Punch (65.1873)

July 5, 1873.]

PUNCH, OP THE LONDON CHAPJVARI.

Jfor f(» ®atari).

The land-marks of our Shaksbeabe’s birth and death,
^ A goal of pilgrimage we bold bequeathed,

For all that now breathe English-speaking breath,

And all by whom such breath shall yet be breathed.

What would these pilgrims think of us, or say—

The natural guardians of that double shrine,

If we let tomb be wronged or house decay ?—

“ How shall the worldly honour the divine ? ”

And if we cherish Shakspe abe’s house and grave,

For pilgrimage of all of English tongue,

Dan Chauceb’s Tabard were’t not well to save
From the destroying hammer o’er it hung ?

There still, from Southwark’s ever-flowing tide
Drawn back in its deep yard, the hostel grey
Rears its quaint galleries, and chambers wide,

And stately stables of the ancient day.

Here stood the stair where Habby Bailey, stout,
Received to harbour gentle Knight and Squire,

And dainty Prioresse, and—rougher rout—■

Hot Reeve, sly Frere, and Miller fierce as fire.

Where liquorish Monk fair Wife of Bath first saw,
And pimpled Sompnour elbowed Shipman brown ;
And jolly Franklin, and grave Man of Law,
Shouldered the Craftsman in his livery gown.

Here all the motley-clad, full-breathing, life
Of the third Edward’s day to being came
Forth from that brain with moving pictures rife,

And ranged itself in the grey Tabard’s frame.

And they that would live o’er that life again,—
English of far-off lands, and times to be,—

Will gather stiU to Southwark High-Street, fain
The Tabard’s gallery-girdled yard to see.

And shall they hear, that, in this year of grace,

We valued such old memories not a pin,

Or Chauceb’s countrymen were in no case
To save from downfall Chauceb’s haunted Inn P

Too poor to buy and consecrate its walls
To him who gave them tenants for all time,

That future pilgrims, seeking these grey halls,

May still hear Mary-Overies’ mellow chime,

For bed-ward Canterbury pilgrims rung,

Or rung to rouse those pilgrims for the way ;

As in that April morn, by Chauceb sung,

“ At Southwark, in the Tabard, where they lay ” ?

ENLIGHTENED PROTEST.

Ser,—In reference to Mb. Fobsteb’s remarks about the. National
Anthem being sung in schools, I protest against sthe practice, and .1
refuse to send my children to any school where that fulsome, unphi-
lanthropic, uncosmopolitan, fawning hymn is used.

I object to it, first, because it recognises an Influence about which
I know nothing: secondly, because it implies that human beings
have some communication with that Influence: thirdly, because it
adulates a monarch, and I am a republican: fourthly, because it
encourages a bellicose spirit, and I am for peace at any price:
fifthly, because it expresses a wish that this country, should be more
prosperous than any other; and, sixthly, because it asks what is
not in the interest of trade, which is promoted (though I despise the
means) by frequent transmissions of the so-called Crown.

I desire to see the National Anthem abolished, and

I am (to use the conventional phrase),

Your obedient Servant,

“An Advanced Thinkee.”

FBOM THE STOCK EXCHANGE.

Said Robinson to Jones, at a recent exhibition, “Our friend
Bbown’s sketches, I see, are most of them in Sepia.” “ Why, yes,
of course,” said Jones, “it is the fittest medium for insepient
attempts.”

Yol. 65.

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