Punch (29.1855)

72

PUNCH, OK THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[August 18, 1855.

" GEROPIGA."

(Bacchanalian Song, No. 1.—Air, from Der Freischiitz.)

Drink, drink, bumper on bumper pour;
This is wine, and something more;

That fact there's no blinking.
Grape-juice, brandy, sugar brown,
Elderberries—toss it down !

'Tis "geropiga" we're drinking.

Wine, wine, what people call Port wine,
Is the product of the vine

In a scanty measure.
Logwood gives it ruby hue,
And it smacks of catechu,

Headache will succeed our pleasure !

(-Bacchanalian Song No. 2.—Air notorious.)

A glass of "geropiga" fill, fill for me,

Give those who can get it Port wine
But whatever our liquor it brandied must be,

There is no chance of French or of Rhine.
And here while strong alcohol flares in the eye,

And man's queerest feelings possess him,
Here's the health of the sage who would Claret deny,

Here's Sir Emerson Tennent—and bless him!

Young Sholomunsh (to Young Snoeley, who is attired in his very best). "Now, Sir !
Let mb shell you a nish Shuit of Closhe, make ter good allowance for
the Old Uns ter've got on !" [Snobley's feelings may be imagined.

SHALL JOSEPH HUME HAVE A STATUE?

Mr. Williams, member for Lambeth, has just put this
timely question to the Prime Minister, and his Lordship,
by his manner of answer, would imply that the Government
only need a little gentle pressure on the matter. The old
woman who lives in the Lane of Shoe asks, "What right has
Joseph Hume for a place among the worthies of West-
minster Hall?" Anyway, the right of exception; for
exception, that ordinarily proves the rule, in Joseph's case
proves the triumph of the Rule of Three. Hume has richly
earned his statue. Let twopence in the pound, for every
pound saved by Hume to the country, be taken towards
the cost of the statue, and we might have a statue, not of
marble, but of gold.

A VOICE FROM ROUNDSDITCH.

Houndsditch has its feelings, Petticoat Lane is sensitive as the
polished mirror to the breath of calumny, and Rag Fair is ready to faint
at the slightest imputation on its character. Somebody happened to
hint the other day, that the display of pocket-handkerchiefs in Petticoat
Lane might possibly include a few that had left the pockets of their
owners in an unlawful manner, when a body of Jews rushed sorrowfully
forth from the East to the West, and proclaimed in touching language
their scorn of a dirty action—of a doubtful pocket handkerchief. If the
deputation of Hebrews is to be believed, there is not the smallest trans-
action in Petticoat Lane which is not conducted on the highest
principle of integrity. Every article is scrupulously traced in its course
from the manufactory to the Judaical door-post where it is exposed for
sale, and there is not a Bandanna admitted into the pure precincts of
Rag Fair without an elaborate pedigree. Of course there is no possi-
bility that a handkerchief should be described as got by Lightfinger
out of Pocket, and it is the general presumption of the Jewish tradesmen
that every little urchin who produces some " half-dozen best Indian,
worth 5s. Qd. each," which he is ready to dispose of at sixpence a-piece,
is only some eccentric juvenile who is desirous of reducing his pocket-
handkerchief establishment, which he has of course formed in a purely
legitimate manner.

We confess that we cannot expect society to sympathise very deeply
with Houndsditch in the distress it professes to feel at the imputations
lately thrown on its commercial character.

Drunkenness at Bow Street.

On Thursday, a German appears before Mr. Hall, at Bow Street :

" Mr. Hall. Were you sober ?
" German. Certainly.

" Mr. Hall. Ha I That accounts for it; if you had been an Englishman, you would
have been drunk to a certainty."

Is Mr. Hall an Englishman ? If so, then according to Mr. Hall
—Mr. Hall must have been "drunk to a certainty."

DISCUSSION ON DR. WATTS.

An interesting literary question has arisen in consequence of the fol-
lowing lines having been quoted in the Times from Dr. Watts, with
a passing remark on their somewhat ungrammatical character :—

" Let dogs delight to bark and bite,
For 'tis their nature to."

A Ma. or Mrs. A. L. Cope, of Peckham, has addressed a letter to
our leading contemporary, stating the belief that the lines were written
by Dr. Watts thus :—

" Let bears and lions growl and fight,
For 'tis their nature too.'

the line about the dogs commencing the verse, which consists of four
lines; the second line concluding with the word "so." Now, cer-
tainly, this is the ordinary modern reading, and it is true that the writer
in the Times has put the dogs in the place of the bears and lions ; but
our impression is, that in the early editions of Dr. Watts's poetry, at
least in those familiar to us in early years, the last line of the verse
stood precisely as it was cited in the Times .—

" For 'tis their nature to."

Besides, by the substitution of " too " for " to," Dr. Watts is only
exonerated from the charge of having committed one blunder, by being-
represented to have perpetrated another. "Too" cannot be brought
to rhyme with "so," except by the pronunciation of "so " as "soo."
In no dialect with which we are acquainted, has the adverb in question
any such sound; whereas, in that of some dissenting ministers,
the other adverb, "to," is homophonous with the noun-substantive
" toe:" and the circumstance that Dr. Watts was a Nonconformist
Divine, may seem to favour the supposition that " to," pronounced as a
perfect rhyme with " so," is the correct reading.

query—to builders and others.

Are the Ceilings of the cells of Anchorites, do yon think, hermit-
ically sealed?