tail

A twirl of admiration ;
For he thought of his daughter War

And her suckling babe Taxation.

“Great news! bloody news !” cried a newsman ;

The Devil said, “Stop, let me see !
Great news ? bloody news ?” thought the Devil,

“The bloodier the better for me."

Well enough, in sooth, he liked that truth,

So he bought the newspaper, and no news And nothing the worse for the jest ;

At all for his money he had. But this was only a first thought;

“ Lying varlet,” thought he, "thus to take in And in this he did not rest :

Old Nick! Another came presently into his head ;

But it's some satisfaction, my lad, And here it proved, as has often been said, To know thou art paid beforehand for the trick, That second thoughts are best.

For the sixpence I gave thee is bad.” For as piggy plied, with wind and tide,

And then it came into his head, His way with such celerity,

By oracular inspiration, And at every stroke the water dyed

That what he had seen and what he had said, With his own red blood, the Devil cried,

In the course of this visitation, “Behold a swinish nation's pride

Wonld be published in the Morning Post In cotton-spun prosperity!”

For all this reading nation. He walked into London leisurely ;

Therewith in second-sight he saw The streets were dirty and dim ;

The place and the manner and time, But there he saw Brothers the prophet,

In which this mortal story And Brothers the prophet saw him. *

Would be put in immortal rhyme. He entered a thriving bookseller's shop ;

That it would happen when two poets Quoth he, “ We are both of one college,

Should on a time be met For I myself sate like a cormorant once

In the town of Nether Stowey,
Upon the tree of knowledge.”

In the shire of Somerset.
As he passed through Cold-Bath Fields, he looked There, while the one was shaving,
At a solitary cell ;

Would he the song begin ;
And he was well pleased, for it gave him a hint And the other, when he heard it at breakfast,
For improving the prisons of hell.

In ready accord join in. He saw a turnkey tie a thief's hands

So each would help the other, With a cordial tug and jerk ;

Two heads being better than one ; “Nimbly," quoth he, "a man's fingers move

And the phrase and conceit When his heart is in his work."

Would in unison meet,

And so with glee the verse flow free
He saw the same turnkey unfettering a man
With little expedition ;

In ding-dong chime of sing-song rhyme,

Till the whole were merrily done.
And he chuckled to think of his dear slave-trade,
And the long debates and delays that were made

And because it was set to the razor,
Concerning its abolition.

Not to the lute or harp, At this good news, so great

Therefore it was that the fancy
The Devil's pleasure grew,

Should be bright, and the wit be sharp
That with a joyful swish he rent
The hole where his tail came through.

“But then,” said Satan to himself,

" As for that said beginner, ." After this I was in a vision, having the angel of God near me, Against my infernal Majesty and saw Satan walking leisurely into London." — BROTHERS' Prophecies, Part'. p. 41.

There is no greater sinner.

THE DEVIL AT HOME.

"He hath put me in ugly ballads

With libellous pictures for sale ;
He hath scoffed at my hoofs and iny horns,

And has made very free with my tail.

FROM "THE DEVIL'S PROGRESS."

“But this Mister Poet shall find

I am not a safe subject for whim ; For I'll set up a school of my own,

And my poets shall set upon him."

As he went along the Strand

Between three in the morning and four, He observed a queer-looking person

Who staggered from Perry's door.

And he thought that all the world over

In vain for a man you might seek, Who could drink more like a Trojan,

Or talk more like a Greek.

The Devil sits in his easy-chair,
Sipping his sulphur tea,
And gazing out, with a pensive air,
O'er the broad bitumen sea ;
Lulled into sentimental mood
By the spirits' far-off wail,
That sweetly, o'er the burning flood,
Floats on the brimstone gale!
The Devil, who can be sad at times,
In spite of all his muinmery,
And grave,

though not so prosy quite
As drawn by his friend Montgomery,
The Devil to-day has a dreaming air,
And his eye is raised, and his throat is bare
His musings are of many things,
That - good or ill — befell,
Since Adam's sons macadamized
The highways into hell :
And the Devil -- whose mirth is never louil
Laughs with a quiet mirth,
As he thinks how well his serpent-tricks
Have been mimicked upon earth ;
Of Eden and of England, soiled
And darkened by the foot
Of those who preach with adder-tongues,
And those who eat the fruit ;
Of creeping things, that drag their slime
Into God's chosen places,
And knowledge leading into crime,
Before the angels' fares;
Of lands - from Nineveh to Spain
That have bowed beneath his sway,
And men who did his work, -- from Cain
To Viscount Castlereagh !

The Devil then he prophesied
It would one day be matter of talk,

That with wine when smitten,
And with wit moreover being happily bitten,
This erudite bibber was he who had written

The story of this walk.

"A pretty mistake,” quoth the Devil ;

“A pretty mistake, I opine ! I have put many ill thoughts in his mouth ;

He will never put good ones in mine."

Now the morning air was cold for him,

Who was used to a warm abode ; And yet he did not immediately wish

To set out on his homeward road.

THOMAS KIBBLE HERVEY.

For he had some morning calls to make
Before he went back to hell ;

THE NOSE AND THE EYES. “So,” thonght he, “I'll step into a gaming. Between Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose :

house, And that will do as well ;'

The spectacles set them, unhappily, wrong ; But just before he could get to the door

The point in dispute was, as all the world knows, A wonderful chance befell.

To whom the said spectacles onght to belong.

For all on a sudden, in a dark place,
He came upon General -'s burning face ;

And it struck him with such consternation,
That home in a hurry his way did he take,
Because he thought by a slight mistake

'T was the general conflagration.

So Tongue was the lawyer, and argued the cause,
With a great deal of skill, and a wig full of

learning,
While chief baron Ear sat to balance the laws,

So famed for his talent in nicely discerning.

ROBERT SOUTHEY.

“In behalf of the Nose, it will quickly appear
(And your lordship,” he said, “will undoubt.

edly find)

• Porson, the Greek scholar.