The Fairy Life
By William Shakspere
Come unto these yellow sands,
And then take hands:
Courtesied when you have and kissed
The wild waves whist,
Foot it featly here and there;
And, sweet sprites, the burden bear.
Hark, hark!
"Bow-wow,"
The watch-dog's bark:
"Bow-wow."
Hark, hark! I hear
The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry, "Cock-a-diddle-dow!"
Whĭst: still; quiet. Fēat´ly̆: nimbly. Sprītes: spirits; fairies. Bûr´den: the chorus of a song.
Charles Dickens
1. Charles Dickens, one of the most popular of English novelists, was born in 1812 at Portsmouth, where his father was a government clerk. When he was two years old, the family moved to London, and thence to Chatham dockyard.
2. Charles Dickens's father was poor; but, fortunately for the book-loving boy, among the few family possessions was a small library of good books, and he spent many hours poring over "The Vicar of Wakefield," "Robinson Crusoe," and the essays in "The Tatler," "The Spectator," and "The Idler." He and a boy cousin amused themselves during their holidays by getting up private theatricals, for which Charles wrote a play, "The Sultan of India," which was greatly admired by his boy friends.