Imitations of English Poets. DONE BY THE AUTHOR IN HIS YOUTH. I. CHAUCER. WOMEN ben full of ragerie, Yet swinken nat sans secresie. 5 10 "But ho! our nephew," crieth one; "Ho!" quoth another, "Cozen John;" And stoppen, and lough, and callen out- 15 They asken that, and talken this. Forth thrust a white neck and red crest. 66 "Te-hee!" cried ladies: clerk nought spake : Miss star'd, and grey ducke crieth "quaake." "O moder, moder!" quoth the daughter, Then trust on mon whose yerde can talke." 25 [The above, when first published in the Miscellanies, was entitled “A Tale of Chaucer lately found in an old manuscript."] II. SPENSER. THE ALLEY. IN every town where Thamis rolls his tyde, There oft are heard the notes of infant woe, 5 The short thick sob, loud scream, and shriller squall : And on the broken pavement, here and there, 10 And hens, and dogs, and hogs, are feeding by; 15 Now singing shrill, and scolding eft between ; Scolds answer foul-mouth'd scolds; bad neighbourhood I ween. The snappish cur (the passenger's annoy) 20 The whimpering girl, and hoarser screaming boy, Join to the yelping treble shrilling cries; The scolding quean to louder notes doth rise, 25 And her full pipes those shrilling cries confound: To her full pipes the grunting hog replies: The grunting hogs alarm the neighbours round, And curs, girls, boys, and scolds, in the deep base are drown'd.1 Hard by a sty, beneath a roof of thatch, Dwelt Obloquy, who in her early days Baskets of fish at Billingsgate did watch, 30 Cod, whiting, oyster, mackrel, sprat, or plaice : There learn'd she speech from tongues that never cease. With Envy (spitting cat), dread foe to peace ; Like a curs'd cur, Malice before her clatters, 35 And, vexing every wight, tears clothes and all to tatters. Her dugs were mark'd by every collier's hand; 40 45 Such place hath Deptford, navy-building town, 1 [This stanza is evidently a parody of the fine descriptive one, so often quoted, in the Fairy Queen: "The joyous birds, shrouded in cheerful shade, Grots, statues, urns, and Jo-n's? dog and bitch, All up the silver Thames, or all adown; 50 Ne Richmond's self, from whose tall front are ey'd Vales, spires, meandering streams, and Windsor's towery pride. ON A LADY SINGING TO HER LUTE. FAIR charmer! cease; nor make your voice's prize Orpheus could charm the trees; but thus a tree, This vocal wood had drawn the poet too. 5 10 ON A FAN OF THE AUTHOR'S DESIGN, In which was painted the story of Cephalus and Procris, with the motto, "COME, gentle air," th' Eolian shepherd said, While Procris panted in the secret shade, 5 2 [Old Mr. Johnston, the retired Scotch Secretary of State, who lived at Twickenham.] 3 [This was probably the earliest of these juvenile imitations. At least Pope, in a letter to Henry Cromwell, mentions some verses of his youth, or rather childhood, which he wrote in imitation of Waller's manner.] |