Part 34 (1/2)
”I believe that nothing in the newspapers is ever true,” said Madame Phoebus.
”And that is why they are so popular,”
added Euphrosyne; ”the taste of the age being so decidedly for fiction.”
LORD BEACONSFIELD, _Lothair_.
He that would s.h.i.+ne, and petrify his tutor, Should drink draught Allsopp in its ”native pewter.”
C. S. CALVERLEY, _Verses and Translations_.
Lauk, sir! Love's all in the fancy. One does not eat it, nor drink it: and as for the rest--why, it's a bother.
_Corporal Bunting_, in LYTTON's _Eugene Aram_.
”Mr. O----'s affairs turn out so sadly that he cannot have the pleasure of waiting upon his lords.h.i.+p at his agreeable house on Monday next.--N.B. His wife is dead.”
J. C. YOUNG, _Diary_.
Why, the Scotch tunes are just like a scolding, nagging woman. They go on with the same thing over and over again, and never come to a reasonable end. Anybody 'ud think the Scotch tunes had always been asking a question of somebody as deaf as old Taft, and had never got an answer yet.
_Bartle Ma.s.sey_, in GEORGE ELIOT's _Adam Bede_.
_SOUL OF LADY._
Tell me, in this night of snow, Of happy Almack's, or the Row!
Say in what carriages what fair Consume the ice in Berkeley Square; Or who in shops, with doubtful eye, Explore the silks they never buy; And how the hair is dressed in town, And what the shape of boot and gown?
_WINDBAG._
Snow-mantled shadow, would you know The fas.h.i.+ons of the world below?
Still the coiled chignon starward towers, Still false back-hair falls down in showers; But now all subtle souls revert To the abbreviated skirt, Whose velvet _paniers_ just denote The gown, that else were petticoat.
Nor is such _nave_ attire enough: Elizabeth's archaic ruff Rings every neck; besides, they rival, With a High-Gothic-Hat-Revival, Old Mother Hubbard, and renew Arcadianly the buckled shoe, To show, what's just a trifle shocking, The dimple of a snowy stocking.
W. J. COURTHOPE, _The Paradise of Birds_.
Be virtuous, and you will be eccentric.
MARK TWAIN, _Choice Works_.
_DON'T WE?_
We're informed that, in Happy j.a.pan, Folks are free to believe what they can; But if they come teaching, And preaching and screeching, They go off to gaol in a van.