The reader is requested to believe that the following statement
is literally true; because the writer is well aware that
the circumstances under which Lillian was composed are the
only source of its merits, and the only apology for its faults.
At a small party at Cambridge some malicious belles endeavoured
to confound their sonnetteering friends, by setting
unintelligible and inexplicable subjects for the exercise of
their poetical talents. Among many others, the thesis was
given out which is the motto of Lillian—
“A dragon's tail is flayed to warm
A headless maiden's heart,”
and the following poem was an attempt to explain the riddle.
The partiality with which it has been honoured in manuscript,
and the frequent applications which have been made to
the author for copies, must be his excuse for sending it to the
press.
It was written, however, with the sole view of amusing the
friends in whose circle the idea originated; and to them, with
all due humility and devotion, it is inscribed.
Trinity College, Cambridge,
October 26, 1822.
