And scarcely had he Maggie rallied, When out the hellish legion sallied,

THE DEVIL'S THOUGHTS.

428

As bees bizz out wi' angry fyke,
When plundering herds assail their byke;
As open pussie's mortal foes,

When pop! she starts before their nose;
As eager runs the market-crowd,
When Catch the thief! resounds aloud;
So Maggie runs the witches follow,

Wi' monie an eldritch skreech and hollow.

I.

FROM his brimstone bed at break of day A walking the devil is gone,

To visit his snug little farm, the earth, And see how his stock goes on.

II.

in'!

In hell they'll roast thee like a herrin! In vain thy Kate awaits thy comin'Kate soon will be a woefu' woman! Now, do thy speedy utmost, Meg, And win the key-stane of the brig; There at them thou thy tail may tossA running stream they dare na cross. But ere the key-stane she could make, The fient a tail she had to shake; For Nannie, far before the rest, Hard upon noble Maggie prest, And flew at Tam wi' furious ettle: But little wist she Maggie's mettleAe spring brought aff her master hale, But left behind her ain grey tail: The carlin claught her by the rump, And left poor Maggie scarce a stump.

Now, wha this tale o' truth shall read, flk man and mother's son take heed; Whene'er to drink you are inclined, Or cutty-sarks run in your mind, Think, ye may buy the joys o'er dear Remember Tam o' Shanter's mare.

COLOGNE.

ROBERT BURNS.

IN Köln, a town of monks and bones,
And pavements fanged with murderous stones,
And rags, and hags, and hideous wenches-
I counted two and seventy stenches,

All well defined and several stinks!

Ye nymphs that reign o'er sewers and sinks,
The river Rhine, it is well known,
Doth wash your city of Cologne ;
But tell me, nymphs! what power divine
Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine?
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.

And he went over the plain;

And backward and forward he switched his

long tail,

As a gentleman switches his cane.

III.

And how then was the devil drest?
Oh! he was in his Sunday's best:
His jacket was red and his breeches were
blue,

And there was a hole where the tail came through.

IV.

He saw a lawyer killing a viper

On a dunghill hard by his own stable; And the devil smiled, for it put him in mind Of Cain and his brother Abel.

V.

He saw an apothecary on a white horse Ride by on his vocations;

And the devil thought of his old friend Death, in the Revelations.

VI.

He saw a cottage with a double coach-house,
A cottage of gentility;

And the devil did grin, for his darling sin
Is pride that apes humility.

VII.

He peeped into a rich bookseller's shop— Quoth he, "We are both of one college! For I sate, myself, like a cormorant, once, Hard by the tree of knowledge."

VIII.

Down the river did glide, with wind and with tide,

A pig with vast celerity;

THE FRIEND OF HUMANITY AND THE KNIFE-GRINDER.

FRIEND OF HUMANITY.

NEEDY knife-grinder! whither are you going?

Rough is the road; your wheel is out of order. Bleak blows the blast;-your hat has got a hole in 't;

So have your breeches!

'Weary knife-grinder! little think the proud

ones,

425

"I should be glad to drink your honor's health in

A pot of beer, if you will give me sixpence; But for my part, I never love to meddle With politics, sir."

FRIEND OF HUMANITY.

"I give thee sixpence! I will see thee damned first

Wretch! whom no sense of wrongs can rouse to vengeance

Sordid, unfeeling, reprobate, degraded,
Spiritless outcast!"

road, what hard work 't is crying all day

in a transport of republican enthusiasm and universal philanthropy.]

SONG

GEORGE CANNING.

OF ONE ELEVEN YEARS IN PRISON.

WHENE'ER with haggard eyes I view
This dungeon that I'm rotting in,
I think of those companions true
Who studied with me at the U-

niversity of Gottingen, niversity of Gottingen. [Weeps and pulls out a blue kerchief, with which ha wipes his eyes; yazing tenderly at it, he proceeds :]

Sweet kerchief, checked with heavenly blue,
Alas, Matilda then was true!
Which once my love sat knotting in-

At least I thought so at the U

niversity of Gottingen, niversity of Gottingen.

[At the repetition of this line he clanks his chains in cadence.]

Barbs! barbs! alas! how swift you flew,
Her neat post-wagon trotting in!
Ye bore Matilda from my view;
Forlorn I languished at the U-

niversity of Gottingen,
niversity of Gottingen.

This faded form! this pallid hue!
This blood my veins is clotting in!
My years are many-they were few
When first I entered at the U-

niversity of Gottingen,
niversity of Gottingen.

427

HYPOCHONDRIACUS.

By myself walking,

To myself talking When as I ruminate On my untoward fate, Scarcely seem I Alone sufficiently, Black thoughts continually Crowding my privacy. They come unbidden, Like foes at a wedding, Thrusting their faces In better guests' places, Peevish and malcontent, Clownish, impertinent, Dashing the merriment: So, in like fashions, Dim cogitations Follow and haunt me, Striving to daunt me, In my heart festering, In my ears whispering'Thy friends are treacherous, Thy foes are dangerous, Thy dreams ominous."

Fierce anthropophagi,
Spectres, diaboli-

What scared St. Anthony-
Hobgoblins, lemures,
Dreams of antipodes!
Night-riding incubi
Troubling the fantasy,
All dire illusions
Causing confusions:
Figments heretical,
Scruples fantastical,
Doubts diabolical!
Abaddon vexeth me,
Mabu perplexeth me;

Lucifer teareth me

Jesu! Maria! liberate nos ab his diris tentationibis Inimici.

CHARLES LAMB.

A FAREWELL TO TOBACCO.

MAY the Babylonish curse

Strait confound my stammering verse,
If I can a passage see

In this word-perplexity,
Or a fit expression find,

Or a language to my mind

(Still the phrase is wide or scant),
To take leave of thee, great plant!
Or in any terms relate

Half my love, or half my hate;
For I hate, yet love, thee so,
That, whichever thing I shew,
The plain truth will seem to be
A constrained hyperbole,
And the passion to proceed
More for a mistress than a weed.

Sooty retainer to the vine! Bacchus's black servant, negro fine! Sorcerer! that mak'st us dote upon

Thy begrimed complexion,

And, for thy pernicious sake,
More and greater oaths to break

Than reclaimed lovers take

'Gainst women! Thou thy siege dost lay Much, too, in the female way,

While thou suck'st the lab'ring breath Faster than kisses, or than death.

Thou in such a cloud dost bind us

That our worst foes cannot find us,

And ill fortune, that would thwart us,
Shoots at rovers, shooting at us;
While each man, through thy height'ning

steam,

Does like a smoking Etna seem;

And all about us does express (Fancy and wit in richest dress) A Sicilian fruitfulness.

Thou through such a mist dost show us That our best friends do not know us, And, for those allowed features Due to reasonable creatures, Liken'st us to fell chimeras, Monsters-that who see us, fear us;