She went down to the well, and filled her pitcher and came up.

Πίκρουςχερνίβας τ' ἀνάξεται.

Genesis, xxiv. 16.

Eurip. Iphig. in Aulide.

Hail, wedded love, mysterious law, &c.

Par. Lost.

Dan. vii. 1.

[We have not room for the remaining 47 mottos.

1.

C. N.J

'Tis said a gander once preserved a Capitol,
The truth of which I do not mean to doubt;
It might be so perhaps, and yet mayhap it all
Was merely humbug, though not yet found out;
But, readers, what you learn from me, pray clap it all
Down in your minds, as sterling fact throughout,
As certain as that flirts are taught to titter,
That claret's toothsome, or that gall is bitter.

2.

The metre that I write in, I am told,

Has lately got much into disrepute,

Since the last cantos of the Don were roll'd
Forth on the world, good morals to pollute.

I therefore, as is right, intend to hold

My friends in short suspense. I'll soon be mute, For this is canto sixth and last, and when

I've finish'd it, I lay aside my pen.

3.

For this I know the public all will grieve;
But, by my faith, I've other fish to fry
Than writing for their pleasure; none believe
The trouble 'tis to find words to apply

And jingle sweetly: If I can achieve

This business well, 'tis true I mean to try Some other matters. But (I do not puff) Six clever cantos I think quite enough

4.

Upon this subject. And since I can see
Apprentice boys, and Cockneys, dare to string
Their low ideas, patch'd up shabbily
Into this noble metre, I must fling

* Vid. Tit. Liv. Lib. Quint. Cap. Quadrag. Sep.

Such rhyme away: their filthy ribaldry
Will into shame the octave measure bring,
For every thing within the grasp of such,
Receives pollution from their filthy touch.

5.

The goose-(I here jog onwards with my tale)
Address'd our hero in a way so bland,
That Dan no more appear'd to weep and wail,
But as he was desired stretch'd forth one hand,
And seized the leg, with t'other caught the tail.
The wings of his conductor broad expand,
And quickly, through the balmy morning wind,
The gander moves: the geese steer on behind.

6.

Dan here address'd his guide,-" Pray, fly more down, For I cannot as yet descry the earth;

And when I can discern sweet Bantry's town,

(The darling place from whence I take my birth,A spot, I can assure you, of renown,

And where there's many a hospitable hearth)

I'll shew you where I live, and you can pop
Down to the door with me, and let me drop."-

7.

"Right well I know the place," the bird replied, "And every rock that guards its wond'rous bay; And often, when I feel inclined to ride

Upon the blast, I make that course my way,
And dash along Glangariffe's woody side,

And sometimes dally there the live-long day-
At other times, ere you from bed have risen,
I take a turn or two around the MIZEN."-

8.

"A dangerous rock it is," quoth Dan, "I know, When the wind something southward sets from west; And many a merry soul, both friend and foe,

Has made this bay his watery road to rest.'

"Twice fifteen men I once saw dash'd below,"

Exclaim'd the goose ;"'twas there I had my nest For full three years; but truly, such a shock Made me desert my long-frequented rock.”—

66

9.

Indeed," says Dan, 66 we sometimes have a wreck Much nearer home; and though I cannot say That I would wish one sailor broke his neck,

Or that the crew had aught but fairest play, Yet when there's rum or sugar at your beck, He must be mad who'd not take both away;' For, if the wind will dash them on the shore, We haste to save the cargo-nothing more.".

10.

With chat like this, the pair pursued their way,
Apparently with Daniel's approbation;
The noble goose indeed seem'd quite au fait
At free and gentlemanly conversation;

See Dr Coplestone, and T. D. on Necessitarianism.

The same, in fact, that we hear every day,
When, in the sweet, though tiresome situation
Of sitting next a girl, we're bound to find

Small talk and news to occupy her mind.

11.

And here, to bring my tale to due perfection,
I should inform my friends the route they took;
But as I have for them some small affection,
And always for their approbation look,

I shall not pen just now, for their inspection,

Words that their throats, I think, could never brook;
But lest I should be blamed even by a stranger,

I'll give a few that will not jaws endanger.

12.

They bravely sped o'er Thoumuldheeshig's* plain,
And cross'd the summit of Glendeeloch's mount;
Scudded along +Lord Bantry's rich demesne,

And poised a moment o'er Bosfordha's fount;
Then dash'd above the wilds of dark Drishane,
And other grounds too tedious now to count.
For why should I such information purvey,
For those who can procure Hor. Townsend's survey?

13.

'Twas here Dan first obtain'd a glimpse of land;
But what the place, he knew no more than he
Who dwells among the Antipodean band,
That walk upon their heads so merrily.
Again he groans, and, slipping up his hand
From off the tail, grasps fast in agony
The goose's wing, and sobbing like a child,
With trembling accents, and with features wild,

14.

Asks in submissive terms the gander's route,

And whither he was going: "Home, my lad;
To take you home."-" Oh! Lord, sir, you are out
Much in your reck'ning, and you'd make me glad,
If you'd just stop yourself, and turn about,

For none that were not altogether mad
Would seek for Bantry in a place like this."
"Be quiet, Dan, the way I shall not miss."

15.

"But sure I know where Bantry's very well,
And this is not the road. Oh my! Oh my!||

I think that all of you came out of hell,

To use a Christian this way in the sky;
I'd rather sure that from the moon I fell,

Than be this shuttlecock. God bless you, try
And fly down lower. Oh! I knew, I knew,
The rogues were all one party. Alleluh !§

• Places about Bantry-bay.

+ The family, at the date of this poem, was not ennobled; but then, as now, it was good.

Survey of Co. Cork, by Rev. Hor. Townsend-the best work of the kind extant. A Hibernian Lamentation, corresponding with the Italian rhyme, which Vallancey would say was derived from it.

§ An exclamation not to be confounded with Alleluia, it being rather different.

16.

"Och! now I see you plainly want my life,
And I may just as well be murder'd here;
So let me drop upon the rocks; my wife
Will find me out, and fetch the parish bier,
And wake me, notwithstanding all our strife;

So let me drop down straight there, do you hear?
And when they find my carcase cold and bloody,
The folks will mind my brats, the priest, poor Judy."-

17.

The goose made no reply-but journey'd on,
Silent and calm as infancy asleep;

And now the travellers o'er land had gone,

And moved above the bosom of the deep,

The mighty deep, whose glorious surface shone

One boundless mirror; while the sails that sweep Along its surface in perspective seem,

Like little motes within the solar beam.

18.

And here could Contemplation fill her soul,
And weave her holy deep imaginings;
Here as the ever-living waters roll,

Could Fancy soar upon her airy wings
To other worlds that "gild the glowing pole,"
As Pope (whom Bowles says is no poet) sings.
(These controversies sure the devil sent them
To bother us with *Byron, Bowles, and Bentham.)

19.

This would have been a famous time for judging
Whether the ocean's picturesque or not,
When on its surface not a ship is budging,
Nor aught its clear unruffled face to blot;
Byron and Bowles, I fear, would then be grudging
Dan, if he cut so Gordian-like a knot.

They need not fear. Dan ne'er read Aristotle;
His taste being solely given to the bottle.

20.

"This evening," blubber'd Dan, "I had no notion,
When I left home, to take a cup of ale,
That I'd be thus a-soaring 'bove the ocean,
Stuck to the feathers of a goose's tail;
Oh! then I promise if I e'er this woe shun,
Never to taste a drop at any meal:
But 'tis all over I'm half froze"-A groan
Bursts from his heart, a piteous Hullagone.

21.

And now the bird had wing'd it far away
Over the waste of waters. Not a stain,
Or spot of land, deform'd the mighty bay,
But all was one immeasureable main,
As calm as lake in summer's mid-noon ray,
Parent alike of pleasure and of pain,
One day of thousand deaths the mighty spring,
The next a pillow for the Zephyr's wing.

* Authors of certain pamphlets noticed by us. C. N.

22.

As for myself, I own I'd feel inclined
To visit foreign parts: could I provide
That we should always have a favouring wind,
I would not care so much about the tide.
Just to a tittle it would suit my mind

On nice smooth water merrily to ride,
And as at sea I always eat much more

Than when on land, I'd have of prog good store.

23.

On these conditions I should like to take

A trip "around the world like Captain Cook."
It would be just a pretty sort of freak,

And then I could endite a handsome book.
Some dozen leaves of manuscript would make

A good sized quarto, if we only took

Some pains to put a type, round, tall, and large in,
And leave about a half a foot of margin.t

24.

I'd like to visit China very much,

And crack a bottle with a Mandarine;
I'd like to rove through Russia, at least such
Places as where Circassians can be seen;
I should not care a damn about the Dutch,

Though I must own I love their racy gin:
No Spain for me, though raised to be a Grandee;
But France I always relish'd for its Brandy.

25.

I'd wish to spend a month in Italy

For many reasons. There the wine is good;
The dark-eyed damas are all frank and free;
But I am told they overboil their food.
In Switzerland they don't live jollily,

And mountaineers are somehow always rude.
But lest my readers should not like my taste,
Back to my tale I make all proper haste.

26.

The goose, as I remark'd before, had fled

Some dozen leagues to sea, and Daniel gave
In thought at least his frame a watʼry bed;
When steering forward, dashing back the wave,
A ship along the foaming waters sped:

Oh! save

Dan here began to bawl. "Oh! save,
A Christian from a wat'ry grave," he cried
To those below, when he the vessel spied.

27.

She seem'd a cutter from the west of France,

Seventy ton burthen, thirteen hands on board,
Which drove a trade 'twixt th' Irish coast and Nantz,
With silks and lace, but most with brandy stored.

Close to the wind she lay; a single glance

Would see 'twas Bantry she was making tow'rd.
Her sides were painted black, she lay quite low,
And both for reasons which perhaps you know.

Either Whistlecraft stole this from me, or I from Whistlecraft. I leave it to the reader to decide.

+ Charts impressorum maxima, lineæ, ubi Apparent raræ nantes in margine vasto.

Epil. to Phormio at Westminster School. Witness the Gallovegian, and other Borderers.