Messrs. George Bell & Sons have recently published an interesting collection entitled, “Horace’s Odes, Englished and Imitated” selected and arranged by Charles W. G. Cooper. This contains several burlesque imitations of Horace’s Odes, but not the following, which are certainly also worthy of preservation.
“Persicos odi, puer, apparatus.”
Buttons, you booby, I wish you would learn;
I don’t want the big lamp, nor yet the épergne
When I sit down to dine by myself.
I’ll have no made-dishes in future; tell cook
She may keep her receipts shut up close in her book,
Her stock in tureen, and her game on her hook,
And her Bang-Mary bright on her shelf.
And you lay the table-cloth neatly and straight