"Good people all, of every sort,
Give ear unto my song;
And if you find it wondrous short
It will not hold you long."
Then hark how the "light-heeled numbers laughing go!" He tells us tales that smooth out the wrinkles of dull Care and provoke Laughter to hold both his sides, as well as others less jolly but full of wit and good cheer. A quaint, breezy moral, too, creeps in here and there, for the Court Fool, if you study him well, is sometimes a preacher; but whether frolicking or preaching or philosophizing, he brings with him, like Milton's nymph:
"Jest and youthful jollity,
Quips and cranks, and wanton Wiles,
Nods and Becks and Wreathéd Smiles,
Such as hang on Hebe's cheek,
And love to live in dimple sleek."
XII
IN MERRY MOOD
On a Favorite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes
'T was on a lofty vase's side
Where China's gayest art had dyed,
The azure flowers that blow,
Demurest of the tabby kind,
The pensive Selima, reclined,
Gazed on the lake below.
Her conscious tail her joy declared:
The fair, round face, the snowy beard,
The velvet of her paws,
Her coat that with the tortoise vies,
Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes,—
She saw, and purred applause.