I.
Charming Bignetta! charming Bignetta!
What a gay little girl is charming Bignetta!
She dances, she prattles,
She rides and she rattles;
But she always is charming, that charming Bignetta!
II
Charming Bignetta! charming Bignetta!
What a wild little witch is charming Bignetta!
When she smiles, I’m all madness;
When she frowns, I’m all sadness;
But she always is smiling, that charming Bignetta!
III.
Charming Bignetta! charming Bignetta!
What a wicked young rogue is charming Bignetta!
She laughs at my shyness,
And flirts with his Highness;
Yet still she is charming, that charming Bignetta!
IV.
Charming Bignetta! charming Bignetta!
What a dear little girl is charming Bignetta!
‘Think me only a sister,’
Said she trembling: I kissed her.
What a charming young sister is charming Bignetta!
To choicer music chimed his gay guitar ‘In Este’s Halls,’ yet still his song served its purpose, for it raised a smile.
‘I wrote that for Madame Sapiepha, at the Congress of Verona,’ said Count Frill. ‘It has been thought amusing.’
‘Madame Sapiepha!’ exclaimed the Bird of Paradise. ‘What! that pretty little woman, who has such pretty caps?’
‘The same! Ah! what caps! what taste!’
‘You like caps, then?’ asked the Bird of Paradise, with a sparkling eye.
‘Oh! if there be anything more than another that I know most, it is the cap. Here,’ said he, rather oddly unbuttoning his waistcoat, ‘you see what lace I have got.’