End of Volume III.
Reading edition
Footnotes:
“‘Charge, Chester, charge! On, Stanley, on’
Were the last words of Marmion.”
Epigram
(On placing the Bankrupt Duke of York’s statue on a high column).
To put the Duke upon so high a column,
Appears to me a mockery rather solemn.
Such lofty place for him cannot be meet;
Surely the project they should straight abandon
Of placing him, who’d scarce a leg to stand on
Upon a thing of near one hundred feet.
Figaro in London, Dec., 1834.
Epigram
(On the Column to the Duke of York’s memory.
In former times th’ illustrious dead were burned,
Their hearts preserved in sepulchre inurned.
This column, then, commemorates the part
Which custom makes us single out—the heart;
You ask “How by a column this is done,”
I answer, “’Tis a hollow thing of stone.”
Figaro in London, March, 1833.
Midnight, and yet no eye
Through all the Imperial City closed in sleep!
Behold her streets a blaze
With light that seems to kindle the red sky,
Her myriads swarming through the crowded ways!
Master and slave, old age and infancy,
All, all abroad to gaze;
House-top and balcony
Clustered with women, who throw back their veils,
With unimpeded and insatiate sight
To view the funeral pomp which passes by,
As if the mournful rite
Were but to them a scene of joyance and delight.
“Above he fills up Shakespeare’s place,
And Shakespeare fills up his below.”
“Health to great Jeffrey; Heaven preserve his life,
To flourish on the fertile shores of Fife,
And guard it sacred in its future wars,
Since authors sometimes seek the field of Mars.
Can none remember that eventful day,
That ever glorious, almost fatal fray,
When Little’s leadless pistol met his eye,
And Bow Street myrmidons stood laughing by?”
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.
“Wake muse of fire, your ardent lyre,
Pour forth your amorous ditty,
But first profound, in duty bound,
Applaud the new committee;
Their scenic art from Thespis’ cart
All jaded nags discarding,
To London drove this queen of love,
Enchanting Mrs. Mardyn.
Though tides of love around her rove, I fear she’ll choose Pactolus— In that bright surge bards ne’er immerge, So I must e’en swim solus. ‘Out, out, alas!’ ill-fated gas, That shin’st round Govent Garden, Thy ray how flat, compared with that From eye of Mrs. Mardyn!”
“Chaos of thought and passion all confused,
Still by himself abused or disabused:
Created part to rise and part to fall,
Great lord of all things, yet a slave to all:
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled—
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world.”
“No! we assure our generous benefactors
’Twill only burn the scenery and the actors!”
“And did you not hear of a jolly young waterman?”
“Sit still, there’s nothing in it,
We’ll undertake to drown you in a single minute.”
“Blow, wind—come, rack, in ages yet unborn,
Our castle’s strength shall laugh a siege to scorn”—
“Bob. Zounds, the castle’s on fire!
Sir A. Yes.
Bob. Where’s your patent liquid for extinguishing fire?
Sir A. It is not fixed.
Bob. Then where’s your patent fire-escape?
Sir A. It is not fixed.
Bob. You are never at a loss?
Sir A. Never.
Bob. Then what do you mean to do?
Sir A. I don’t know.”
Transcriber’s Note:
This book was written in a period when many words had not become standardized in their spelling. Words may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent hyphenation in the text. These have been left unchanged unless indicated below. Misspelled words were not corrected.
Footnotes were renumbered sequentially and were moved to the end of the book. Obvious printing errors, such as backwards, upside down, or partially printed letters and punctuation, were corrected. Unprinted punctuation and final stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were added. Commas were changed to stops at ends of sentences and abbreviations. Duplicate words and letters at line endings or page breaks were removed. Quotation marks were adjusted to match as pairs.
Where there was a difference in punctuation, accents, hyphenation, etc. between the index entry and the poem text, the index entry was adjusted to match that of the poem.
There are two anchors to Footnote [14]. A word is not printed in Footnote [123]: … used to be laid [in/on] tombs as food …
In the Contents of Parts, Page 187 was changed to Page 137 for Part 31.
In the index for March, March, Make-rags, the page number was changed from 32 to 33.
“THE COMMONEWEAL, A Song for Unionists,” and “THE OLD CAUSE, A Counterblast” were printed as side-by-side columns over three pages. The poems were consolidated so that the stanzas of each poem are sequential.