But suffer me to pace
Round the forbidden place,

Lingering a minute

Like outcast spirits who wait And see through heaven's gate Angels within it.

THE AGE OF WISDOM

O, pretty page, with the dimpled chin,

That never has known the Barber's shear,
All your wish is woman to win,

This is the way that boys begin,
Wait till you come to Forty Year.

Curly gold locks cover foolish brains,
Billing and cooing is all your cheer;
Sighing and singing of midnight strains,
Under Bonnybell's window panes,-
Wait till you come to Forty Year.

Forty times over let Michaelmas pass,
Grizzling hair the brain doth clear-
Then you know a boy is an ass,
Then you know the worth of a lass,
Once you have come to Forty Year.

Pledge me round, I bid ye declare,

All good fellows whose beards are grey,
Did not the fairest of the fair
Common grow and wearisome ere

Ever a month was pass'd away?

The reddest lips that ever have kissed,
The brightest eyes that ever have shone,
May pray and whisper, and we not list,
Or look away, and never be missed,
Ere yet ever a month is gone.

Gillian's dead, God rest her bier,
How I loved her twenty years syne!
Marian's married, but I sit here
Alone and merry at Forty Year,
Dipping my nose in the Gascon wine.

SORROWS OF WERTHER

W

ERTHER had a love for Charlotte
Such as words could never utter;
Would you know how first he met her?
She was cutting bread and butter.

Charlotte was a married lady,

And a moral man was Werther, And, for all the wealth of Indies,

Would do nothing for to hurt her.

So he sighed and pined and ogled,
And his passion boiled and bubbled,
Till he blew his silly brains out,

And no more was by it troubled.

Charlotte, having seen his body

Borne before her on a shutter,

Like a well-conducted person,
Went on cutting bread and butter.

A DOE IN THE CITY

L

ITTLE KITTY LORIMER,

Fair, and young, and witty, What has brought your ladyship Rambling to the City?

All the Stags in Capel Court
Saw her lightly trip it;
All the lads of Stock Exchange
Twigg'd her muff and tippet.

With a sweet perplexity,

And a mystery pretty,

Threading through Threadneedle Street, Trots the little KITTY.

What was my astonishment
What was my compunction,
When she reached the Offices
Of the Didland Junction!

Up the Didland stairs she went
To the Didland door, Sir;
Porters lost in wonderment,
Let her pass before, Sir.

"Madam," says the old chief Clerk,

"Sure we can't admit ye."

"Where's the Didland Junction deed?" Dauntlessly says KITTY.