The Ingoldsby Legends or, Mirth and Marvels. By Thomas Ingoldsby [i.e. R. H. Barham] |
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 | The Ingoldsby Legends |  |
So novel a clause Caused Bassanio to pause;
But Antonio, like most of those sage “Johnny Raws”
Who care not three straws About Lawyers or Laws,
And think cheaply of “Old Father Antic,” because
They have never experienced a gripe from his claws,
“Pooh pooh'd” the whole thing.—“Let the Smouch have his way,
Why, what care I, pray, For his penalty?—Nay,
It's a forfeit he'd never expect me to pay:
And, come what come may, I hardly need say
My ships will be back a full month ere the day.”
So, anxious to see his friend off on his journey,
And thinking the whole but a paltry concern, he
Affixed with all speed His name to a deed,
Duly stamp'd and drawn up by a sharp Jew attorney.
Thus again furnish'd forth, Lord Bassanio, instead
Of squandering the cash, after giving one spread,
With fiddling and masques, at the Saracen's Head,
In the morning “made play,” And without more delay,
Started off in the steam-boat for Belmont next day.
But scarcely had he From the harbour got free,
And left the Lagunes for the broad open sea,
Ere the 'Change and Rialto both rung with the news
That he'd carried off more than mere cash from the Jew's.
Though Shylock was old, And, if rolling in gold,
Was as ugly a dog as you' wish to behold,
For few in his tribe 'mongst their Levis and Moseses,
Sported so Jewish an eye, beard, and nose as his,
Still, whate'er the opinion of Horace and some be,
Your aquilæ generate sometimes Columbæ,
Like Jephthah, as Hamlet says, he'd “one fair daughter,”
And every gallant, who caught sight of her, thought her,
A jewel—a gem of the very first water;
A great many sought her, Till one at last caught her,
And, upsetting all that the Rabbis had taught her,
To feelings so truly reciprocal brought her,
That the very same night Bassanio thought right
To give all his old friends that farewell “invite,”
And while Shylock was gone there to feed out of spite,
On “wings made by a tailor” the damsel took flight.
But Antonio, like most of those sage “Johnny Raws”
Who care not three straws About Lawyers or Laws,
And think cheaply of “Old Father Antic,” because
They have never experienced a gripe from his claws,
“Pooh pooh'd” the whole thing.—“Let the Smouch have his way,
Why, what care I, pray, For his penalty?—Nay,
It's a forfeit he'd never expect me to pay:
And, come what come may, I hardly need say
My ships will be back a full month ere the day.”
So, anxious to see his friend off on his journey,
And thinking the whole but a paltry concern, he
Affixed with all speed His name to a deed,
Duly stamp'd and drawn up by a sharp Jew attorney.
Thus again furnish'd forth, Lord Bassanio, instead
Of squandering the cash, after giving one spread,
With fiddling and masques, at the Saracen's Head,
In the morning “made play,” And without more delay,
Started off in the steam-boat for Belmont next day.
But scarcely had he From the harbour got free,
And left the Lagunes for the broad open sea,
Ere the 'Change and Rialto both rung with the news
That he'd carried off more than mere cash from the Jew's.
43
Was as ugly a dog as you' wish to behold,
For few in his tribe 'mongst their Levis and Moseses,
Sported so Jewish an eye, beard, and nose as his,
Still, whate'er the opinion of Horace and some be,
Your aquilæ generate sometimes Columbæ,
Like Jephthah, as Hamlet says, he'd “one fair daughter,”
And every gallant, who caught sight of her, thought her,
A jewel—a gem of the very first water;
A great many sought her, Till one at last caught her,
And, upsetting all that the Rabbis had taught her,
To feelings so truly reciprocal brought her,
That the very same night Bassanio thought right
To give all his old friends that farewell “invite,”
And while Shylock was gone there to feed out of spite,
On “wings made by a tailor” the damsel took flight.
| The Ingoldsby Legends | |