With vests or ribands

- deck'd alike in hue,

New troopers strut, new turncoats blush in blue:
So saith the muse: my
-,1 what say you?
Such was the time when Waltz might best maintain
Her new preferments in this novel reign;
Such was the time, nor ever yet was such;
Hoops are no more, and petticoats not much;
Morals and minuets, virtue and her stays,
And tell-tale powder - all have had their days.
The ball begins - the honours of the house
First duly done by daughter or by spouse,
Some potentate - -or royal or serene

With Kent's gay grace, or sapient Gloster's mien,
Leads forth the ready dame, whose rising flush
Might once have been mistaken for a blush.
From where the garb just leaves the bosom free,
That spot where hearts 2 were once supposed to be;
Round all the confines of the yielded waist,
The strangest hand may wander undisplaced;
The lady's in return may grasp as much
As princely paunches offer to her touch.
Pleased round the chalky floor how well they trip,
One hand reposing on the royal hip;

1 The gentle, or ferocious, reader may fill up the blank as he pleases there are several dissyllabic names at his service (being already in the Regent's): it would not be fair to back any peculiar initial against the alphabet, as every month will add to the list now entered for the sweepstakes: a distinguished consonant is said to be the favourite, much against the wishes of the knowing

ones.

2" We have changed all that," says the Mock Doctor't is all gone - Asmodeus knows where. After all, it is of no great importance how women's hearts are disposed of; they have nature's privilege to distribute them as absurdly as possible. But there are also some men with hearts so thoroughly bad, as to remind us of those phenomena often mentioned in natural history; viz. a mass of solid stone- only to be opened by force-and when divided, you discover a toad in the centre, lively, and with the reputation of being venomous.

The other to the shoulder no less royal
Ascending with affection truly loyal!

Thus front to front the partners move or stand,
The foot may rest, but none withdraw the hand;
And all in turn may follow in their rank,

The Earl of Asterisk — and Lady - Blank;
Sir- Such-a-one - with those of fashion's host,
For whose blest surnames vide " Morning Post"
(Or if for that impartial print too late,

[date)

Search Doctors' Commons six months from
Thus all and each, in movement swift or slow,
The genial contact gently undergo;

Till some might marvel, with the modest Turk,
If "nothing follows all this palming work?" 1
True, honest Mirza! - you may trust my rhyme
Something does follow at a fitter time;
The breast thus publicly resign'd to man,
if it can.
In private may resist him

O ye who loved our grandmothers of yore, Fitzpatrick, Sheridan,2 and many more

my

- In Turkey a pertinent, here an impertinent and superfluous, question-literally put, as in the text, by a Persian to Morier, on seeing a Waltz in Pera. Vide Morier's Travels.

2 [I once heard Sheridan repeat, in a ball-room, some verses which he had lately written on waltzing; and of which I remember the following

"With tranquil step, and timid, downcast glance,
Behold the well-pair'd couple now advance.

In such sweet posture our first parents moved,

While, hand in hand, through Eden's bowers they roved,
Ere yet the Devil, with promise fine and false,

Turn'd their poor heads, and taught them how to waltz.
One hand grasps hers, the other holds her hip:

For so the law's laid down by Baron Trip."

This gentleman, whose name suits so aptly as a legal authority on the subject of waltzing, was, at the time these verses were written, well known in the dancing circles. - MOORE.]

And thou, my prince! whose sovereign taste and will
It is to love the lovely beldames still!

Thou ghost of Queensbury ! whose judging sprite
Satan may spare to peep a single night,
Pronounce. if ever in your days of bliss
Asmodeus struck so bright a stroke as this;
To teach the young ideas how to rise,
Flush in the cheek, and languish in the eyes;
Rush to the heart, and lighten through the frame,
With half-told wish and ill-dissembled flame,
For prurient nature still will storm the breast
Who, tempted thus, can answer for the rest?

But ye-
who never felt a single thought
For what our morals are to be, or ought;

Who wisely wish the charms you view to reap,
Say-would you make those beauties quite so cheap?
Hot from the hands promiscuously applied,

Round the slight waist, or down the glowing side,
Where were the rapture then to clasp the form
From this lewd grasp and lawless contact warm?
At once love's most endearing thought resign,
Το

press the hand so press'd by none but thine;
To gaze upon that eye which never met
Another's ardent look without regret;
Approach the lip which all, without restraint,
Come near enough

If such thou lovest

Or give like her

-

if not to touch to taint;

love her then no more,

caresses to a score;

Her mind with these is gone, and with it go
The little left behind it to bestow.

Voluptuous Waltz! and dare I thus blaspheme? Thy bard forgot thy praises were his theme.

Terpsichore forgive!

at every ball

My wife now waltzes and my daughters shall; My son (or stop - 't is needless to enquire These little accidents should ne'er transpire; Some ages hence our genealogic tree

Will wear as green a bough for him as me) Waltzing shall rear, to make our name amends, Grandsons for me—in heirs to all his friends.

ODE

TO

NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE.

"Expende Annibalem : — -quot libras in duce summo
Invenies ?"

Juvenal, Sat. x. 1

["Produce the urn that Hammibal contains,
And weigh the mighty dust which yet remains :

AND IS THIS ALL!

I know not that this was ever done in the old world; at least, with regard to Hannibal; but, in the Statistical Account of Scotland, I find that Sir John Paterson had the curiosity to collect, and weigh, the ashes of a person discovered a few years since in the parish of Eccles; which he was happily enabled to do with great facility, as "the inside of the coffin was smooth, and the whole body visible." Wonderful to relate, he found the whole did not exceed in weight one ounce and a half! AND IS THIS ALL! Alas! the quot libras itself is a satirical exaggeration. GIFFORD.]