THE TWINS. TH WIT IN JAIL. THE Tower confines the great, That even the wretched must endure. Relates but a splenetic tale: Although he writ in a jail. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. THE DUENNA. In LOVE FOR LOVE. INE'ER could any lustre see But where my own did hope to sip. Is her hand so soft and pure? That heaving bosom sigh for me. G CONDITIONS OF BEAUTY. IVE Isaac the nymph who no beauty can boast, But health and good humour to make her his toast; If straight, I don't mind whether slender or fat, And six feet or four-we'll ne'er quarrel for that. Whate'er her complexion I vow I don't care, If brown, it is lasting-more pleasing, if fair: And though in her face I no dimples should see, Let her smile and each dell is a dimple to me. Let her locks be the reddest that ever were seen, And her eyes may be e'en any colour but green; For in eyes, though so various the lustre and hue, I swear I've no choice-only let her have two. 'Tis true I'd dispense with a throne on her back; And white teeth, I own, are genteeler than black; A little round chin too's a beauty, I've heard; But I only desire she mayn't have a beard. THE SUNSHINE OF AGE. OH, the days when I was young, When I laughed in fortune's spite; Little recked I of thy frown; Truth, they say, lies in a well, There it always lay for me: But still honest truth I found In the bottom of each flask. True, at length my vigour's flown, THI DRINKING GLEE. HIS bottle's the sun of our table, You'll soon grow bright THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL. H LET THE TOAST PASS. ERE'S to the maiden of bashful fifteen; Here's to the flaunting extravagant quean, Drink to the lass, I'll warrant she'll prove an excuse for the glass. Here's to the charmer whose dimples we prize, Here's to the maid with a bosom of snow; For let 'em be clumsy, or let 'em be slim, Let the toast pass, &c.* * These gay and flowing verses, perhaps the most popular of their class in the language, are evidently modelled on the following song in Suckling's play of the Goblins: 'A health to the nut-brown lass She that has good eyes, &c. Let it pass-let it pass. As much to the lively grey, 'Tis as good in the night as the day, She that hath good eyes, &c. Drink away-drink away. I pledge, I pledge, what ho! some wine, Here's to thine-here's to thine! The colours are divine; But oh! the black, the black, Give me as much again, and let 't be sack; She that hath good eyes,' &c. This song was appropriated by S. Sheppard, in a comedy called the Committee-man curried, 1647. Sheppard was a notorious plagiarist, and had the audacity to publish the lines without any acknowledgment of the source from whence he stole them. INDEX ΤΟ THE FIRST LINES OF THE SONGS. PAGE All that glisters is not gold. And to begin Art thou gone in haste? A CURSE upon thee, for a slave! Adieu; farewell, earth's bliss Agincourt, Agincourt! know ye not Agincourt? Ah fading joy! how quickly art thou passed! All a green willow, willow All ye woods and trees, and bowers And will he not come again? A nymph and a swain to Apollo once prayed Art thou god to shepherd turned Art thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers? At Venus' entreaty for Cupid her son. Autumn hath all the summer's fruitful treasure 86 135 223 180 16 61 69 Brave Don, cast your eyes on our gipsy fashions 175 Broom, Broom on hill 46 Broom, broom, the bonny broom! 139 |