“No father had he who could interfere
To check his nightly wanderings about,
And from the best authority we hear,
His mother never dreamt that he was out!”
Hotspur.
From Bentley’s Miscellany. 1843. This parody was afterwards republished, with alterations, and omissions, in The Bentley Ballads.
Night Thoughts.
Saint Martin tolls the hour of long past day,
The gas-lights glimmer through deserted streets,
The drunkard staggers on his homeward way,