" From these statements it is evident that notwithstanding all
the present inconveniences that the inhabitants of London live in more
healthy situations now that they are surrounded by houses, than when
they were exposed to extensive open fields.
A.B.C.
[1] It was reckoned an extraordinary luxury for Thomas a Becket to
have his parlour strewed every day with clean rushes.
* * * * *
A PORTRAIT.
_Sketched in the year of the world,_ 5831; _and, of my bachelorship_, 24.
(_For the Mirror._)
Chaste, as the icicle,
That's curded by the frost from purer snow,
And hangs on Dian's temple; Dear--_old maid_.
SHAKSPEARE'S _Coriolanus_.
Sed mihi vel tellus optem prius ima dehiscat,
Vel Pater omnipotens adigat me fulmine ad umbras,
Pallentes umbras Erebi, noctemque profundum,
Ante, pudor, quam te violem, aut tua jure resolvam.
VIRGIL.
I have years on my back _forty-eight_,
SHAKSPEARE'S _King Lear_.
Four-and-twenty lap-dogs, all of a row,
Four-and-twenty monkeys, kits, and cats, dit-to;
Four-and-twenty colours in her tawdry dress,
(A rainbow she in all--but its loveliness!)
Four-and-twenty tempers, in the four-and-twenty hours;
Four-and-twenty dreams of _suppos'd_ vanquished pow'rs,
To wit of four-and-twenty swains--more or less;
Who have four-and-twenty times, curs'd her ugliness!
Four-and-twenty trials, ere as many hours are o'er,
Of four-and-twenty genera of rival Kalydor;
Four-and-twenty scentings with her dear bergamot,
Four-and-twenty daubs of her dear paint-pot;
Four-and-twenty visitings to four-and-twenty friends,
And four-and-twenty tales of 'em, before the day ends;
Of these said four-and-twenty tales just four-and-twenty versions,
And all of them of all the facts most farcica perversions.
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