The three tours of Doctor Syntax In search of 1. The picturesque, 2. Of consolation, 3. Of a wife. The text complete. [By William Combe] With four illustrations |
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 | The three tours of Doctor Syntax |  |
While this love-talk was going on, Syntax his morning task had done,
And was returning stout and able, To prey upon the breakfast table.
Thus, passing on, he chanc'd to see, Beneath an overshadowing tree,
Patrick engag'd in am'rous guise Devouring Susan with his eyes;
While she, with half averted look, The kind discrimination took.
—The Doctor, sitting on a stile, Resolv'd that he would stop awhile,
And please his fancy with the view Of how the curious courtship grew.
—Sometimes their jogging elbows spoke Half in earnest, half in joke;
Then their join'd hands appear'd in view,
And then the nymph her hand withdrew,
Tapping the lover on the shoulder;
At which he bolder grew and bolder;
When his arm gently clasp'd her waist,
Nor did she think the grasp misplac'd;
For, though she made attempt to shove it,
The feeble act did not remove it.
—And now the smiling Doctor thought
'Twas time to set it all at nought,
To interfere in the debate, And spoil, at once, the tête à tête.
He then appear'd, poor Pat was hush'd,
The nymph at first look'd down and blush'd,
Then tript away on all her legs, To better market with her eggs.
And was returning stout and able, To prey upon the breakfast table.
Thus, passing on, he chanc'd to see, Beneath an overshadowing tree,
Patrick engag'd in am'rous guise Devouring Susan with his eyes;
While she, with half averted look, The kind discrimination took.
—The Doctor, sitting on a stile, Resolv'd that he would stop awhile,
And please his fancy with the view Of how the curious courtship grew.
—Sometimes their jogging elbows spoke Half in earnest, half in joke;
Then their join'd hands appear'd in view,
And then the nymph her hand withdrew,
Tapping the lover on the shoulder;
At which he bolder grew and bolder;
When his arm gently clasp'd her waist,
Nor did she think the grasp misplac'd;
For, though she made attempt to shove it,
The feeble act did not remove it.
—And now the smiling Doctor thought
'Twas time to set it all at nought,
To interfere in the debate, And spoil, at once, the tête à tête.
He then appear'd, poor Pat was hush'd,
The nymph at first look'd down and blush'd,
Then tript away on all her legs, To better market with her eggs.
| The three tours of Doctor Syntax | |