DR. FELL.
I do not like thee, Dr. Fell,
The reason why I cannot tell;
But this alone, I know full well,
I do not like thee, Dr. Fell.
This little nursery rhyme claims ancient lineage. In Thomas Forde’s “Virtus Rediviva,” 1661, in a collection of familiar letters, is the following passage:—
“There are some natures so Hetrogenious, that the streightest, and most gordion knot of Wedlock is not able to twist, of which the Epigrammatist (Martial) speaks my mind better than I can myself:—
Non amo te Sabide, nec possum dicere quare,
Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te.
>Take the English in the words of a gentleman to his wife:—