VERSES

Let Bulwer and Stephens write epics like mad,

With lofty hexameters grapplin’,

My theme is as good, though my verse be as bad,

For ’tis all about Ellena Chaplin!

As lovely a nymph as the rhapsodist sees

To inspire his romantical nap. Lin

Ne’er saw such a charming celestial Chinese

“Maid of Honour” as Ellena Chaplin.

O Yates! let us give thee due credit for this:—

Thou hast an infallible trap lain—

For mouths cannot hiss, when they long for a kiss;

As thou provest—with Ellena Chaplin.

E’en the water wherein (in “Die Hexen am Rhein”)

She dives (in an elegant wrap-lin-

Sey-woolsey, I guess) seems bewitch’d into wine,

When duck’d in by Ellena Chaplin.

A fortunate blade will be he can persuade

This nymph to some church or some chap’l in,—

And change to a wife the most beautiful Maid

Of the theatre—Ellena Chaplin!