Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Hood (Illustrated) E-Book

Thomas Hood

• Herausgeber: Delphi Classics
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Serie: Delphi Poets Series
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Seitenzahl: 1457

Beschreibung

Best known for the poems ‘The Bridge of Sighs’ and ‘The Song of the Shirt’, the English poet Thomas Hood wrote regularly for The London Magazine, the Athenaeum, and Punch, and is regarded by some as the finest English poet between the generations of Shelley and Tennyson. The Delphi Poets Series offers readers the works of literature's finest poets, with superior formatting. For the first time in digital publishing, this volume presents Hood’s complete poetical works, with beautiful illustrations and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1)

* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Hood's life and works
* Concise introduction to the life and poetry of Thomas Hood
* Images of how the poetry books were first printed, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts
* The texts are taken from the Oxford University Press edition of Hood’s Complete Poetical Works, edited by Walter Jerrold
* Excellent formatting of the poems
* Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the poetry
* Easily locate the poems you want to read
* Includes Hood's rare Juvenilia text ‘The Bandit’
* Features a bonus biography - discover Hood's literary life
* Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres

Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to see our wide range of poet titles

CONTENTS:

The Life and Poetry of Thomas Hood
BRIEF INTRODUCTION: THOMAS HOOD
ODES AND ADDRESSES TO GREAT PEOPLE (1825)
WHIMS AND ODDITIES. FIRST SERIES (1826)
WHIMS AND ODDITIES. SECOND SERIES (1827)
THE PLEA OF THE MIDSUMMER FAIRIES, HERO AND LEANDER, LYCUS THE CENTAUR, AND OTHER POEMS (1827)
THE EPPING HUNT (1829)
COMIC MELODIES (1830)
THE DREAM OF EUGENE ARAM, THE MURDERER
VERSES FROM TYLNEY HALL (1834)
HOOD’S OWN: OR, LAUGHTER YEAR TO YEAR (1839)
POEMS FROM ‘UP THE RHINE’ (1840)
WHIMSICALITIES: A PERIODICAL GATHERING (1844)
MISCELLANEOUS UNCOLLECTED POEMS (1821-1845)
JUVENILIA
APPENDIX: J. H. REYNOLDS’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ‘ODES AND ADDRESSES TO GREAT PEOPLE’ (1825)

The Poems
LIST OF POEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
LIST OF POEMS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

The Biography
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION TO THOMAS HOOD by William Michael Rossetti

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Leseprobe

Thomas Hood

(1799-1845)

Contents

The Life and Poetry of Thomas Hood

BRIEF INTRODUCTION: THOMAS HOOD

COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF THOMAS HOOD

The Poems

LIST OF POEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

LIST OF POEMS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

The Biography

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION TO THOMAS HOOD by William Michael Rossetti

The Delphi Classics Catalogue

© Delphi Classics 2016

Version 1

Thomas Hood

By Delphi Classics, 2016

COPYRIGHT

Thomas Hood - Delphi Poets Series

First published in the United Kingdom in 2016 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2016.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

Delphi Classics

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United Kingdom

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www.delphiclassics.com

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The Life and Poetry of Thomas Hood

Poultry, Cheapside, a short street in the City of London, the historic nucleus and modern financial centre of the capital — Thomas Hood was born at 31 Poultry, Cheapside, London on 23 May 1799.

An old print of the compter on Poultry, Cheapside, London

The Poultry and Cheapside in the Victorian era

Plaque in Cheapside marking the site of the house where Hood was born

BRIEF INTRODUCTION: THOMAS HOOD

By Richard Garnett

THOMAS HOOD (1799–1845), poet, born on 23 May 1799 at 31 Poultry, London, was second son of Thomas Hood (d. 1811), a Scotchman, who was at the date of the poet’s birth partner in the bookselling firm of Vernor & Hood; the poet’s mother was a sister of the engraver Sands. After receiving some education at private schools in London, Hood entered a merchant’s counting-house there when about thirteen, but his health failed and he was sent to some of his father’s relatives at Dundee to recruit it. He remained in Dundee from 1815 to 1818, and occupied himself in reading and sketching, and in writing for local newspapers. On returning to London he was articled to his uncle the engraver, and subsequently to Le Keux; but the confinement of the profession proved too trying for his delicate constitution, and he turned to literature. Messrs. Taylor & Hessey, the publishers, old friends of his father, gave him in 1821 employment as an assistant sub-editor upon their ‘London Magazine,’ to which he was a constant contributor until its transference to other hands in 1823. His contributions, chiefly in verse, comprise examples of nearly all the styles of composition in which he subsequently excelled. He became acquainted with most of the then brilliant staff of contributors, including De Quincey, Hazlitt, and Charles Lamb, and in 1825 he published anonymously, in conjunction with John Hamilton Reynolds, ‘Odes and Addresses to Great People,’ which no less a critic than Coleridge ascribed to Lamb. On 5 May 1825 he married Reynolds’s sister Jane. Lamb’s lines, ‘On an Infant dying as soon as born,’ were prompted by the death of his first child. His time was now entirely devoted to authorship. The two series of ‘Whims and Oddities’ appeared respectively in 1826 and 1827, and were followed by the now entirely forgotten ‘National Tales,’ novelettes somewhat in the manner of Boccaccio. The ‘Plea of the Midsummer Fairies’ was published in 1827, and the dramatic romance of ‘Lamia,’ first printed in 1852 in the appendix to vol. i. of Jerdan’s ‘Autobiography,’ was probably written about this time. In 1829 Hood became editor of the ‘Gem,’ an annual which gave to light many remarkable productions, or at least productions of remarkable men, such as Tennyson. His own ‘Eugene Aram’s Dream’ was among them. In the same year he removed from Robert Street, Adelphi, to Winchmore Hill, where he spent three years. In 1832 he went to live at Wanstead. While there he had a hand in Reynolds’s ‘Gil Blas,’ and other dramatic pieces, which his son afterwards found it impossible to identify. The ‘Comic Annual,’ commenced in 1830, was a more substantial undertaking, and met with the most favourable reception. While at Wanstead he wrote his novel, ‘Tylney Hall’ (1834, 3 vols.), and his poem on the ‘Epping Hunt.’ Towards the close of 1834 Hood met with heavy pecuniary misfortunes, the cause of which is obscurely stated; they appear to have been due to the failure of a publisher. Rejecting the temptation to shield himself by a declaration of insolvency, he yielded up all his property to his creditors. Temporarily provided for by advances made to him by publishers on the mortgage of his brain, he retired to the continent with a view to economy while clearing off the liabilities yet remaining. Upon his voyage to Holland (March 1835) he was overtaken by a terrible storm, the effects of which seriously impaired his already weakly constitution. He settled successively at Coblentz (1835–7) and Ostend (1837–40), continuing his annual, and writing ‘Hood’s Own’ (1838) and ‘Up the Rhine,’ commenced in 1836 and published in 1839. Much of his correspondence during this period is preserved in the ‘Memorials’ published by his children; its gaiety and spirit are remarkable indeed for a consumptive patient almost worn out by continual attacks of exhausting illness. In 1840 he returned to England, living successively at Camberwell and St. John’s Wood, and began to write for the ‘New Monthly Magazine,’ of which, on the death of Theodore Hook in August 1841, he became the editor. In it appeared ‘Miss Kilmansegg,’ perhaps his masterpiece in his own most characteristic style. Still greater success was attained by the ‘Song of the Shirt,’ published anonymously in the Christmas number of ‘Punch’ for 1843. Hood, who could seldom agree with a publisher, retired from the editorship of the ‘New Monthly Magazine’ at the end of 1843, and with a partner established ‘Hood’s Magazine’ in January 1844, an undertaking too great for his strength. In the same year he collected some of his recent pieces in a volume called ‘Whimsicalities’ illustrated by Leech. But before Christmas 1844 he completely broke down, and from that date to his death never left his bed. The kindness of Sir Robert Peel soothed his last days by the bestowal of a pension of 100l., with remainder to his wife. The last production of Hood’s pen, and not the least valuable, was a letter to the statesman on the estrangement between classes in modern society. He died on 3 May 1845 at Devonshire Lodge, Finchley Road, and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery, where in 1854 a public monument was erected to him, adorned with bas-reliefs from ‘Eugene Aram’s Dream’ and the ‘Bridge of Sighs,’ and inscribed: ‘He sang the Song of the Shirt.’ His complete works have been edited thrice; the last time (1882–4) in eleven volumes. His poems were edited by Canon Ainger in 1897. His son Thomas and daughter Frances Freeling Broderip are noticed separately.

There were two sides to Hood’s poetical character, either of which would have given him distinction; but his great and unique reputation rests upon the performances in which they appeared in combination. As a poet in the more conventional and restricted sense he was graceful, delicate, and tender, but not very powerful. As a humorist he was exuberant and endowed with a perfectly exceptional faculty of playing upon words. As a poet he is no unworthy disciple of Lamb and Hunt; as a humorist he was exuberant and endowed with a perfectly exceptional faculty of playing upon words. As a poet he is no unworthy disciple of Lamb and Hunt; as a humorist he resembles Barham, with less affluence of grotesque invention, but with a pathos to which Barham was a stranger. In his two most famous poems, the ‘Song of the Shirt’ and the ‘Bridge of Sighs,’ this pathos is almost detached from the humorous element in which it is commonly imbedded, and the result is two of the rarest achievements of contemporary verse — pieces equally attractive to the highest and the humblest, genuine Volkslieder of the nineteenth century. He is, however, most truly himself when the serious and the comic are inextricably combined, as in those masterpieces ‘Miss Kilmansegg’ and the ‘Epistle to Rae Wilson.’ Here he stands alone, even though the association of poetry and humour is the general note of his literary work. As a man he was highly estimable; and the tragic necessity laid upon him of jesting for a livelihood while in the very grasp of death imparts a painful interest to his biography.

Charles Lamb by Henry Hoppner Meyer. Hood became a good friend of Lamb, who was one of the many poets and authors that he became associated with while working as sub-editor of The London Magazine.

Thomas Hood’s wife, Jane Hood (née Reynolds)

COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF THOMAS HOOD

Oxford University Press Edition Edited by Walter Jerrold

CONTENTS

ODES AND ADDRESSES TO GREAT PEOPLE (1825)

WHIMS AND ODDITIES. FIRST SERIES (1826)

WHIMS AND ODDITIES. SECOND SERIES (1827)

THE PLEA OF THE MIDSUMMER FAIRIES, HERO AND LEANDER, LYCUS THE CENTAUR, AND OTHER POEMS (1827)

THE EPPING HUNT (1829)

COMIC MELODIES (1830)

THE DREAM OF EUGENE ARAM, THE MURDERER

VERSES FROM TYLNEY HALL (1834)

HOOD’S OWN: OR, LAUGHTER YEAR TO YEAR (1839)

POEMS FROM ‘UP THE RHINE’ (1840)

WHIMSICALITIES: A PERIODICAL GATHERING (1844)

MISCELLANEOUS UNCOLLECTED POEMS (1821-1845)

JUVENILIA

APPENDIX: J. H. REYNOLDS’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ‘ODES AND ADDRESSES TO GREAT PEOPLE’ (1825)

Early edition of ‘Whims and Oddities’

How ‘The Song of the Shirt’ originally appeared in Punch in 1843

ODES AND ADDRESSES TO GREAT PEOPLE (1825)

CONTENTS

ODE TO MR. GRAHAM, THE AERONAUT.

A FRIENDLY ADDRESS TO MRS. FRY IN NEWGATE.

ODE TO RICHARD MARTIN, ESQ.,

M.P. FOR GALWAY.

ODE TO THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

ODE TO JOSEPH GRIMALDI, SENIOR.

AN ADDRESS TO THE STEAM WASHING COMPANY.

LETTER OF REMONSTRANCE

ODE TO CAPTAIN PARRY

ODE TO W. KITCHENER, M.D.

ODE TO H. BODKIN, ESQ.

ADDRESS TO MARIA DARLINGTON ON HER RETURN TO THE STAGE.

ODE TO MR. GRAHAM, THE AERONAUT.

   “Up with me! — up with me into the sky!”                    WORDSWORTH — on a Lark.

I.

Dear Graham, whilst the busy crowd,The vain, the wealthy, and the proud,  Their meaner flights pursue,Let us cast off the foolish tiesThat bind us to the earth, and rise  And take a bird’s-eye view! —

II.

A few more whiffs of my segarAnd then, in Fancy’s airy car,  Have with thee for the skies: — How oft this fragrant smoke upcurl’dHath borne me from this little world,  And all that in it lies! —

III.

Away! — away! — the bubble fills — Farewell to earth and all its hills! —   We seem to cut the wind! — So high we mount, so swift we go,The chimney tops are far below,  The Eagle’s left behind! —

IV.

Ah me! my brain begins to swim! — The world is growing rather dim;  The steeples and the trees — My wife is getting very small!I cannot see my babe at all! —   The Dollond, if you please! —

V.

Do, Graham, let me have a quiz;Lord! what a Lilliput it is.  That little world of Mogg’s! — Are those the London Docks? — that channel,The mighty Thames? — a proper kennel  For that small Isle of Dogs! —

VI.

What is that seeming tea-urn there?That fairy dome, St. Paul’s! — I swear,  Wren must have been a Wren! — And that small stripe? — it cannot beThe City Road! — Good lack! to see  The little ways of men!

VII.

Little, indeed! — my eyeballs acheTo find a turnpike. — I must take  Their tolls upon my trust! — And where is mortal labor gone?Look, Graham, for a little stone  Mac Adamiz’d to dust!

VIII.

Look at the horses! — less than flies! — Oh, what a waste it was of sighs  To wish to be a Mayor!What is the honor? — none at all,One’s honor must be very small  For such a civic chair! —

IX.

And there’s Guildhall!— ’tis far aloof — Methinks, I fancy through the roof  Its little guardian Gogs,Like penny dolls — a tiny show! — Well, — I must say they’re rul’d below  By very little logs! —

X.

Oh, Graham! how the upper airAlters the standards of compare;  One of our silken flagsWould cover London all about — Nay, then — let’s even empty out  Another brace of bags!

XI.

Now for a glass of bright champagneAbove the clouds! — Come, let us drain  A bumper as we go! — But hold! — for God’s sake do not cantThe cork away — unless you want  To brain your friends below.

XII.

Think! what a mob of little menAre crawling just within our ken,  Like mites upon a cheese! — Pshaw! — how the foolish sight rebukesAmbitious thoughts! — can there be Dukes  Of Gloster such as these! —

XIII.

Oh! what is glory? — what is fame?Hark to the little mob’s acclaim,  ’Tis nothing but a hum! — A few near gnats would trump as loudAs all the shouting of a crowd  That has so far to come! —

XIV.

Well — they are wise that choose the near,A few small buzzards in the ear,  To organs ages hence! — Ah me! how distance touches all;It makes the true look rather small,  But murders poor pretence

XV.

“The world recedes! — it disappears!Heav’n opens on my eyes — my ears  With buzzing noises ring!” — A fig for Southey’s Laureat lore!” — What’s Rogers here? — Who cares for Moore  That hears the Angels sing!—”

XVI.

A fig for earth, and all its minions! — We are above the world’s opinions,  Graham! we’ll have our own! — Look what a vantage height we’ve got! — Now — do you think Sir Walter Scott  Is such a Great Unknown?

XVII.

Speak up! — or hath he hid his nameTo crawl thro’ “subways” unto fame,  Like Williams of Cornhill? — Speak up, my lad! — when men run smallWe’ll show what’s little in them all,  Receive it how they will! —

XVIII.

Think now of Irving! — shall he preachThe princes down, — shall he impeach  The potent and the rich,Merely on ethic stilts, — and INot moralize at two mile high  The true didactic pitch!

XIX.

Come: — what d’ye think of Jeffrey, sir?Is Gifford such a Gulliver  In Lilliput’s Review,That like Colossus he should strideCertain small brazen inches wide  For poets to pass through?

XX.

Look down! the world is but a spot.Now say — Is Blackwood’s low or not,  For all the Scottish tone?It shall not weigh us here — not whereThe sandy burden’s lost in air —   Our lading — where is’t flown?

XXI.

Now, — like you Croly’s verse indeed — In heaven — where one cannot read  The “Warren” on a wall?What think you here of that man’s fame?Tho’ Jerdan magnified his name,  To me ’tis very small!

XXII.

And, truly, is there such a spellIn those three letters, L. E. L.,  To witch a world with song?On clouds the Byron did not sit,Yet dar’d on Shakspeare’s head to spit,  And say the world was wrong!

XXIII.

And shall not we? Let’s think aloud!Thus being couch’d upon a cloud,  Graham, we’ll have our eyes!We felt the great when we were less,But we’ll retort on littleness  Now we are in the skies.

XXIV.

O Graham, Graham, how I blameThe bastard blush, — the petty shame,  That used to fret me quite, — The little sores I cover’d then,No sores on earth, nor sorrows when  The world is out of sight!

XXV.

My name is Tims. — I am the manThat North’s unseen diminish’d clan  So scurvily abused!I am the very P. A. Z.The London’s Lion’s small pin’s head  So often hath refused!

XXVI.

Campbell — (you cannot see him here) — Hath scorn’d my lays: — do his appear  Such great eggs from the sky? — And Longman, and his lengthy Co.Long, only, in a little Row,  Have thrust my poems by!

XXVII.

What else? — I’m poor, and much besetWith damn’d small duns — that is — in debt  Some grains of golden dust!But only worth, above, is worth. — What’s all the credit of the earth?  An inch of cloth on trust?

XXVIII.

What’s Rothschild here, that wealthy man!Nay, worlds of wealth? — Oh, if you can  Spy out, — the Golden Ball!Sure as we rose, all money sank:What’s gold or silver now? — the Bank  Is gone — the ’Change and all!

XXIX.

What’s all the ground-rent of the globe? — Oh, Graham, it would worry Job  To hear its landlords prate!But after this survey, I thinkI’ll ne’er be bullied more, nor shrink  From men of large estate!

XXX.

And less, still less, will I submitTo poor mean acres’ worth of wit —   I that have heaven’s span — I that like Shakspeare’s self may dreamBeyond the very clouds, and seem  An Universal Man!

XXXI.

Mark, Graham, mark those gorgeous crowds!Like Birds of Paradise the clouds  Are winging on the wind!But what is grander than their range?More lovely than their sunset change? —   The free creative mind!

XXXII.

Well! the Adults’ School’s in the air!The greatest men are lesson’d there  As well as the Lessee!Oh could Earth’s Ellistons thus smallBehold the greatest stage of all,  How humbled they would be!

XXXIII.

“Oh would some Power the giftie gie ‘em,To see themselves as others see ‘em,”  ’Twould much abate their fuss!If they could think that from the iskiesThey are as little in our eyes  As they can think of us!

XXXIV.

Of us! are we gone out of sight?Lessen’d! diminish’d! vanish’d quite!  Lost to the tiny town!Beyond the Eagle’s ken — the gropeOf Dollond’s longest telescope!  Graham! we’re going down!

XXXV.

Ah me! I’ve touch’d a string that opesThe airy valve! — the gas elopes —   Down goes our bright Balloon! — Farewell the skies! the clouds! I smellThe lower world! Graham, farewell,  Man of the silken moon!

XXXVI.

The earth is close! the City nears — Like a burnt paper it appears,  Studded with tiny sparks!Methinks I hear the distant routOf coaches rumbling all about —   We’re close above the Parks!

XXXVII.

I hear the watchmen on their beats,Hawking the hour about the streets.  Lord! what a cruel jarIt is upon the earth to light!Well — there’s the finish of our flight!  I’ve smoked my last segar!

A FRIENDLY ADDRESS TO MRS. FRY IN NEWGATE.

  “Sermons in stones.” — As You Like It.  “Out! out! damned spot!” — Macbeth.

I.

I like you, Mrs. Fry! I like your name!It speaks the very warmth you feel in pressingIn daily act round Charity’s great flame — I like the crisp Browne way you have of dressing,Good Mrs. Fry! I like the placid claimYou make to Christianity, — professingLove, and good works — of course you buy of Barton,Beside the young Fry’s bookseller, Friend Darton!

II.

I like, good Mrs. Fry, your brethren mute — Those serious, solemn gentlemen that sport — I should have said, that wear, the sober suitShap’d like a court dress — but for heaven’s court.I like your sisters too, — sweet Rachel’s fruit — Protestant nuns! I like their stiff supportOf virtue — and I like to see them cladWith such a difference — just like good from bad!

III.

I like the sober colors — not the wet;Those gaudy manufactures of the rainbow — Green, orange, crimson, purple, violet — In which the fair, the flirting, and the vain, go — The others are a chaste, severer set,In which the good, the pious, and the plain, go — They’re moral standards, to know Christians by — In short, they are your colors, Mrs. Fry!

IV.

As for the naughty tinges of the prism — Crimson’s the cruel uniform of war — Blue — hue of brimstone! minds no catechism;And green is young and gay — not noted forGoodness, or gravity, or quietism,Till it is sadden’d down to tea-green, orOlive — and purple’s giv’n to wine, I guess;And yellow is a convict by its dress!

V.

They’re all the devil’s liveries, that menAnd women wear in servitude to sin — But how will they come off, poor motleys, whenSin’s wages are paid down, and they stand inThe Evil presence? You and I know, then,How all the party colors will beginTo part — the Pittite hues will sadden there,Whereas the Foxite shades will all show fair!

VI.

Witness their goodly labors one by one!Russet makes garments for the needy poor — Dove-color preaches love to all — and dunCalls every day at Charity’s street door — Brown studies scripture, and bids woman shunAll gaudy furnishing — olive doth pourOil into wounds: and drab and slate supplyScholar and book in Newgate, Mrs. Fry!

VII.

Well! Heaven forbid that I should discommendThe gratis, charitable, jail-endeavor!When all persuasions in your praises blend — The Methodist’s creed and cry are, Fry forever!No — I will be your friend — and, like a friend,Point out your very worst defect — Nay, neverStart at that word! But I must ask you whyYou keep your school in Newgate, Mrs. Fry?

VIII.

Top well I know the price our mother EvePaid for her schooling: but must all her daughtersCommit a petty larceny, and thieve — Pay down a crime for “entrance” to your “quarters”?Your classes may increase, but I must grieveOver your pupils at their bread and waters!Oh, tho’ it cost you rent — (and rooms run high)Keep your school out of Newgate, Mrs. Fry!

IX.

O save the vulgar soul before it’s spoil’d!Set up your mounted sign without the gate — And there inform the mind before ’tis soil’d!’Tis sorry writing on a greasy slate!Nay, if you would not have your labors foil’d,Take it inclining tow’rds a virtuous state,Not prostrate and laid flat — else, woman meek!The upright pencil will but hop and shriek!

X.

Ah, who can tell how hard it is to drainThe evil spirit from the heart it preys in, — To bring sobriety to life again,Choked with the vile Anacreontic raisin, — To wash Black Betty when her black’s ingrain, — To stick a moral lacquer on Moll Brazen,Of Suky Tawdry’s habits to deprive her;To tame the wild-fowl-ways of Jenny Diver!

XI.

Ah, who can tell how hard it is to teachMiss Nancy Dawson on her bed of straw — To make Long Sal sew up the endless breachShe made in manners — to write heaven’s own lawOn hearts of granite. — Nay, how hard to preach,In cells, that are not memory’s — to drawThe moral thread, thro’ the immoral eyeOf blunt Whitechapel natures, Mrs. Fry!

XII.

In vain you teach them baby-work within:’Tis but a clumsy botchery of crime;’Tis but a tedious darning of old sin — Come out yourself, and stitch up souls in time — It is too late for scouring to beginWhen virtue’s ravell’d out, when all the primeIs worn away, and nothing sound remains;You’ll fret the fabric out before the stains!

XIII.

I like your chocolate, good Mistress Fry!I like your cookery in every way;I like your shrove-tide service and supply;I like to hear your sweet Pandeans play;I like the pity in your full-brimm’d eye;I like your carriage, and your silken gray,Your dove-like habits, and your silent preaching;But I don’t like your Newgatory teaching.

XIV.

Come out of Newgate, Mrs. Fry! RepairAbroad, and find your pupils in the streets.O, come abroad into the wholesome air,And take your moral place, before Sin seatsHer wicked self in the Professor’s chair.Suppose some morals raw! the true receipt’sTo dress them in the pan, but do not tryTo cook them in the fire, good Mrs. Fry!

XV.

Put on your decent bonnet, and come out!Good lack! the ancients did not set up schoolsIn jail — but at the Porch! hinting, no doubt,That Vice should have a lesson in the rulesBefore ’twas whipt by law. — O come about,Good Mrs. Fry! and set up forms and stoolsAll down the Old Bailey, and thro’ Newgate Street,But not in Mr. Wontner’s proper seat!

XVI.

Teach Lady Barrymore, if, teaching, youThat peerless Peeress can absolve from dolor;Teach her it is not virtue to pursueRuin of blue, or any other color;Teach her it is not Virtue’s crown to rue,Month after month, the unpaid drunken dollar;Teach her that “flooring Charleys” is a gameUnworthy one that bears a Christian name.

XVII.

O come and teach our children — that ar’n’t ours — That heaven’s straight pathway is a narrow way,Not Broad St. Giles’s, where fierce Sin devoursChildren, like Time — or rather they both preyOn youth together — meanwhile Newgate low’rsEv’n like a black cloud at the close of day,To shut them out from any more blue sky:Think of these hopeless wretches, Mrs. Fry!

XVIII.

You are not nice — go into their retreats,And make them Quakers, if you will.— ‘Twere bestThey wore straight collars, and their shirts sans pleats;That they had hats with brims, — that they were drestIn garbs without lappels — than shame the streetsWith so much raggedness. — You may investMuch cash this way — but it will cost its price,To give a good, round, real cheque to Vice!

XIX.

In brief, — Oh teach the child its moral rote,Not in the way from which ‘twill not depart, — But out — out — out! Oh, bid it walk remote!And if the skies are clos’d against the smart,Ev’n let him wear the single-breasted coat,For that ensureth singleness of heart. — Do what you will, his every want supply,Keep him — but out of Newgate, Mrs. Fry!

ODE TO RICHARD MARTIN, ESQ.,

M.P. FOR GALWAY.

   “Martin in this has proved himself a very good man!”                                           — Boxiana.

I.

    How many sing of wars,    Of Greek and Trojan jars —     The butcheries of men!The Muse hath a “Perpetual Ruby Pen!”Dabbling with heroes and the blood they spill;    But no one sings the man    That, like a pelican,Nourishes Pity with his tender Bill!

II.

    Thou Wilberforce of hacks!    Of whites as well as blacks,    Pyebald and dapple gray,      Chestnut and bay —   No poet’s eulogy thy name adorns!    But oxen, from the fens,    Sheep — in their pens,Praise thee, and red cows with their winding horns!  Thou art sung on brutal pipes!    Drovers may curse thee,    Knackers asperse thee,  And sly M.P.’s bestow their cruel wipes;    But the old horse neighs thee,    And zebras praise thee, —   Asses, I mean — that have as many stripes!

III.

Hast thou not taught the Drover to forbear,In Smithfield’s muddy, murderous, vile environ, — Staying his lifted bludgeon in the air!    Bullocks don’t wear    Oxide of iron!The cruel Jarvy thou hast summon’d oft,Enforcing mercy on the coarse Yahoo,That thought his horse the courser of the two —   Whilst Swift smiled down aloft! — O worthy pair! for this, when ye inhabitBodies of birds — (if so the spirit shiftsFrom flesh to feather) — when the clown upliftsHis hands against the sparrow’s nest, to grab it, — He shall not harm the MARTINS and the Swifts!

IV.

Ah! when Dean Swift was quick, how he enhanc’dThe horse! — and humbled biped man like Plato!But now he’s dead, the charger is mischanc’d — Gone backward in the world — and not advanc’d, —         Remember Cato!Swift was the horse’s champion — not the King’s,        Whom Southey sings,Mounted on Pegasus — would he were thrown!He’ll wear that ancient hackney to the bone,Like a mere clothes-horse airing royal things!Ah well-a-day! the ancients did not useTheir steeds so cruelly! — let it debar menFrom wanton rowelling and whip’s abuse —     Look at the ancients’ Muse!      Look at their Carmen!

V.

    O, Martin I how thine eyes —   That one would think had put aside its lashes, —         That can’t bear gashesThro’ any horse’s side, must ache to spyThat horrid window fronting Fetter-lane, — For there’s a nag the crows have pick’d for victual,  Or some man painted in a bloody vein —     Gods! is there no Horse-spital!That such raw shows must sicken the humane!      Sure Mr. Whittle      Loves thee but little,To let that poor horse linger in his pane!

VI.

  O build a Brookes’s Theatre for horses!O wipe away the national reproach —   And find a decent Vulture for their corses!        And in thy funeral trackFour sorry steeds shall follow in each coach!  Steeds that confess “the luxury of wo!”True mourning steeds, in no extempore black,        And many a wretched hackShall sorrow for thee, — sore with kick and blowAnd bloody gash — it is the Indian knack — (Save that the savage is his own tormentor) — Banting shall weep too in his sable scarf — The biped woe the quadruped shall enter,  And Man and Horse go half and half,As if their griefs met in a common Centaur!

ODE TO THE GREAT UNKNOWN.

   “O breathe not his name!” — Moore.

I.

      Thou Great Unknown!I do not mean Eternity, nor Death,      That vast incog!For I suppose thou hast a living breath,Howbeit we know not from whose lungs ’tis blown,      Thou man of fog!Parent of many children — child of none!      Nobody’s son!Nobody’s daughter — but a parent still!Still but an ostrich parent of a batchOf orphan eggs, — left to the world to hatch      Superlative Nil!A vox and nothing more, — yet not Vauxhall;A head in papers, yet without a curl!      Not the Invisible Girl!No hand — but a handwriting on a wall —       A popular nonentity,Still call’d the same, — without identity!      A lark, heard out of sight, — A nothing shin’d upon, — invisibly bright,      “Dark with excess of light!”Constable’s literary John-a-nokes — The real Scottish wizard — and not which,      Nobody — in a niche;      Every one’s hoax!      Maybe Sir Walter Scott —         Perhaps not!Why dost thou so conceal and puzzle curious folks?

II.

Thou, — whom the second-sighted never saw,The Master Fiction of fictitious history!      Chief Nong-tong-paw!No mister in the world — and yet all mystery!The “tricksy spirit” of a Scotch Cock Lane — A novel Junius puzzling the world’s brain — A man of Magic — yet no talisman!A man of clair obscure — not he o’ the moon!      A star — at noon.A non-descriptus in a caravan,A private — of no corps — a northern light  In a dark lantern, — Bogie in a crape —       A figure — but no shape;      A vizor — and no knight;  The real abstract hero of the age;  The staple Stranger of the stage;A Some One made in every man’s presumption,Frankenstein’s monster — but instinct with gumption;Another strange state captive in the north,  Constable-guarded in an iron mask —         Still let me ask,      Hast thou no silver platter,No door-plate, or no card — or some such matter,To scrawl a name upon, and then cast forth?

III.

Thou Scottish Barmecide, feeding the hungerOf Curiosity with airy gammon!      Thou mystery-monger,Dealing it out like middle cut of salmon,That people buy and can’t make head or tail of it;(Howbeit that puzzle never hurts the sale of it;)Thou chief of authors mystic and abstractical,That lay their proper bodies on the shelf — Keeping thyself so truly to thyself,      Thou Zimmerman made practical!Thou secret fountain of a Scottish style,        That, like the Nile,Hideth its source wherever it is bred,      But still keeps disemboguing      (Not disembroguing)Thro’ such broad sandy mouths without a head!Thou disembodied author — not yet dead, — The whole world’s literary Absentee!      Ah! wherefore hast thou fled,Thou learned Nemo — wise to a degree,      Anonymous LL.D.!

IV.

  Thou nameless captain of the nameless gangThat do — and inquests cannot say who did it!  Wert thou at Mrs. Donatty’s death-pang?Hast thou made gravy of Weare’s watch — or hid it?Hast thou a Blue-Beard chamber? Heaven forbid it!  I should be very loth to see thee hang!I hope thou hast an alibi well plann’d,An innocent, altho’ an ink-black hand.Tho’ that hast newly turn’d thy private bolt on    The curiosity of all invaders —   I hope thou art merely closeted with Colton,Who knows a little of the Holy Land,    Writing thy next new novel — The Crusaders!

V.

      Perhaps thou wert even bornTo be Unknown. — Perhaps hung, some foggy morn,At Captain Coram’s charitable wicket,        Pinn’d to a ticketThat Fate had made illegible, foreseeingThe future great unmentionable being. —       Perhaps thou hast riddenA scholar poor on St. Augustine’s Back,Like Chatterton, and found a dusty pack  Of Rowley novels in an old chest hidden;A little hoard of clever simulation,  That took the town — and Constable has biddenSome hundred pounds for a continuation — To keep and clothe thee in genteel starvation.

VI.

I like thy Waverley — first of thy breeding;    I like its modest “sixty years ago,”As if it was not meant for ages’ reading.        I don’t like Ivanhoe,Tho’ Dymoke does — it makes him think of clattering      In iron overalls before the kingSecure from battering, to ladies flattering,  Tuning, his challenge to the gauntlet’s ring — Oh better far than all that anvil clang  It was to hear thee touch the famous stringOf Robin Hood’s tough bow and make it twang,  Rousing him up, all verdant, with his clan,      Like Sagittarian Pan!

VII.

I like Guy Mannering — but not that sham sonOf Brown: — I like that literary Sampson,Nine-tenths a Dyer, with a smack of Porson.I like Dirk Hatteraick, that rough sea Orson          That slew the Gauger;And Dandie Dinmont, like old Ursa Major;And Merrilies, young Bertram’s old defender,      That Scottish Witch of Endor,That doom’d thy fame. She was the Witch, I take it,To tell a great man’s fortune — or to make it!

VIII.

I like thy Antiquary. With his fit on,  He makes me think of Mr. Britton,I like thy Antiquary. With Ins fit on,It makes me thinkWho has — or had — within his garden wall,A miniature Stone Henge, so very small    That sparrows find it difficult to sit on;And Dousterwivel, like Poyais’ M’Gregor;And Edie Ochiltree, that old Blue Beggar,          Painted so cleverly,I think thou surely knowest Mrs. Beverly!I like thy Barber — him that fir’d the Beacon — But that’s a tender subject now to speak on!

IX.

  I like long-arm’d Rob Roy. — His very charmsFashion’d him for renown! — In sad sincerity,  The man that robs or writes must have long arms,If he’s to hand his deeds down to posterity!Witness Miss Biffin’s posthumous prosperity,Her poor brown crumpled mummy (nothing more)          Bearing the name she bore,A thing Time’s tooth is tempted to destroy!But Roys can never die — why else, in verity,Is Paris echoing with “Vive le Roy”!  Aye, Rob shall live again, and deathless DiVernon, of course, shall often live again — Whilst there’s a stone in Newgate, or a chain,            Who can pass byNor feel the Thief’s in prison and at hand?There be Old Bailey Jarvies on the stand!

X.

  I like thy Landlord’s Tales! — I like that IdolOf love and Lammermoor — the blue-eyed maidThat led to church the mounted cavalcade,  And then pull’d up with such a bloody bridal!Throwing equestrian Hymen on his haunches — I like the family (not silver) branches            That hold the tapers  To light the serious legend of Montrose. — I like M’Aulay’s second-sighted vapors,As if he could not walk or talk alone,Without the devil — or the Great Unknown, —   Dalgetty is the dearest of Ducrows!

XI.

I like St. Leonard’s Lily — drench’d with dew!I like thy Vision of the Covenanters,That bloody-minded Grahame shot and slew.      I like the battle lost and won;      The hurly-burlys bravely done,The warlike gallop and the warlike canters!I like that girded chieftain of the ranters,Ready to preach down heathens, or to grapple,            With one eye on his sword,            And one upon the Word, — How he would cram the Caledonian Chapel!I like stern Claverhouse, though he cloth dapple  His raven steed with blood of many a corse — I like dear Mrs. Headrigg, that unravels  Her texts of scripture on a trotting horse — She is so like Rae Wilson when he travels!

XII.

I like thy Kenilworth — but I’m not going  To take a Retrospective Re-ReviewOf all thy dainty novels — merely showing  The old familiar faces of a few,              The question to renew,How thou canst leave such deeds without a name,Forego the unclaim’d Dividends of fame,Forego the smiles of literary houris — Mid-Lothian’s trump, and Fife’s shrill note of praise,       And all the Carse of Gowrie’s,When thou might’st have thy statue in Cromarty —   Or see thy image on Italian trays,Betwixt Queen Caroline and Buonaparté,  Be painted by the Titian of R.A’s,Or vie in signboards with the Royal Guelph!  P’rhaps have thy bust set cheek by jowl with Homer’s,P’rhaps send out plaster proxies of thyself  To other Englands with Australian roamers —     Mayhap, in Literary Owhyhee    Displace the native wooden gods, or beThe china-Lar of a Canadian shelf!

XIII.

  It is not modesty that bids thee hide — She never wastes her blushes out of sight:          It is not to invite  The world’s decision, for thy fame is tried, —   And thy fair deeds are scatter’d far and wide,Even royal heads are with thy readers reckon’d, —   From men in trencher caps to trencher scholars          In crimson collars,And learned serjeants in the Forty-Second!Whither by land or sea art thou not beckon’d?Mayhap exported from the Frith of Forth,Defying distance and its dim control;  Perhaps read about Stromness, and reckon’d worthA brace of Miltons for capacious soul —   Perhaps studied in the whalers, further north,And set above ten Shakspeares near the pole!

XIV.

Oh, when thou writest by Aladdin’s lamp,With such a giant genius at command,          Forever at thy stamp,To fill thy treasury from Fairy Land,When haply thou might’st ask the pearly handOf some great British Vizier’s eldest daughter,          Tho’ princes sought her,And lead her in procession hymeneal,Oh, why dost thou remain a Beau Ideal!Why stay, a ghost, on the Lethean Wharf,Envelop’d in Scotch mist and gloomy fogs?Why, but because thou art some puny Dwarf,Some hopeless Imp, like Biquet with the Tuft,Fearing, for all thy wit, to be rebuff’d,Or bullied by our great reviewing Gogs?

XV.

      What in this masquing ageMaketh Unknowns so many and so shy?    What but the critic’s page?One hath a cast, he hides from the world’s eye;Another hath a wen, — he won’t show where;        A third has sandy hair,A hunch upon his back, or legs awry,Things for a vile reviewer to espy!Another hath a mangel-wurzel nose, —         Finally, this is dimpled,  Like a pale crumpet face, or that is pimpled,Things for a monthly critic to expose — Nay, what is thy own case — that being small,Thou choosest to be nobody at all!

XVI.

Well, thou art prudent, with such puny bones —     E’en like Elshender, the mysterious elf,    That shadowy revelation of thyself — To build thee a small hut of haunted stones — For certainly the first pernicious manThat ever saw thee, would quickly draw theeIn some vile literary caravan —           Shown for a shilling          Would be thy killing,Think of Crachami’s miserable span!No tinier frame the tiny spark could dwell in          Than there it fell in — But when she felt herself a show, she triedTo shrink from the world’s eye, poor dwarf! and died!

XVII.

    O since it was thy fortune to be bornA dwarf on some Scotch Inch, and then to flinchFrom all the Gog-like jostle of great men,Still with thy small crow penAmuse and charm thy lonely hours forlorn — Still Scottish story daintily adorn,  Be still a shade — and when this age is fled,When we poor sons and daughters of reality  Are in our graves forgotten and quite dead,And Time destroys our mottoes of morality — The lithographic hand of Old MortalityShall still restore thy emblem on the stone,          A featureless death’s head,And rob Oblivion ev’n of the Unknown!

ODE TO JOSEPH GRIMALDI, SENIOR.

   “This fellow’s wise enough to play the fool,   And to do that well craves a kind of wit.”                            Twelfth Night.

I.

Joseph! they say thou’st left the stage,To toddle down the hill of life,And taste the flannel’d ease of age,Apart from pantomimic strife — “Retir’d — (for Young would call it so) — The world shut out” — in Pleasant Row!

II.

And hast thou really wash’d at lastFrom each white cheek the red half-moon!And all thy public Clownship cast,To play the private Pantaloon?All youth — all ages — yet to beShall have a heavy miss of thee!

III.

Thou didst not preach to make us wise — Thou hadst no finger in our schooling — Thou didst not “lure us to the skies” — Thy simple, simple trade was — Fooling!And yet, Heav’n knows! we could — we canMuch “better spare a better man!”

IV.

Oh, had it pleased the gout to takeThe reverend Croly from the stage,Or Southey, for our quiet’s sake,Or Mr. Fletcher, Cupid’s sage,Or, damme! namby-pamby Poole, — Or any other clown or fool!

V.

Go, Dibdin — all that bear the name,Go, Byeway Highway man! go! go!Go, Skeffy — man of painted fame,But leave thy partner, painted Joe!I could bear Kirby on the wane,Or Signor Paulo with a sprain!

VI.

Had Joseph Wilfrid Parkins madeHis gray hairs scarce in private peace — Had Waithman sought a rural shade — Or Cobbett ta’en a turnpike lease — Or Lisle Bowles gone to Balaam Hill — I think I could be cheerful still!

VII.

Had Medwin left off, to his praise,Dead lion kicking, like — a friend! — Had long, long Irving gone his ways,To Muse on death at Ponder’s EndOr Lady Morgan taken leaveOf Letters — still I might not grieve!

VIII.

But, Joseph — everybody’s Jo! — Is gone — and grieve I will and must!As Hamlet did for Yorick, soWill I for thee (though not yet dust),And talk as he did when he miss’dThe kissing-crust that he had kiss’d!

IX.

Ah, where is now thy rolling head!Thy winking, reeling, drunken eyes,(As old Catullus would have said),Thy oven-mouth, that swallow’d pies — Enormous hunger — monstrous drowth!Thy pockets greedy as thou mouth!

X.

Ah, where thy ears, so often cuff’d! — Thy funny, flapping, filching hands! — Thy partridge body, always stuff’dWith waifs, and strays, and contrabands! — Thy foot — like Berkeley’s Foote — for why?’Twas often made to wipe an eye!

XI.

Ah, where thy legs — that witty pair!For “great wits jump” — and so did they!Lord! how they leap’d in lamplight air!Caper’d — and bounc’d — and strode away! — That years should tame the legs — alack!I’ve seen spring thro’ an Almanack!

XII.

But bounds will have their bound — the shocksOf Time will cramp the nimblest toes;And those that frisk’d in silken clocksMay look to limp in fleecy hose — One only — (Champion of the ring)Could ever make his Winter, — Spring!

XIII.

And gout, that owns no odds betweenThe toe of Czar and toe of Clown,Will visit — but I did not meanTo moralize, though I am grownThus sad, — Thy going seem’d to beatA muffled drum for Fun’s retreat!

XIV.

And, may be— ’tis no time to smotherA sigh, when two prime wags of LondonAre gone — thou, Joseph, one, — the otherA Joe!— “sic transit gloria Munden!”A third departure some insist on, — Stage-apoplexy threatens Liston! —

XV.

Nay, then, let Sleeping Beauty sleepWith ancient “Dozey” to the dregs — Let Mother Goose wear mourning deep,And put a hatchment o’er her eggs!Let Farley weep — for Magic’s manIs gone, — his Christmas Caliban!

XVI.

Let Kemble, Forbes, and Willet rain,As tho’ they walk’d behind thy bier, — For since thou wilt not play again,What matters, — if in heav’n or here!Or in thy grave, or in thy bed! — There’s Quick might just as well be dead!

XVII.

Oh, how will thy departure cloudThe lamplight of the little breast!The Christmas child will grieve aloudTo miss his broadest friend and best, — Poor urchin! what avails to himThe cold New Monthly’s Ghost of Grimm?

XVIII.

For who like thee could ever stride!Some dozen paces to the mile! — The motley, medley coach provide — Or like Joe Frankenstein compileThe vegetable man complete! — A proper Covent Garden feat!

XIX.

Oh, who like thee could ever drink,Or eat, — swill, swallow — bolt — and choke!Nod, weep, and hiccup — sneeze and wink? — Thy very yawn was quite a joke!Tho’ Joseph, Junior, acts not ill,“There’s no Fool like the old Fool” still!

XX.

Joseph, farewell! dear funny Joe!We met with mirth, — we part in pain!For many a long, long year must goEre Fun can see thy like again — For Nature does not keep great storesOf perfect Clowns — that are not Boors!

AN ADDRESS TO THE STEAM WASHING COMPANY.

   “Archer. How many are there, Scrub?”   “Scrub. Five-and-forty, Sir.” Beaux’ Stratagem.

   “For shame — let the linen alone!” M. W. of Windsor.

Mr. Scrub — Mr. Slop — or whoever you be!The Cock of Steam Laundries, — the head PatenteeOf Associate Cleansers, — Chief founder and primeOf the firm for the wholesale distilling of grime — Co-partners and dealers, in linen’s propriety — That make washing public — and wash in society — O lend me your ear! if that ear can forego,For a moment, the music that bubbles below, — From your new Surrey Geisers all foaming and hot, — That soft “simmer’s sang” so endear’d to the Scot — If your hands may stand still, or your steam without danger — If your suds will not cool, and a mere simple stranger,Both to you and to washing, may put in a rub, — O wipe out your Amazon arms from the tub, — And lend me your ear, — Let me modestly pleadFor a race that your labors may soon supersede — For a race that, now washing no living affords — Like Grimaldi must leave their aquatic old boards,Not with pence in their pockets to keep them at ease,Not with bread in the funds — or investments of cheese, — But to droop like sad willows that liv’d by a stream,Which the sun has suck’d up into vapor and steam.Ah, look at the laundress, before you begrudge — Her hard daily bread to that laudable drudge — When chanticleer singeth his earliest matins,She slips her amphibious feet in her pattens,And beginneth her toil while the morn is still gray,As if she was washing the night into day — Not with sleeker or rosier fingers AuroraBeginneth to scatter the dewdrops before her;Not Venus that rose from the billow so early,Look’d down on the foam with a forehead more pearly — Her head is involv’d in an aërial mist,And a bright-beaded bracelet encircles her wrist;Her visage glows warm with the ardor of duty;She’s Industry’s moral — she’s all moral beauty!Growing brighter and brighter at every rub — Would any man ruin her? — No, Mr. Scrub!No man that is manly would work her mishap — No man that is manly would covet her cap — Nor her apron — her hose — nor her gown made of stuff — Nor her gin — nor her tea — nor her wet pinch of snuff!Alas! so she thought — but that slippery hopeHas betrayed her — as tho’ she had trod on her soap!And she, — whose support, — like the fishes that fly,Was to have her fins wet, must now drop from her sky — She whose living it was, and a part of her fare,To be damp’d once a day, like the great white sea bear,With her hands like a sponge, and her head like a mop — Quite a living absorbent that revell’d in slop — She that paddled in water, must walk upon sand,And sigh for her deeps like a turtle on land!

  Lo, then, the poor laundress, all wretched she stands,Instead of a counterpane wringing her hands!All haggard and pinch’d, going down in life’s vale,With no fagot for burning, like Allan-a-dale!No smoke from her flue — and no steam from her pane,There once she watch’d heaven, fearing God and the rain — Or gaz’d o’er her bleach-field so fairly engross’d,Till the lines wander’d idle from pillar to post!Ah, where are the playful young pinners — ah, whereThe harlequin quilts that cut capers in air — The brisk waltzing stockings — the white and the black,That danced on the tight-rope, or swung on the slack — The light sylph-like garments, so tenderly pinn’d,That blew into shape, and embodied the wind!There was white on the grass — there was white on the spray — Her garden — it looked like a garden of May!But now all is dark — not a shirt’s on a shrub — You’ve ruin’d her prospects in life, Mr. Scrub!You’ve ruin’d her custom — now families drop her — From her silver reduc’d — nay, reduc’d from her copper!The last of her washing is done at her eye,One poor little kerchief that never gets dry!From mere lack of linen she can’t lay a cloth,And boils neither barley nor alkaline broth, — But her children come round her as victuals grow scant,And recall, with foul faces, the source of their want — When she thinks of their poor little mouths to be fed,And then thinks of her trade that is utterly dead,And even its pearlashes laid in the grave — Whilst her tub is a dry rotting, stave after stave,And the greatest of Coopers, ev’n he that they dubSir Astley, can’t bind up her heart or her tub, — Need you wonder she curses your bones, Mr. Scrub!Need you wonder, when steam has depriv’d her of bread,If she prays that the evil may visit your head — Nay, scald all the heads of your Washing Committee, — If she wishes you all the soot blacks of the city — In short, not to mention all plagues without number,If she wishes you all in the Wash at the Humber!

  Ah, perhaps, in some moment of drowth and despair,When her linen got scarce, and her washing grew rare — When the sum of her suds might be summ’d in a bowl,And the rusty cold iron quite enter’d her soul — When, perhaps, the last glance of her wandering eyeHad caught “the Cock Laundresses’ Coach” going by,Or her lines that hung idle, to waste the fine weather,And she thought of her wrongs and her rights both together,In a lather of passion that froth’d as it rose,Too angry for grammar, too lofty for prose,On her sheet — if a sheet were still left her — to write,Some remonstrance like this then, perchance, saw the light —

LETTER OF REMONSTRANCE

FROM BRIDGET JONES TO THE NOBLEMEN AND GENTLEMEN FORMING THE WASHING COMMITTEE.

It’s a shame, so it is, — men can’t Let aloneJobs as is Woman’s right to do — and go about there Own — Theirs Reforms enuff Alreddy without your new schoolsFor washing to sit Up, — and push the Old Tubs from their stools!But your just like the Raddicals, — for upsetting of the SuddsWhen the world wagged well enuff — and Wommen washed your old dirty duds,I’m Certain sure Enuff your Ann Sisters had no steem Indians, that’s Flat, — But I warrant your Four Fathers went as Tidy and gentlemanny for all that — I suppose your the Family as lived in the Great KittleI see on Clapham Commun, some times a very considerable period back when      I were little,And they Said it went with Steem, — But that was a joke!For I never see none come of it, — that’s out of it — but only sum Smoak — And for All your Power of Horses about your Indians you never had but TwoIn my time to draw you About to Fairs — and hang you, you know that’s true!And for All your fine Perspectuses, — howsomever you bewhich ‘em,Theirs as Pretty ones off Primerows Hill, as ever a one at Mitchum,Tho’ I cant sea What Prospectives and washing has with one another to Do — It aint as if a Bird’seye Hankicher could take a Birds-high view!But Thats your look out — I’ve not much to do with that — But pleas God to      hold up fine,I’d show you caps and pinners and small things as lilliwhit as Ever      crosst the LineWithout going any Father off then Little Parodies Place,And Thats more than you Can — and I’ll say it behind your face — But when Folks talks of washing, it aint for you to Speak, — As kept Dockter Pattyson out of his Shirt for a Weak!Thinks I, when I heard it — Well there’s a pretty go!That comes o’ not marking of things or washing out the marks, and      Huddling ‘em up so!Till Their friends conies and owns them, like drownded corpeses in a Vault,But may Hap you havint Larn’d to spel — and That aint your Fault,Only you ought to leafe the Linnins to them as has Larn’d, — For if it warnt for Washing, — and whare Bills is concarnedWhat’s the Yuse, of all the world, for a Womans Headication,And Their Being maid Schollards of Sundays — fit for any Cityation.

  Well, what I says is This — when every Kittle has its spout,Theirs no nead for Companys to puff steem about!To be sure its very Well, when Their aint enuff WindFor blowing up Boats with, — but not to hurt human kindLike that Pearkins with his Blunderbush, that’s loaded with hot water,Tho’ a X Sherif might know Better, than make things for slaughtter,As if War warnt Cruel enuff — wherever it befalls,Without shooting poor sogers, with sich scalding hot balls, — But thats not so Bad as a Sett of Bare Faced ScrubbsAs joins their Sopes together, and sits up Steem rubbing Clubs,For washing Dirt Cheap, — and eating other Peple’s grubs!Which is all verry Fine for you and your Patent Tea,But I wonders How Poor Wommen is to get Their Beau-He!They must drink Hunt wash (the only wash God nose there will be!)And their Little drop of Somethings as they takes for their Goods,When you and your Steem has ruined (G — d forgive mee) their lively Hoods,Poor Wommen as was born to Washing in their youth!And now must go and Larn other Buisnesses Four Sooth!But if so be They leave their Lines what are they to go at — They won’t do for Angells — nor any Trade like That,Nor we cant Sow Babby Work, — for that’s all Bespoke, — For the Quakers in Bridle! and a vast of the confined FolkDo their own of Themselves — even the better-most of em — aye, and evn them      of middling degrees — Why Lauk help you Babby Linen aint Bread and Cheese!Nor we can’t go a hammering the roads into Dust,But we must all go and be Bankers, — like Mr. Marshes and      Mr. Charnberses, — and that’s what we must!God nose you oght to have more Concern for our Sects,When you nose you have suck’d us and hanged round our Mutherly necks,And remembers what you Owes to Wommen Besides washing — You aint, blame you! like Men to go a slushing and sloshingIn mop caps, and pattins, adoing of Females LabersAnd prettily jear’d At you great Horse God Meril things, aint you now by      your next door naybors — Lawk I thinks I see you with your Sleaves tuckt upNo more like Washing than is drownding of a Pupp,And for all Your Fine Water Works going round and roundThey’ll scruntch your Bones some day — I’ll be boundAnd no more nor be a gudgement, — for it cant come to goodTo sit up agin Providince, which your a doing, — nor not fit It should,For man warnt maid for Wommens starvation,Nor to do away Laundrisses as is Links of the Creation — And cant be dun without in any Country But a naked Hottinpot Nation.Ah, I wish our Minister would take one of your TubbsAnd preach a Sermon in it, and give you some good rubs — But I warrants you reads (for you cant spel we nose) nyther Bybills or      Good Tracks,Or youd no better than Taking the close off one’s Backs — And let your neighbors oxin an Asses alone, — And every Thing thats hern, — and give every one their Hone!

  Well, its God for us All, and every Washer Wommen for herself,And so you might, without shoving any on us off the shelf,