Book 2 — COLOGNE[477:1]
Reading edition
COLOGNE[477:1]
In Köhln[477:2], a town of monks and bones[477:3], And pavements fang'd with murderous stones And rags, and hags, and hideous wenches; I counted two and seventy stenches, All well defined, and several stinks! 5 Ye Nymphs that reign o'er sewers and sinks, The river Rhine, it is well known, Doth wash your city of Cologne; But tell me, Nymphs, what power divine Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine[477:4]? 10
1828.
FOOTNOTES:
Notes in this chapter
Note 1 · First published in Friendship's Offering, 1834, as No. IV of 'Lightheartednesses in Rhyme'. It follows the lines 'On my joyful Departure', &Note 2 · Köhln Coln F. O. The German Name of Cologne. F. O.]Note 3 · Of the eleven thousand virgin Martyrs. F. O.Note 4 · As Necessity is the mother of Invention, and extremes beget each other, the facts above recorded may explain how this ancient town (which, a