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Some tender soft and plaintive air,
Which spoke the lover's anxious care,
Alternate hope, and deep despair,

With dying symphonies between.

The airy dance and jovial song,
By turns solac'd the courtly throng,
And merrily they tripp'd along

To hautboy dulcimer and fiddle;
While some to give their wit a handle,
Sat down to chocolate and scandal,

Conundrum, forfeit, jest, and riddle.

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And I might tell, as bards have done-
Of those that lost, and those that won,
How many curs'd the morning sun,

(Such curses heav'n ne'er bring upon us!) How fair ones took their partners in, (A common case with those who win,) . And lady ROUNDABOUT M.FLINN · Was six by cards, and four by honors..

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It was propos’d at council board,
By many a sage, and many a lord,
Who Gotham, and it's Prince ador’d,

That some FAIR NYMPH of honor peerless

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Teazen,

They with true magisterial dryness: . ..
Disclos’d the object of their mission.

• XVI.
The Prince he started, gap’d, look'd weazen,
The nobles with sufficient reason,
Were fearful they had utter'd treason,
And whispering “ Sure the PRINCE will

scold us!”
Besought in supplicating strain,
Their heads might not be cut in twain,
But be permitted to remain
Just where they stood-upon their shoulders..

XVII.
Loud laugh'd the Prince to hear them croak,
His Highness much enjoy'd the joke,
And thus in gentle accents spoke,

“ Good gentlemen! may I be pounded
In some apothecary's mortar,
Or stand up, by the head the shorter,
Be kill'd by land, or drown’d by water,

But that your fears are idly grounded.

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XVIII.

"Tis true, I started and was dumb, To see your rev’rend worships come Upon an embassy so rum,

With long bag-wigs, and robes of ermine;

And, (to add comfort to my life).
Beseech me thus to take a wife,
(Heav'n guard me from the nuptial strife!)
A thing I ne'er could yet determine

XIX.
* For women are such ñoisy cattle,
Their pretty tongues go tittle tattle,
Just like a fine three-farthing rattle,

Which we may buy at fair of Bart'lemy - And then the thought is most appalling,

Of wives hallooing; children squalling,
Such matrimonial caterwauling
I think is quite enough to startle me.

XX. -
" And then you'll own (for nought more sureis,)
That ladies tho' in beauty houries, '
In temper may be downright furies,

And make their husbands in the room sticks;
And in the sight of ev'ry neighbour,
Their backs indignantly belabor,
And make them dance without a tabor, , ;
To little instruments calld broomsticks.

.. . txt .
“ And tell me, nobles, would it pleasure ye
To see me rob the royal treasury,

ne.

To furnish this expensive goddess?
For she must have her caps, and veils,
Her furbelows, and farthingales,
Her golden stomacher, and bodice.

:: XXII.
“ And she must bave her box of paint,
Or else her ladyship would faint,

Swear you were stingy, I were cruel; . And then (good people, have compassion! In some accursed whin of fashion, She'd sell my kingdom for a jewel.

XXII. . * And she must have quite snug and handy, A private thimble-full of brandy,

To cure the mulligrubs, so stitching; And, though a nymph of peerless honor, The habit p'r’aps may steal upon her,

For liquor's mightily bewitching.

* And sure 'twould shock my tender feeling To see her Majesty a-reeling,

Drunk as the sow of good King David;
And if (an accident not rare,)
My royal wife should curse and swear,
Lord, how the multitude would stare,

To see their Queen so ill-behaved!

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