friends (amongst whose endearing services they expected to have happily terminated their days)— to this fiend I could not truckle, cringe, and fawn, nor cry with Hudibrastic cunning,

"Madam, I do, as is my duty,

"Honour the shadow of your shoe-tie."

I changed my situation, where I was a material favourite with the audience, and where the situation might have been profitable, for one in a company, where I had then pleasure to reflect that I had been before, and the cause of my ever having quitted it was removed. Here I composed the following on Contentment.

CONTENTMENT.

"WHAT, goody housewife! age's wrinkled brow "Gives deepen'd furrow to your visage now.

Say what's the cause? Have thieves got in and stole, 'Or hunting puss thrown down, your china bowl?'

"Neither, good Thomas, neither by this light: "I'm only giving Jane advice that's right.'

'I'll tell wife the best advice when old, you, 'Is good example and to drop the scold.

'That clattering tongue will force the wench to roam. 'Let youth have pleasure, and endear their home.

'Give liberal ear to undisguised youth,

'And loyal confidence will tell

you truth.

'Your child will love you, as she hates deceit : 'You'll see her bosom, but detect no cheat. (You'd have the girl mew'd in a chimney-corner, With nought but soot and ign'rance t' adorn her. ‹ And what crime now? Christmas is come-perchance 'Old gaffer Perkins gives a happy dance:

Then let her go and join the merry

round

'Not dully listen to the fiddle's sound,
'And wish and wish that gen'rous mind
'Her honest equals in our neighbour find.
Odso, how featly did we trip away
'At many a frolic ere the wedding-day ;

'And often to prolong time's running sand

'(Your mother absent) back'd her watch's hand.
"Your good old dam would gape, and wish us gone→
'If it had kill'd her, you'd have danced till morn.
And then the nightingale we never found→

"A good excuse to take our evening round,
'While chaste Diana smiled upon the fraud,
'And conscious love still sued for her reward.
'Hymen our lawyer, no settling deeds had we,
'Our hearts were captive-though to marry free.
"Your mother did not scold, and noise, and fret,
'Nor had you learn'd the knack as yet.

'I say, why dame?-how strange so long you're quiet!
Ere now my dozen words would cause a riot.'

'There now, sir,—your stuff has put me out." What, honey?'

I say be quiet, sir, I'm thinking of my money!'

"Your money! oh! burn the lotteries!—that pelf, 'That prize, you got a blank has made yourself. 'While we were poor, our cottage woodbine grew 'Not less confined than was the bliss we knew: "With roses mingled, they'd together peep 'In Sol's first beams t' upbraid the sluggard sleep: 6 Gay play'd the zephyr, till it charm'd the sense: 'These were our joys till avarice stole them hence. ૐ The hedge of briar and the dappled cow

'Have lost their charms upon their mistress now:

'She only thinks on cash to give her child,

'Her coffers mended but her temper spoil❜d.

'When poor, the lame and blind partook your bounty: "Now thou'rt the greatest miser in the county.

"Now some few thousands have enrich'd your purse, 'Pride will convert your blessings to a curse. "Our homely Jane, bred up to her station, "You'd wish to rank first peeress of the nation, 'Quit pigs and fowls, and strive to ape the high'The jest of every rank-and disappointed die. 'True that Jane's virtues might enrich a throne, 'But fashionable habits we should leave alone. 6 Immoderate ambition is the devil's charm: "We humble rustics must attend our farm. 'Some honest swain may take our Jane to wife, And ruddy grandsons grace our latter life, 'Cheer the dim twilight of the waning eye, With home-felt comfort bright'ning ere we die. "In sober village-peace our progeny let live, 'Nor court the meteors which delusion give. 'Princes and peasants have their rank assign'd— 'Each have their duties, each rewards will find. "The patriot-prince may bask in glory's rays, "Contented shepherds count their peaceful days; "But change the crook, and give the sceptre this, 'Pastors and royals would their passage miss : "That would the crook a listless burthen feel, 'And both, benighted, their distress reveal. Then prithee, wife, don't spurn the village-sphere 'But seize the happiness that's ever near : 'Few cares usurp contentment's placid throne, "Earth we enjoy and heav'n bespeak our own; 6 Bright mounts youth's sun, and age's set serene, 'With scarce a cloud but which adorns the scene."

Here I wrote a national interlude to give attraction to my benefit, and ridicule the threats of Bonaparte's invasion of this country, which seemed only to be conducted, for several months about that time, in his visits and revisits to Bou logne. The novelty of personating the celebrated emperor had the desired effect; and notwithstanding my usual fate in professional envy upon such occasions, I had the triumphant satisfaction of applause in my sentiments of national attachment and abhorrence of unscrupulous ambition. This piece, entitled A Scene at Boulogne, or The Emperor not Easy, has also been played in other companies, and after my secession.

Here I also wrote and sung the following parody upon "Sally in our Alley."

A PARODY.

1.

LET poets boast of Venus' fame

And call her beauty's queen-a;

There lives a nymph, whom I could name,
Whose type was never seen-a.