16

VERSES TRIVOCULAR

Of one scrap of science I've evidence ocular.
A heart of one chamber they call unilocular,
And in a sharp frost, or when snow-flakes fall floccular,
Your wise man of old wrapp'd himself in a Roquelaure,
Which was called a Wrap-rascal when folks would be jocular.
And shell-fish, the small, Periwinkle and Cockle are,
So with them will I finish these verses trivocular.

Now first published from an MS.

17

CHOLERA CURED BEFORE-HAND

Or a premonition promulgated gratis for the use of the Useful Classes, specially those resident in St. Giles's, Saffron Hill, Bethnal Green, etc.; and likewise, inasmuch as the good man is merciful even to the beasts, for the benefit of the Bulls and Bears of the Stock Exchange.

Pains ventral, subventral,
In stomach or entrail,
Think no longer mere prefaces
For grins, groans, and wry faces;
But off to the doctor, fast as ye can crawl! [5]
Yet far better 'twould be not to have them at all.

Now to 'scape inward aches,
Eat no plums nor plum-cakes;
Cry avaunt! new potato—
And don't drink, like old Cato. [10]
Ah! beware of Dispipsy,
And don't ye get tipsy!
For tho' gin and whiskey
May make you feel frisky,
[[986]] They're but crimps to Dispipsy; [15]
And nose to tail, with this gipsy
Comes, black as a porpus,
The diabolus ipse,
Call'd Cholery Morpus;
Who with horns, hoofs, and tail, croaks for carrion to feed him, [20]
Tho' being a Devil, no one never has seed him!

Ah! then my dear honies,
There's no cure for you
For loves nor for monies:—
You'll find it too true. [25]
Och! the hallabaloo!
Och! och! how you'll wail,
When the offal-fed vagrant
Shall turn you as blue
As the gas-light unfragrant, 30
That gushes in jets from beneath his own tail;—
'Till swift as the mail,
He at last brings the cramps on,
That will twist you like Samson.
So without further blethring, 35
Dear mudlarks! my brethren!
Of all scents and degrees,
(Yourselves and your shes)
Forswear all cabal, lads,
Wakes, unions, and rows, [40]
Hot dreams and cold salads,
And don't pig in styes that would suffocate sows!
Quit Cobbett's, O'Connell's and Beelzebub's banners,
And whitewash at once bowels, rooms, hands, and manners!

July 26, 1832. First published in P. W. 1834. These lines were enclosed in a letter to J. H. Green, dated July 26, 1832, with the following introduction: 'Address premonitory to the Sovereign People, or the Cholera cured before-hand, promulgated gratis for the use of the useful classes, specially of those resident in St. Giles, Bethnal Green, Saffron Hill, etc., by their Majesties', i. e. the People's, loyal subject—Demophilus Mudlarkiades.'

LINENOTES:

[[1-6]]

om. Letter 1832.

[[7-8]]

To escape Belly ache Eat no plums nor plum cake Letter 1832.

[[12]]

And therefore don't get tipsy Letter 1832.

[[16]]

with this gipsy] of Dys Pipsy Letter 1832.

[[22]]

And oh! och my dear Honies Letter 1832.

[[28]]

offal-fed] horn-and-hoof'd Letter 1832.

[[41]]

dreams] drams Letter 1832.

[[44]]

And whitewash at once your Guts, Rooms and Manners Letter 1832.

After [44]

Vivat Rex Popellio!
Vivat Regina Plebs!
Hurra! 3 times 3 thrice
repeated Hurra!

Letter, 1832.

18

TO BABY BATES

You come from o'er the waters,
From famed Columbia's land,
And you have sons and daughters,
And money at command.

But I live in an island,
Great Britain is its name,
With money none to buy land,
The more it is the shame.

But we are all the children
Of one great God of Love,
Whose mercy like a mill-drain
Runs over from above.

Lullaby, lullaby,
Sugar-plums and cates,
Close your little peeping eye,
Bonny Baby B——s.

First collected 1893. 'Baby Bates' was the daughter of Joshua Bates, one of the donors of the Boston Library. Her father and mother passed a year (1828-1829) at Highgate, 'close to the house of Dr. and Mrs. Gillman.' See a letter to Mrs. Bates from S. T. C. dated Jan. 23, 1829. N. and Q. 4th Series, i. 469.

19

TO A CHILD[987:1]

Little Miss Fanny,
So cubic and canny,
With blue eyes and blue shoes—
The Queen of the Blues!
As darling a girl as there is in the world—
If she'll laugh, skip and jump,
And not be Miss Glump!

1834. First published in Athenæum, Jan. 28, 1888. First collected 1893.

FOOTNOTES:

[976:1] 'There is a female saint (St. Vuilgefortis), whom the Jesuit Sautel, in his Annus Sacer Poeticus, has celebrated for her beard—a mark of divine favour bestowed upon her for her prayers.' Omniana, 1812, ii. 54. 'Pereant qui ante nos nostra dixere! What! can nothing be one's own? This is the more vexatious, for at the age of eighteen I lost a legacy of fifty pounds for the following epigram on my godmother's beard, which she had the barbarity to revenge by striking me out of her will.' S. T. C.

[981:1] These lines are written on a fly-leaf of a copy of Five Bookes of the Church by Richard Field (folio 1635), under the inscription: 'Hannah Scollock, her book, February 10, 1787.' The volume was bequeathed to the poet's younger son, Derwent Coleridge, and is now in the possession of the Editor.

[983:1] Written for James Gillman Junr. as a School Exercise, for Merchant Taylors', c. 1822-3.

[984:1] Written in pencil on the blank leaf of a book of lectures delivered at the London University, in which the Hartleyan doctrine of association was assumed as a true basis.

[987:1] To Miss Fanny Boyce, afterwards Lady Wilmot Horton.

FRAGMENTS FROM A NOTEBOOK[988:1]

Circa 1796-98