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قراءة كتاب Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 98, February 1, 1890
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Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 98, February 1, 1890
The Project Gutenberg eBook, Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 98, February 1, 1890, by Various, Edited by Francis Burnand
Title: Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 98, February 1, 1890
Author: Various
Editor: Francis Burnand
Release Date: July 12, 2007 [eBook #22051]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI, VOL. 98, FEBRUARY 1, 1890***
E-text prepared by V. L. Simpson, Malcolm Farmer,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)
PUNCH,
OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI
VOL. 98
February 1, 1890
UNTILED; OR, THE MODERN ASMODEUS.
"Très volontiers," repartit le démon. "Vous aimez les tableaux changeans: je veux vous contenter."
Le Diable Boiteux.
XVIII.
Dubbed the fair dame. The title may not fit
With accurate completeness;
It soars some shades too high, this modish mot,
As 'Mrs. Lyon-Hunter' sinks too low;
Both nick-names fail in neatness.
Not oft is earned, in Fleet Street or Mayfair,
In these hot days of hurry.
Salons, Symposia, both have met their doom,
And wit, in the Victorian drawing-room,
Finds a fell foe in flurry."
That struck so coldly on the listening ear.
Soft was his speech, as muffled
By some chill atmosphere surcharged with snow,
In unemphatic accents, level, low,
Unhasting and unruffled.
In all her muster of superior minds,
Her host of instant heroes?
That's hard!" I said. "She does not greatly care,"
My guide rejoined. "Behold her seated there!
Her court's as full as Nero's.
Sententious sage. If she is bored by him,
The lady doth not show it.
But there's a furtive glancing of her eye
Toward the entry. There comes Marx M'Kay,
The Socialistic Poet.
To all his hostess cares for. Crude and rash,
But musically 'precious.'
His passionate philippics against Wealth
Mammon's own daughters read, 'tis said, by stealth,
And vote them 'quite delicious!'
Of worshippers who mob this Son of Song,
Money, Monopoly, Merriment,
He bans and blazes at in 'Diræ' dread;
But then they know his Muse is merely Red
In metrical experiment.
Finds life in theory only harsh and hard.
His chevelure looks shaggy,
But his black broad-cloth's glossy and well-brushed,
And he'd feel wretched if his tie were crushed,
His trousers slightly baggy.
The vampire-horde of Capital he'll curse,
And praise the Proletariat;
But having thus delivered his bard-soul,
He finds it, practically, nice to loll
With Dives in his chariot.
Those 'Molochs of the Mart' this Son of Light
Keeps his poetic eye on.
'Who takes a Singer au grand sérieux?'
Mrs. Mæcenas asks. So he's on view,
Her Season's latest lion.
Are right authentic Leos, she must boast
As potent charm as Circe's.
What is her wand? Is't wit, or wealth, or both?"
"Listen! That's Mumps the mimic, nothing loth,
Rolling out Vamper's verses!
Boredom's best friends are fellows who recite.
None like, not many listen,
But all must make believe to stand about
And watch a man gesticulate and shout,
With eyes that glare and glisten.
The man who mouths out Eugene Aram's Dream
In guttural tones and raucous.
All these have heard a hundred times before
Young Vox, the vain and ventriloquial bore
They'd fain despatch to Orcus.
To little Jinks, the jerky comic mime,
And his facetious chatter.
But ill would fare Town's guest if he refused
For the five hundredth time to be 'amused'
By gush, or cockney patter.
Compared with slangy laureates of the slum.
Hist! There's a tenor twitter,
A tremulous twangle of the minor strings.
'Tis Seraphin, sleek Amateur, who sings,
'Glide where the moonbeams glitter!'
Your love-lorn chants and woful wailings pour!'
Sang Horace to Hermogenes.
Seraphin's a Tigellius, and his style
Would bring the bland Venusian's scornful smile
The scowl of sour Diogenes.
To let such fribbles feel the critic steel
With scalpel-like severity?
Granted! But will no pangs the victims urge
To abate that plague of bores, which is the scourge
Of social insincerity?
The latest wanderer from the Tropic Waste,
Sun-bronzed and care-lined, saunters
In cheery chat with mild-faced Mirabel,
Who with Romance's wildest weirdest spell
Has witched your Mudie-haunters.