Merrie England in the Olden Time, Vol. 2Daniel, George
History
Merrie England in the Olden Time, Vol. 2
Daniel, George
England -- Social life and customs
Rejoice, ye witlings! for the lamp that dimmed your little
farthing rushlights, Death, the universal extinguisher, has
eclipsed for ever! Retailers of small talk, who fattened on
the unctuous crumbs of conceit that fell from the merry
man's table, make the most of your legacy: your master hath
carried his Broad Grins to Elysium. Ye select few, who
admired the wit and loved the man, mourn!
Thanks to the ghastly monarch! for he hath been a forbearing
creditor:--So large an amount of fun payable at sight, and
George a septuagenarian! Three days' grace--three score and
ten!
A day of mirth will it be on Styx, when the ferryman rows
over Mr. Merryman. Faith, Mr. Colman, you're a very droll
man!
What a coil attends the new comer! Churchill, Lloyd,
Thornton, Garrick, all inquiring about the modern Dram.
Pers.--“Ye jovial goblins,” quoth George, “a Dram, per se!”
Whereupon Sam--not the lexicographer--marching forth his
wooden leg, accepts, with an approving chuckle, the pun as
Foote-ing, or garnish; they are hail spirit well met, and
become as merry as ghosts.
Life's a Jest; and a merrier one than thine, facetious
George, Time shall not crack till the crack of doom.
The stalls (the cart-horses having been temporally ejected) sparkled
with the elite--sixpenny-worth of coppers being paid for sitting apart
in aristocratical exclusiveness. My declamation might have electrified
Gog and Magog, and made the Men in Armour start from their spears! The
barn rang with applause, my success was triumphant, and my fate decided.
“I next joined Mr. Dunderhead, the Dunstable manager, on whose boards
I had the supreme felicity of beholding, for the first time, the
Tum-bletuzzy. She danced with the castanets (le Pantomime de Vamour);
my heart beat to her fairy footsteps; the long sixes capered before my
eyes, my pulse thumped a hundred and twenty per minute--I wooed, and
had well nigh won her--when our Harlequin, a ci-devant, ubiquitous,
iniquitous barber, all but dashed the nectared cup from my lip. I did
not horsewhip him, 'for that were poor revenge,'--no! I shewed him up on
my benefit night in a patter song.”
“Bravo!” cried Mr. Bosky, “Let us, Mr. Bigstick, have the song by all
means.”
The great Tragedian, screwing, à la Mathews, his mouth a-jar,
condescendingly complied.
Stolen or stray'd my beautiful maid!
Unlucky my ducky has met a decoy--
As brown as a berry, as plump as a cherry,
And rosy-cheek'd, very! and Jenny-so-coy!
Baggage and bagging the Dunstable waggin
Were popp'd by a wag in, hight Harlequin Lun--
They, honey-moon hot, shot the moon like a shot;
But I'll shoot the rascal as sure as a gun!
She sings like a linnet, she plays on the spinnet,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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