They prattled slander, and in lies

Employed their lisping tongue.

No serpent of parched Afric’s breed

Does ranker poison bear;

The drowsy adder will as soon

Unlock his sullen ear.

The performance unlocked the tongues of the astonished judges at any rate; and the churchwardens had some difficulty in convincing them that the apparent insult arose out of the stupidity of the well-meaning clerk.

THEODOR MINTROP.

‘The poor world is almost six thousand years old, and in all this time there was not any man died in his own person, namely, in a love-cause.’