Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies I.djvu/210

192 Oh! send them to the sullen mansions dun, Her baleful eyes where Sorrow rolls around; Where gloom-enamour'd Mischief loves to dwell, And Murder, all blood-bolter'd, schemes the wound.

When cates luxuriant pile the spacious dish, And purple nectar glads the festive hour; The guest, without a want, without a wish, Can yield no room to Music's soothing pow'r.

Some of the old legendary stories put in verse by modern writers provoked him to caricature them thus one day at Streatham; but they are already well-known, I am sure.

The tender infant, meek and mild,
 * Fell down upon the stone;

The nurse took up the squealing child,
 * But still the child squeal'd on.

A famous ballad also, beginning Rio verde, Rio verde, when I commended the translation of it, he said he could do it better himself—as thus:

Glassy water, glassy water, Down whose current clear and strong, Chiefs confus'd in mutual slaughter, Moor and Christian roll along.