To go on with my tale-as I gaz'd on the haunch, To paint it, or eat it, just as he lik'd best; b е There's H-d, and C-y, and H-rth, and H-ff, I think they love venison-I know they love beef. There's my countryman Higgins-Oh! let him alone, For making a blunder, or picking a bone. C But hang it to poets who seldom can eat, An acquaintance, a friend as he call'd himself, enter'd; e An underbred, fine spoken fellow was he, And he smil'd as he look'd at the venison and me. VARIATIONS. b There's Coley, and Williams, and Howard, and Hiff c that d It would look like a flirt, Like sending 'em ruffles * A fine spoken customhouse officer he, Who smil'd as he gaz'd on the venison and me. 1 What have we got here?-Why this is good eating! Your own I supposee-or is it in waiting?' 'Why, whose should it be?' cried I with a flounce: 'I get these things often ;'-but that was a bounce: 'Some lords, my acquaintance,that settle the nation, Are pleas'd to be kind-but I hate ostentation.' "If that be the case, then,' cried he, very gay, 'I'm glad I have taken this house in my way. To-morrow you take a poor dinner with me; No words-I insist on't-precisely at three: We'll have Johnson, and Burke, all the wits will be there; My acquaintance is slight, or I'd ask my lord Clare. friend!' [wind, Thus snatching his hat, he brush'd off like the And the porter and eatables follow'd behind. Left alone to reflect, having emptied my shelf, I'll take no denial-you shall, and you must. No words, my dear Goldsmith! my very good friend! h seizing And nobody with me at sea but myself;'2 When come to the place where we all were to dine, (A chair-lumber'd closet just twelve feet by nine:) My friend bade me welcome, but struck me quite dumb, [come; With tidings that Johnson and Burke 'would not For I knew it,' he cried, both eternally fail, The one with his speeches, and t'other with Thrale; But no matter, I'll warrant we'll make up the party, With two full as clever, and ten times as hearty. The one is a Scotchman, the other a Jew, 'They're both of them merry, and authors like you; The one writes the Snarler, the other the Scourge; Some thinks he writes Cinna-he owns to Panurge.' While thus he describ'd them by trade and by name, They enter'd, and dinner was serv'd as they came. 2 See the letters that passed between his royal highness Henry Duke of Cumberland, and Lady Grosvenor-12mo, 1769. But, I warrant for me, we shall make up the party. J Who dabble and write in the papers-like you. At the top a fried liver and bacon were seen, At the bottom was tripe, in a swinging tureen; At the sides there was spinage and pudding made hot; In the middle a place where the "pasty—was not. Now, my lord, as for tripe, it's my utter aversion, And your bacon I hate like a Turk or a Persian; So there I sat stuck, like a horse in a pound, While the bacon and liver went merrily round: But what vex'd me most was that damn'd Scottish rogue, With his long winded speeches, his smiles and his brogue, And, Madam,'quoth he, 'may this bit be my poison, "A prettier dinner I never set eyes on; Pray a slice of your liver, though may I be curst, But I've eat of your tripe till I'm ready to burst;' The tripe,' quoth the Jew, with his chocolate cheek, 'I could dine on this tripe seven days in the week: I like these here dinners so pretty and small; But your friend there, the doctor, eats nothing at all.' 'O-oh!' quoth my friend, he'll come on in a trice, He's keeping a corner for something that's nice: VARIATIONS. m venison n If a prettier dinner I ever set eyes on! 'Your tripe!' quoth the Jew, if the truth I may speak. Peat of "There's a pasty'-'a pasty!' repeated the Jew; I don't care if I keep a corner for❜t too.' 'What the de'il, mon, a pasty!' re-echoed the Scot; 'Though splitting, I'll still keep a corner for that.' 'We'll all keep a corner,' the lady cried out; 'We'll all keep a corner,' was echo'd about. While thus we resolv'd, and the pasty delay'd, r With looks that quite petrified, enter'd the maid; A visage so sad, and so pale with affright, her? Wak'd Priam in drawing his curtains by night. A relish a taste-sicken'd over by learning; VARIATIONS. 'There's a pasty.' 'A pasty!' returned the Scot; 'I don't care if I keep a corner for thot.' r looks quite astonishing too soon we |