The last stanza recalls some pretty lines, translated from the Arabic by Professor Carlyle, addressed "To Youth, by Ebn Alrabia, in his Old Age" ("Specimens of Arabian Poetry," 1796, 165, : Yes, youth, thou'rt fled, and I am left, With heaving heart and streaming eyes, Yet tho' thou fled'st away so fast, And while I talk, enjoy thee still. Byron says ("Childe Harold," Canto II. xxiii.): Ah! happy years! once more who would not be a boy? THE HEART COMPARED TO A WATCH. My heart's wound up just like a watch, It wants but one more evil turn, And then the cords will break! Herrick long ago compared, not the heart, but the life, to a watch: Wound up again once down, he's down for ever. HONOURABLE SIR GEORGE ROSE. Master in Chancery; Bencher of the Inner Temple; and formerly a Judge of the Court of Review. None of the following epigrams have, it is believed, appeared in print, with the exception of the Record of a Case." They have been obtained through an intimate friend of Sir George Rose. WRITTEN IN THE ALBUM OF THE HOTEL AT ROSS, THE "Ici l'on rajeunit!"—"Tis true, I made a sad mistake indeed, Has only made a Grey-goose, green! WRITTEN IN AN ALBUM. O thou who read'st what's written here, By which, compell'd, I write them.- For Anna adds her dread command; Blame Eve, who, feeble to withstand But do not me or Adam blame, THE VEILED LADY. A morning visitor, having been shown into Sir George Rose's drawingroom, retired on seeing a lady sitting there, whom he mistook for a stranger. The lady was a near relation of Sir George, and one of his family; and on afterwards learning his mistake, the visitor addressed some verses to her, begging pardon for his apparent rudeness, and ascribing his error to her wearing a thick veil. Sir George, seeing the verses, sent him the following: Dear Duby! I've pleaded in vain for your crime, I've argu'd your case both in verse and in prose, His neglect of my charms to my wearing a veil : That mortals may venture to gaze, and survive it. The gentleman familiarly addressed as "Dear Duby" is a barrister, whose name in full could less easily be accommodated to verse. It is possible that when writing the conclusion of these amusing lines, Sir George Rose may have had in mind a passage in "Love's Labour's Lost" (Act IV. sc. 3), in which Biron says of Rosaline: Who sees the heavenly Rosaline What peremptory eagle-sighted eye Dares look upon the heaven of her brow, That is not blinded by her majesty? RECORD OF A CASE. ("Quarterly Review," Vol. XCI. 474.) Mr. Parker made that darker, Which was dark enough without; Mr. Cook quoted his book; And the Chancellor said, "I doubt." This originated in the request of a law-reporter, when leaving court, that Mr. Rose would make a note of anything important which should occur in his absence. On his return he found the jeu d'esprit in his notebook. The Chancellor was Lord Eldon. Mr. Leach became Sir John Leach, Vice-Chancellor and Master of the Rolls. Mr. Hart became ViceChancellor of Ireland. "I doubt," was Lord Eldon's favourite expression. A few weeks after the epigram became public, and when it was in every one's mouth, Sir George (then Mr.) Rose argued a case very earnestly in the Chancellor's Court, which was given against him. Lord Eldon, than whom no one was more fond of a joke, looked hard at the defeated counsel, and said: "The judgment must be against your clients; and here, Mr. Rose, the Chancellor does not doubt." (Lord Campbell's "Lives of the Lord Chancellors," 1847, VII. 640.) On Lord Eldon's favourite expression, the following epigram, "The Derivation of Chancellor," is found in the " Spirit of the Public Journals" for 1814, XVIII. 330, taken from the "Morning Chronicle": The Chancellor, so says Lord Coke, His title from cancello took; And every cause before him tried, Lord Eldon, hesitating ever, Takes it from chanceler, to waver; And thinks, as this may bear him out, His bounden duty is to doubt. The following epigram, "On Mr. (afterwards Sir John) Leach going over from the Opposition to the Tories," appeared in "Notes and Queries," 1st S. XI. 300: The Leach you've just bought should first have been tried, To examine its nature and powers; You can hardly expect it will stick to your side, Having fall'n off so lately from ours. ON SAMUEL WARREN, ESQ., Q.C., AND RECORDER OF HULL, AUTHOR OF "TEN THOUSAND A YEAR," "NOW AND THEN," &c. Warren, though able, yet vainest of men, Could he guide with discretion his tongue and his pen. His course would be clear for-" Ten thousand a Year," But limited else to a brief-" Now and Then." These lines were a joke between friends, and were received by the gentleman on whom they were written in the same spirit of playful good-nature in which they were composed. THE TWO STALLS. A connection of Sir George Rose, living in the country, had taken a pony belonging to him to keep through the winter: and on returning it, wrote word that he had just been made Honorary Canon of Chichester. Sir George replied: If that my little grateful mare Could vent her gratitude in prayer, Thus would her vows incline: "May Allen every good befall, As he made me in mine!" ON BANNISTER, THE ACTOR, WHEN SEVENTY YEARS OF AGE. With seventy years upon his back, My honest friend is still "Young Jack," Nor spirits check'd, nor fancy slack, But fresh as any daisy. Tho' Time has knock'd his stumps about, He cannot bowl his temper out, And all the Bannister is stout, Altho' the steps be crazy! DR. ROBERT SCOTT. Master of Balliol College, Oxford. ON DR. WISEMAN BEING APPOINTED (TITULAR) ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER BY POPE PIUS, AT THE TIME OF THE “POPISH AGGRESSION.” Cum Sapiente Pius nostras juravit in aras; Impius heu! Sapiens, desipiensque Pius! Translated (it is believed) by the author of the epigram (“Guardian ” newspaper of March 8, 1865): Pius with Wiseman tries Our English church to ban; O Pius, man unwise! O impious Wise-man! |