Yet the Critics have been very kind, And Mamma and his friends have been kinder; But the greatest of Glory's behind For Gally i.o. the Grinder. Gally i.o. i.o., etc. _April_ 11, 1818. [From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray, now for the first time printed.] EPIGRAM. FROM THE FRENCH OF RULHIÈRES.[108] IF for silver, or for gold, You could melt ten thousand pimples Into half a dozen dimples, Then your face we might behold, Looking, doubtless, much more snugly, Yet even _then_ 'twould be damned ugly. _August_ 12, 1819. [First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 235.] FOOTNOTES: [108] ["Would you like an epigram--a translation? It was written on some Frenchwoman, by Rulhières, I believe."--Letter to Murray, August 12, 1819, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 346. Claude Carloman de Rulhière (1718-1791), historian, poet, and epigrammatist, was the author of _Anecdotes sur la revolution de Russie en l'anneé_ 1762, _Histoire de l'anarchie de Pologne_ (1807), etc. His epigrams are included in "Poésies Diverses," which are appended to _Les jeux de Mains_, a poem in three cantos, published in 1808, and were collected in his _Oeuvres Posthumes_, 1819; but there is no trace of the original of Byron's translation. Perhaps it is _after_ de Rulhière, who more than once epigrammatizes "Une Vieille Femme."] EPILOGUE.[109] 1. THERE'S something in a stupid ass, And something in a heavy dunce; But never since I went to school I heard or saw so damned a fool As William Wordsworth is for once. 2. And now I've seen so great a fool As William Wordsworth is for once; I really wish that Peter Bell And he who wrote it were in hell, For writing nonsense for the nonce. 3. It saw the "light in ninety-eight," Sweet babe of one and twenty years![110] And then he gives it to the nation And deems himself of Shakespeare's peers! 4. He gives the perfect work to light! Will Wordsworth, if I might advise, Content you with the praise you get From Sir George Beaumont, Baronet, And with your place in the Excise! 1819. [First published, _Philadelphia Record_, December 28, 1891.] FOOTNOTES: