The Harp of Erin :: :: University of Virginia Library

The second Canto openeth with a most picturesque, poetical, natural, and novel description of night—An apparition, as usual, and secundum artem, introduced—The apparition experienceth much hardship in disturbing Peter from the arms of Somnus—Moralizeth in a most spiritual harangue, and after rousing the poet, vanisheth—Morning riseth, so doth Peter—Peter seizeth an hereditary twig, and, in an evil hour, issueth forth—The poet depicteth, and laudeth Piccadilly—Discovereth Sir Giffard in the most placid posture—Various appropriate, but terrific omens—Peter's dilated bulk described, in a manner at least equal to Squire Maro's “Monstrum horrendum,” or Mr. Milton's Lucifer—A second invocation, in a hurry—The goddess Victoria astonished—Peter's Theban uncle, and Milo, the bullock-bruiser, noticed—Interrogation and reply—“A blow, by heav'n, a blow”—A simile and stare—The combat—The Cyclops—The tall Frenchman—Peter oweth much of his safety to beef—Peter's patience—Peter is vanquished and flyeth—sic transit gloria Monday!

Now knaves, so studious of the sage's plan,
Sought with dark lanthorns for an honest man;
Now gamesters conn'd their talismanic board;
Now with their wives uncourteous husbands snor'd;

Now to their sweethearts tiptoe lovers crept;
Now play-projectors murder'd though they slept;
Now fearful rose, to punish Dutton's crimes,
Plots, incidents, and spectred pantomimes;
Now lords their chariots quit on festal state,
While Townshend tries their passes at the gate;
Now night, pale widow, in her old black gown,
Peaceful, had mnffled up this precious town;
Watchmen no more the nicer organs shock,
But, soft as zephyr, hiccupp'd “one o'clock!”
When, close by Peter's couch a goblin stood;
Goblin robust, as though of flesh and blood:
Thrice twitch'd his night-cap, thrice his pillow shook,
Thrice pull'd the coverlid, and mournful spoke.

“Behold the laureat, not again come back
“From heav'n's ambrosia to assert his sack,
“But wicked with with counsel to repay,
“And warn thee of the inevitable day;
“For this did Kearsley share his Sunday cheer,
“Enthusiast of plumb-pudding and brown beer?

“For this did Opie lend a christian look.
“To the grand prototype before thy book?
“Ah! feel'st thou not the anticipated jest
“Of Mistress Cosway, and of Master West?
“Hear'st thou not snort the famished steeds of Stubbs?
“Haunt not thy vermin'd dream Sir Joseph's grubs?
“Skip not his boil'd fleas, buzzing in thine ear?
“Or Buller's meteor-wig dost thou not fear?
“Portentous on to-morrow's dawn they low'r;
“Avert, oh Peter, the disastrous hour!
“The hour disgraceful shun, if fate allow,
“Destin'd to rob the laurel from thy brow;
“But now, on glory meditant arise!”—
He spoke, and speaking sought his native skies.

Clad in a suit of second-mourning hue,
Uprose the morn, and uprose Peter too.
Wan as a death-hunter's, his visage frown'd,
And wild he cast his rueful eyes around;
His eyes, where feebly shone a rush-light ray,
His wistful eyes, “that witness'd huge dismay.”
Yet fell revenge, impatient of controul,
Yet injur'd talent stung his stormy soul;
Yet, Wharton's voice his learned zeal alarm'd,
(Tenacious of the saw, “fore-warn'd, fore-arm'd,”)

And seizing a stout twig his grandsire bore,
He cough'd, and issued at the postern-door.
Returning never with Pindaric pride
Shall he triumphant o'er its threshold stride;
But on the steps, with loose dishevell'd hair,
Shall sit, unwelcome visitant, Despair.

There is a street, full stately to the sight
Of trav'lling clown, and Piccadilly hight;
Brave street, which first I enter'd, awful thing!
When I beheld St. James's and the King.
But most, another Academe, this street
For shop of bibliopolist is meet;
Where Bond-street lounger, tir'd of vain pursuits,
May contemplate on Newton, or—his boots;
There hold sweet dialogue, facetious smile;
There fix the fashion of an author's style;
There comb his crop, there meliorate his mind,
And give commands—to letter and to bind.

Here, deeply studious, in an easy chair,
His choler meeken'd, and compos'd his air;

Warn'd by no vision of th' impending stroke,
But smiling heedless at each passing joke,
Ill-fated Giffard sat. The shelves around,
Convulsive, gave a hideous groan profound;
The Baviad thrice, in sympathetic pain,
Open'd its filial leaves, and clos'd again;
The parrot burst her cage, loquacious fowl!
And on the chimney perch'd the mystic owl:
When lo! dilated into tenfold might,
In breadth a hogshead, and a tow'r in height,
In rush'd the bulk of Peter.—Muse benign,
Still louder swell that penny-trump of thine;
For ne'er did tilt of prowess'd Charlemagne,
Or craz'd Orlando, claim a nobler strain;
Though his mad capers meet the general view
In half a hundred cantos, mine in two.

Summon'd by Mars, who had no time to spare,
'Twixt love and war, the contest and the fair;
To fix nice points of honor, cool the fray,
And see both warriors come with life away;
Victoria (she who left her troops behind,
Heartsick, in swarthy Egypt), was assign'd:

Yet she, like Festus, frighted by Saint Paul,
Scarce sav'd her trembling balance from a fall,
'Till clamb'ring to the roof with hasty feet,
A folio of campaigns supplied her seat;
There sat she, cow'ring, like a pagod nich'd,
And deem'd the bards bedevil'd or bewitch'd.
Not Peter's uncle, yearly when he came
To tune his crowder at th' Olympic game;
Not he (though Theban chaps were rather stout)
E'er saw or sung so terrible a bout;
Though Milo, with one formidable box,
Split the tough cranium of a bellowing ox,
Peel'd off the hide to save his feet from thorns,
And pick'd his teeth, at supper, with the horns.

“Is Giffard here?” the maniac minstrel cry'd;
Giffard, “Lo! him thou seek'st is here!” reply'd.
“From hence then take thy ferry o'er to hell!”
Right on his sconce the sturdy sapling fell;
His sconce, impenetrable, scorn'd a wound,
But hollow rung, and gave a mournful sound;
While horror bristled up his wond'ring hair,
And strain'd each muscle to an iron stare.

As when, instead of tipping half-a-crown,
Some powder'd bully knocks his barber down;
Or to a bard some patronizing duke,
Instead of twenty pounds, returns his book;
Or to some beau a bailiff in the pit,
Instead of choice rappee presents a wr i;
So Giffard star'd (and so perdie would you),
And writh'd and scratch'd, “and wist not what to do.”
Stupid awhile he stood; and ey'd the foe
With frozen glare, a monument of woe:
'Till, blown by gusts of rage, his ebbing blood
Foaming came back, spring-tide, a roaring flood.
And now his shoulders to the work he lays,
And now the blow at cent. per cent. repays.
Dire blow! that threaten'd ruin to his brain;
And all its embryo-brood, a harmless train;
For there unfledg'd the young ideas rest,
Like callow birdlings in a cuckoo's nest.

If thou hast e'er th' Etnean depths explor'd,
With molten rocks and flaming lava stor'd;
Where old Empedocles once bruised his rump,
Popp'd from its sultry summit—no bad jump:
If thou hast trac'd that celebrated hole,
Nor sing'd thy beard, nor burn'd thy slipper-sole;
Then hast thou seen at an infernal heat
The one-ey'd brethren on their anvil beat;

Quaff down, like purl, amid their maudlin tricks,
Full pots of Periphlegeton and Styx;
Then well-refresh'd their noisy trade renew,
And bang till e'en the fire itself was blue.
So, capable King Harry's mail to crack,
Associate fists keep time on Peter's back;
In “regular confusion,” they descend,
And Parthian prentices, at either end,
Discharge their coward cuffs, and partial succour lend.
But, chief of stature, cminently tall,
Fit living skeleton for surgeon's hall,
A bony Frenchman thy assailants led,
Gloomy as death! where most the battle bled:
Him shall thy future lays to fame consign,
And therefore he shall grace no verse of mine.

Had not thy ribs (a seas' nable relief),
Been compass'd with a triple coat of beef,
Though patience was thy only plaister then,
Most patient of the fretful sons of men!
Had not its valiant sirloin fill'd thy breast,
By heav'n! thy patience ne'er had stood the test;
Though patience was thy only plaister then,
Most patient of the fretful sons of men:

For lo! like Bajazet, to please the rout,
The victors in, now turn the vanquish'd out.

Victors in vain!—them cvery month shall goad
With keen epistle, and musquito ode;
Them, penitent too late of foul abouse,
Shall grinning Satire from their dens produce;
Them, angel Truth with radiant shafts assail,
While Modesty destroys the sland'rous tale;
Forgot each other butt of song severe,
Them, piecemeal, shall his fury-pamphlets tear;
For them shall he desert the weaker side,
And, ev'n to kings a couplet be deny'd.

Discomfited, deject, with bleeding brow,
Alarm'd, his fav'rite mob forsake him now;
Yet 'gainst yon fatal shop that caus'd his pain
He hurls his unappeasable disdain;
Some great revenge he plans, and frames the fall
Of master, counter, 'prentices, and all:
Glorious emprize! then, mindful of his head,
He groans, and surly seeks a 'pothecary's shed.

We had many scruples about our ghost's using Peter instead of Petros, as Homer supposeth the gods to speak Greek; but as the laureat had not been long dead, we conceive in that short time he could not forget his English.

Uprose the sun, and uprose George the Third. Peter's Lousiad.

The very worst door in the house he could have issued from: Vide Homer, where Hector made his last exit. But some modern city scholiasts differ in opinion. Quinbus Flestrin.

For an illustration of the prodigies, vide Homer, Virgil, Statius, and Aristotle's masterpiece. Wing's almanac is not amiss.

Ecce! quem quæritis adsum, &c.

Virgil.

The hollow sound which Homer placeth to the account of the armour, is here properly transferred to the scull. Quantum inest rebus inane!

Read the battle of the angels in Paradise Lost, and make no unfair or invidious comparison: fiat justitia, ruat cœlum.

See the apostrophe in the Eneid on Pallas's learthern girdle being taken by Turnus, as Peter's cane was.

Et gemitu, fugit indignata sub Umbras.

Virg.