The sky is glad that stars above Do give a brighter splendor; The stars unfold their flaming gold, To make the ground more tender: The ground doth send a fragrant smell, That air may be the sweeter; The air doth charm the swelling seas With pretty chirping metre; The sea with rivers’ water doth Feed plants and flowers so dainty; The plants do yield their fruitful seed, That beasts may live in plenty; The beasts do give both food and cloth, That men high Jove may honor; And so the World runs merrily round, When Peace doth smile upon her! Oh, then, then oh! oh then, then oh! This jubilee last forever; That foreign spite, or civil fight, Our quiet trouble never! Bouts Rimés. Bouts Rimés, or Rhyming Ends, afford considerable amusement. They are said by Goujet to have been invented by Dulot, a French poet, who had a custom of preparing the rhymes of sonnets, leaving them to be filled up at leisure. Having been robbed of his papers, he was regretting the loss of three hundred sonnets. His friends were astonished that he had written so many of which they had never heard. “They were blank sonnets,” said he, and then explained the mystery by describing his “Bouts Rimés.” The idea appeared ridiculously amusing, and it soon became a fashionable pastime to collect some of the most difficult rhymes, and fill up the lines. An example is appended:— nettle, pains. mettle. remains. natures. rebel. graters. well. The rhymes may be thus completed:— Tender-handed stroke a nettle, And it stings you for your pains; Grasp it like a man of mettle, And it soft as silk remains. ’Tis the same with common natures, Use them kindly, they rebel; But be rough as nutmeg-graters, And the rogues obey you well. A sprightly young belle, who was an admirer of poetry, would often tease her beau, who had made some acquaintance with the muses, to write verses for her. One day, becoming quite importunate, she would take no denial. “Come, pray, do now write some poetry for me—won’t you? I’ll help you out. I’ll furnish you with rhymes if you will make lines for them. Here now:— please, moan, tease, bone.”