Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/60

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL JAN. ic, im

Strike and parry, Fetch and carry, Current clear, Plunge in here. Seize that stick, Bring it quick, And lay it clown before us.

'Mong tribes canine My skill 's divine, And what all speech And sense confounds, My art can teach A pack of hounds To bow-wow-wow in chorus.

IV. Song: Narcotic.

Cupid ! cease, you pleasing plague, you ! No ! ah ! no ! I can t resist him ! Fast I feel a fiery ague Shoot through all ray nervous system.

Bring, ah ! bring, to cure my heartache, Mild emollient, cool cathartic, Cream of tartar, rhubarb, aloes, Salts, and castor oil, and mallows.

'Sdeath ! I 'm in a raging fever ! Cardialgic inflammation Boils in this, my great receiver

(laying his hand on his breast), Like a double distillation.

Hope inspires me

Passion fires me

Love pursues me

Rage subdues me :

Nought can rule me,

Nought can cool me, In this furious perspiration.

V. Song: Windgall.

Oh ! if I can carry her !

Oh ! if I can marry her ! I'll leave alone Black, bay, and roan,

And be no more a farrier.

A farrier, a farrier

Oh, horrid sound, a farrier !

A squire I '11 be

Of high degree, And fly the sound of farrier.

A borough then I '11 fly for ; A title then I '11 try for ;

And not disgrace

The noble race Of that sweet maid I die for. Oh ! if I can carry her, &c.

VI. Duet.

Miles.

All my troubles disappe When the dinner-bell I

pear

hear.

Over woodland, dale and fell, Swinging low with solemn swell, The dinner-bell ! the dinner-bell !

Hippy.

What can bid my heartache fly ? What can bid my heartache die ? What can all the ills dispel In my morbid frame that dwell ? The dinner-bell ! the dinner-bell !

Both.

Hark ! along the tangled ground Loudly floats the pleasing sound! Sportive Fauns to Dryads tell 'Tis the cheerful dinner-bell. The dinner-bell ! the dinner-bell !

VII. Song : O'Fir.

A tailor called on me, and, scraping his legs, As one morning I sate o'er my muffin and eggs. Says he, " Here I 've brought you a little account, And I '11 be mighty glad to receive the amount."

Says I, " My sweet soul," and I shrugged up my

brow,

" I don't find it convenient to pay it just now." " You had better," says he, " for your own little

sake, Or perhaps you won't relish the measure I'll take.

I must have the money, so make no appeals ; Or I'll lay you, my honey, next week, by the heels." Says I, " For my heels 1 can't answer, 1 trow, But I '11 just give you now a soft taste of my toe."

So I kicked him downstairs in the midst of his

threats,

Which you see is a new way of paying old debts ; " Now," says I, " you 've just learned, without any

demur, The footing you stand on with Phelim O'Fir."

VIII. Finale.

Hippy, Quick the dinner bring again. O'Fir. And uncork the old champagne. Caroline. ~\ All disasters now are past ; Lucy. ) Here we meet in peace at last.

Chorus.

All they ask to crown their cause Is one dose of your applause.

Nearly all these songs are very character- istic of Peacock. Especially is this the case with 'The Dinner-Bell' and "Couldn't that old sot, Sir Peter." The latter recalls the drinking song ' Sir Peter ' in ' Headlong Hall,' while the former exhibits the well- known tendency on the part of the poet and novelist to indulge in good living, and his delight in describing others who do the same. Every song, however, exhibits Pea- cock's skill as a writer of light verse, and taken collectively they bear out Thackeray's judgment of their author as "a charming lyrical poet and Horatian satirist."

A. B. YOUNG.

SEAQUAKE AND EARTHQUAKE. The terrible catastrophe which happened on the 28th of December, 1908, and had its

entre in the Strait of Messina (the figure of which, it is reported, has been much altered), may perhaps be recorded as a

ombined sea- and earth- quake, and require a new designation in a compound term. The well-known Italian equivalent of " earth- quake " is terremoto, but I am not aware