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He owned he once had SATIRE spelled, Once, since he was accountable, with Y, And, an upbraiding conscience said, Had PIGSTIE perhaps twice put for pigsty.

I wrote him word back by the post: "Much as I honored Etymology,

'Twas not by her but Common Use Such weighty questions could decided be;

"That in orthography no rule

Of absolute right and wrong had yet been found,

And Common Use was arbitress

To furrow, with what plough she pleased, the ground:

"Puts she her edict forth that none

The ground henceforth with other plough shall dare To till than Gallic, woe to him

Who turns one sod up with old Roman share!

"And then I begged him not to let PIGSTIE'S false I upon his conscience press Too heavily, for if on earth

More than in name existed righteousness,

"The wrong in PIGSTIE done to Y

Had been atoned for and made sound and whole
By the wrong in SATYRE done to I;
And he might lay that unction to his soul."

Whether it were the winter cold

With but orthography for fire and light,
Or that he took to heart my joke,
I cannot say, but that December night,

He went for the last time to bed;

And those who thought they knew him, but did not, Nor half his modest worth, a stone

With name and date set up to mark the spot,

Where one was laid, who had as well,
And quite as conscientiously, his part
In this great tragicomedy played,
As any Galileo or Descartes.

Peace to his Manes, and may I
Without more circumstance my long adieu
Bid to the boards, when I have come
To the last word and flourish of my cue.
[STRUVESTRASSE, DRESDEN, March 8, 1866.]

MAD AND FOOL.

'TWAS
WAS only long years after I left school,

I learned the difference between mad and fool,
And that, although I am of each the brother,
I'm not exactly either one or other;

Not thorough mad, for I do not suppose
All the men in the world my deadly foes;
Nor quite a fool, for I do not pretend
That every man I meet 's my bosom friend.
The juste milieu is mine, for I know well
That every man 's my friend who has to sell
Something I want to buy, and none my foe
Save him who has no hope from me of mo'.
[STRUVESTRASSE, DRESDEN, Febr., 1866.]

TO A LADY.*

So thou 'dst have me always sighing;
See mine eyes for ever wet;

Hear me always talk of dying:

GOING TO HEAVEN: THIS HOUSE TO LET.

By my faith, no; I 'm too old now,
Far too old now, so to joke;
To the stripling bard I leave it,

In the elegy to croak.

Let the stripling bard who pleases,

Hang with clouds his brightest day,
Chaunt his Night Thoughts to the moonlight,
In the haunted forest stray.

Off, ye ghosts! off to your churchyards!
Devils blue, I hate ye all:

Spent, my day; I 'll spend my evening

At gay Humour's fancy ball;

* who had written to me that she admired my verses to the Griese (see page 188) written nearly fifty years ago, more than many of my later

poems, and asked: "Why dost thou not always give play to thy natural feelings? why indulge in cold satire ?"

There with Satire I'll quadrille it,
Waltz it there with Epigram,
While the bagpipe and the fiddle
Strike up lively: LIFE'S A SHAM.

Not till after toll of midnight,
Talk to me of rest or sleep;
Once to bed, let no one wake me
Out of slumber sweet as deep.

[STRUVESTRASSE, DRESDEN, Febr. 11, 1866.]

SOLDIER AND VIVANDIERA.

"Alternis dicetis, amant alterna Camenae."

SOLDIER.

To sweeten one half of the year,

VIVANDIERA.

Coll' arte e coll' inganno

SOLDIER.

You've but to cheat and drink small beer;

VIVANDIERA.

Si vive mezzo l'anno;

SOLDIER.

To make the other half as sweet,

VIVANDIERA.

Coll' inganno e coll' arte

SOLDIER.

You've but to drink small beer and cheat.

VIVANDIERA.

Si vive l'altra parte.

[STRUVESTRASSE, DRESDEN, Jan. 3, 1866.]

"THE

COWPER'S ROSE.

HE rose had been washed, just washed in a shower
Which Mary to Anna conveyed;"

So Mary and Anna, no less than the flower,
Got a washing which stood them in stead.

And had I been the poet, I had taken my share
Of a washing could do no one harm;

Then, to dry the whole four, made a turn in the air,
With a beautiful maid on each arm,

And a red blushing rose in my coat button-hole,
All the four so fresh, shining and gay,

There's no one who met us wouldn't say in his soul,
"What a washing they 've all got today!"
[STRUVESTRASSE, DRESDEN, April 16, 1866.]

WHO keeps a lapdog need seek no excuse;
Its very use is that it is no use.

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It 's superfluity that makes genteel;

We cock a feather on buff coat and steel.

[CHRISTIANSTRASSE, DRESDEN, Nov. 19, 1865.]

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