E.I.H.
11 Jan. 25.
When I saw the Chessiad advertised by C.D. the Younger, I hoped it might be yours. What title is left for you—
Charles Dibdin the Younger, Junior.
O No, you are Timothy.
[Charles Dibdin the Younger wrote a mock-heroic poem, "The Chessiad," which was published with Comic Tales in 1825. The simile of the charwoman runs thus:—
Now Morning, yawning, rais'd her from her bed,
Slipp'd on her wrapper blue and 'kerchief red,
And took from Night the key of Sleep's abode;
For Night within that mansion had bestow'd
The Hours of day; now, turn and turn about,
Morn takes the key and lets the Day-hours out;
Laughing, they issue from the ebon gate,
And Night walks in. As when, in drowsy state,
Some watchman, wed to one who chars all day,
Takes to his lodging's door his creeping way;
His rib, arising, lets him in to sleep,
While she emerges to scrub, dust, and sweep.
This is the lobster simile in Hudibras, Part II., Canto 2, lines 29-32:—
The sun had long since, in the lap
Of Thetis, taken out his nap,
And, like a lobster boiled, the morn
From black to red began to turn.
Hazard is the chief of the gods in the Chessiad's little drama.