By their actions, I’ve not the most distant idea,
Why they stand on their heads, why they wag their fat tails,
Are to me hidden mysteries, “very like whales,”
As Hamlet remarks of some cloud he is certain
He perceives up aloft, whence they let down the curtain,
And whither they draw up the fairies and goddesses,
With their pretty pink legs and inadequate bodices.
But of all the beasts I ever did see,
Whether of low or of high degree,
Despite the “schoolmaster,”