THE FANCY BALL.

"A visor for a visor! What care I

What curious eye doth quote deformities?"

ROMEO AND JULIET.

"You used to talk," said Miss Mac Call, "Of flowers, and flames, and Cupid; But now you never talk at all;

You're getting vastly stupid:

You'd better burn your Blackstone, sir,
You never will get through it;
There's a Fancy Ball at Winchester,—
Do let us take you to it!"

I made that night a solemn vow
To startle all beholders ;
I wore white muslin on my brow,

Green velvet on my shoulders;
My trousers were supremely wide,

I learnt to swear "by Allah!"
I stuck a poniard by my side,
And called myself " Abdallah."

Oh, a fancy ball's a strange affair!

Made up of silks and leathers,

Light heads, light heels, false hearts, false hair, Pins, paint, and ostrich feathers:

The dullest duke in all the town,

To-day may shine a droll one ;

And rakes, who have not half-a-crown,
Look royal in a whole one.

Go, call the lawyer from his pleas,
The school-boy from his Latin;

Be stoics here in ecstacies,
And savages in satin;
Let young and old forego-forget
Their labour and their sorrow,
And none except the Cabinet-
Take counsel for the morrow.

Begone, dull care! This life of ours
Is very dark and chilly ;

We'll sleep through all its serious hours,
And laugh through all its silly.
Be mine such motley scene as this,
Where, by established usance,

Miss Gravity is quite amiss,

And Madam Sense a nuisance !

Hail, blest Confusion! here are met
All tongues and times and faces,
The Lancers flirt with Juliet,

The Brahmin talks of races;

And where's your genius, bright Corinne ?
And where's your brogue, Sir Lucius?
And Chinca Ti, you have not seen
One chapter of Confucius.

Lo dandies from Kamschatka flirt
With Beauties from the Wrekin;
And belles from Berne look very pert
On Mandarins from Pekin;
The Cardinal is here from Rome,

The Commandant from Seville;
And Hamlet's father from the tomb,
And Faustus from the Devil.

O sweet Anne Page!—those dancing eyes
Have peril in their splendour!
"O sweet Anne Page!"-so Slender sighs,
And what am I, but slender?
Alas! when next your spells engage

So fond and starved a sinner,

My pretty Page, be Shakspeare's Page,
And ask the fool to dinner!

What mean those laughing Nuns, I pray, What mean they, nun or fairy?

I guess they told no beads to-day, sang no Ave Mary:

And

From mass and matins, priest and pix, Barred door, and window grated,

I wish all pretty Catholics

Were thus emancipated!

Four Seasons come to dance quadrilles
With four well-seasoned sailors;
And Raleigh talks of rail-road bills
With Timon, prince of railers;
I find Sir Charles of Aubyn Park
Equipt for a walk to Mecca;
And I run away from Joan of Arc
To romp with sad Rebecca.

Fair Cleopatra's very plain;

Puck halts, and Ariel swaggers;
And Cæsar's murdered o'er again,
Though not by Roman daggers:
Great Charlemagne is four feet high ;
Sad stuff has Bacon spoken;
Queen Mary's waist is all awry,
And Psyche's nose is broken.

Our happiest bride-how very odd!—
Is the mourning Isabella;

And the heaviest foot that ever trod
Is the foot of Cinderella;

Here sad Calista laughs outright,

There Yorick looks most grave, sir, And a Templar waves the cross to-night, Who never crossed the wave, sir!

And what a Babel is the talk!

"The Giraffe "

-"plays the fiddle ”.

"Macadam's roads ". "I hate this chalk!"

"Sweet girl".

a charming riddle ”.

"I'm nearly drunk with "-"Epsom salts ".

"Yes, separate beds "-" such cronies!

"Good Heaven! who taught that man to waltz ?”– "A pair of Shetland ponies."

"Lord Nugent"-" an enchanting shape "—

66

"Will move for "-"Maraschino ".

'Pray, Julia, how's your mother's ape ?"—

"He died at Navarino!"

"The gout, by Jove, is "-" apple pie "—

"Don Miguel "—"Tom the tinker""His Lordship's pedigree's as high

As"-"Whipcord, dam by Clinker."