So, not to spoil the fun—
Comprenez-vous?—observe that lady there,
‘In native Worth.’ Aha, you see the jest?
Not bad, I think? My own too! Woman’s fair,
Or not—the odds, so long as she is dressed?
They’re coming! Soh! Ha, Bennett’s ‘Barcarole’—
A poor thing, but mine own! That minor third
Is not so bad, now! Mum, sirs! (Bless my soul,
I wonder what her veil cost?) Mum’s the word!
The strange thing is that the rickety stuff above is a perfectly fair burlesque. The cadence—or lack of cadence—the horrid involutions, the breaks into bald dulness, are all Browning’s to the very essence.”