Volume 10 — VIVE LA BAGATELLE

("Swift's Cheerful Creed")

BY CLINTON SCOLLARD

A bumper to the jolly Dean Who, in "Augustan" times, Made merriment for fat and lean In jocund prose and rhymes! Ah, but he drove a pranksome quill! With quips he wove a spell; His creed—he cried it with a will— Was "Vive la bagatelle!" Oh, there were reckless jesters then! And when a man was hit, He quick returned the stroke again With trenchant blade of wit. 'Twas parry, thrust, and counter-thrust That round the board befell; They quaffed the wine and crunched the crust With "Vive la bagatelle!" How rang the genial laugh of Gay At Pope's defiant ire! How Parnell's sallies brought in play The rapier wit of Prior! And how o'er all the banter's shift— The laughter's fall and swell— Upleaped the great guffaw of Swift, With "Vive la bagatelle!" O moralist, frown not so dark, Purse not thy lip severe; 'T will warm the heart if ye but hark The mirth of "yester year." To-day we wear too grave a face; We slave,—we buy and sell; Forget a while mad Mammon's race In "Vive la bagatelle!"