Here and There : Quaint Quotations. Selected by H. Sidney
Lear. (Rivington.)—Mr. Lear, himself a notable master of humour, has put together a capital collection of good things. There is little or nothing that we should mark for omission, unless it be Byron's verses about Keats and the Quarterly Review. It has long ago been settled that Keats did not die of a review, that his death was not even hastened by it. This, however, is a little matter. The savagery of the Quarter/y, a tradition which it still loyally preserves, is very well represented by the myth. The serious. mistake is the attributing of the article to Milmau, a distinct wrong to a good and generous man, which we are sorry to see perpetuated. The book presents us with some curious survivals. Here is a quatrain on "Trades' Unionists " :—
" What is a Un'on'et ? One who has yearnings For an equal oirision of uneqn Ll earnings ; Tiller or bungler, or both, he is willing To fork out his penny, and pocket your shilling."
Whom does the reader suppose to have written this ? A Tory lam- pooner? Not so ; but Ebenezer Elliot, the "Corn-Law Rhymer." Here is something written by W. M. Praed in 1833, which might have appeared yesterday, a few names and allusions changed :—
" Sleep, Mr. Speaker ; it's surely fair,
If you don't in your bed, that you should in your chair ; Longer and longer still they grow, Tory and Radical, Aye and No,
Talking by night, and talking by day—
Sleep, Mr. Speaker, sleep, seep while you may!
Sleep, Mr. Speaker; slumber lies Light and brief on a Speaker's eyes ; Fie.don or Finn, in a minute or two, Some disorderly thing will do;
Rot will chase repose away—
Sleep, Mr. Speaker, sleep, sleep while you may Sleep, Mr. Speaker ; Cobbett will soon More to abolish the Sun and the Moon ; Rome, no doubt, will be taking the sense Of the House on a saving of thirteen pence ; Grattan will growl, or Baldwin bray— Sleep, Mr. Speaker, sleep, sleep while you may !
Sleep, Mr. Speaker ; dream of the time When Loyalty was not quite a crime.
When Grant was a pupil in Canning's school, And Palmerston fancied Wood a fool :
Lora, how principles r ass as ay !- bleep, Mr. Speaker, sleep, sleep while you may I"
Previous page
