University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
Reminiscences, in Prose and Verse

Consisting of the Epistolary Correspondence of Many Distinguished Characters. With Notes and Illustrations. By the Rev. R. Polwhele

expand sectionI. 
expand sectionII. 
expand sectionIII. 

THE TARTAR.

Wives are in lecturing oft so sharp,
Their husbands they to ire provoke,
So long on the same string they harp,
In troth their scolding is no joke!

58

Day after day Madge made a rout,
On generous Port denouncing woe—
“Die—die! a martyr to the gout!
The Tartar 'tis torments thee so.”
“Too true (quoth he); but check thy tongue,
That dooms me thus to die a martyr;
For, whether thou art right or wrong,
I'm certain I have caught [the] [a] Tartar!”
 

The Tartar of Port wine has such an effect with me, that three or four glasses are sure to produce a fit of the gout.