Punch (62.1872)

102

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

f March 9, 1872.

THE NEW CURATE.

Orthodox Elderly Spiaster. " What a hsavesly Sekmon, Makia ! There, if you'd have only Shut your Eyes, I declare you

might have THOUGHT IT WAS a BlSHOP ! ! !"

PETER QUINCE HIS BALLAD OF
BOTTOM'S DREAM.

" I will get Petek Uuince to write a ballad of this dream ; it shall
be called Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom."—Midsummer
NiglWs Dream, Act iv, Sc. 1.

'Tis of Bully Bottom, a cobbler stout

As ever wax-end drew,
To patch a hole in a damaged sole,

Or set up a down-trod shoe.
Till from lair work to frothy talk

He fell, in evil day,
And to the " Hole-in-the-Wall" must walk,

To hear the asses bray.

Then, " Why," thought he, " contented wait,

Botching at sole and heel,
With holes so great in Church and State

Such rents i' the conrmon-weal P
With a wax-end shall he contend,

That in talk might wax high ?
And upper-leathers only mend,

With upper classes by ? "

The more he talked the less he toiled,

And as the less he earned,
His blood 'gainst Capital it boiled,

Against employers burned :
Of stool and strap he would no more ;

Away his awl he cast:
And by St. Crispin stoutly swore

Not to stick to his last.

And when of his own froth at last

Report in them began,
He to the wind his aproa cast,

And started Public Man !

Demonstrated : sent round the hat:

Raved in Trafalgar Square,
While still the British Lion sat,

And stared with quiet stare :
Talked fustian stuff, while rogue and rough

Shouted, and shoved, and stole ;
And John Bull tame failed to iarlame

With a red cap on a x>ole.

Till reason strayed, and Bottom brayed,

Yet deemed not sense had fled :
Nor knew, poor owl, his jobbernowl

Had grown an ass's head !
So to Fool's-Paradise a-whirled,

He dreamed a wondrous dream,
Wherein the world an asses' world,

And he its Lord, did seem.

There everything is upside down :

Highest to lowest drops :
Crowns serve but to be stool upon,

Pyramids rest on tops.
Reason is under Folly's feet,

Ignorance Knowledge schools ;
The Cook is basted by the meat :

Workmen ruled by their took.

And in this topsy-turvy row

Sits Bully Bottom crowned ;
About his ass's ears and brow

And all the less grew common sense,
The more gre w self-conceit;
n weekly papers went his pence—

Their wind to him was meat: ' The chorus rises free,

The more grew self-conceit; The bonnet-rouge v-bound.

On weekly papers went his pence— And, asinine, from throat? <>f brass,