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Jew;

'A pasty!

repeated the

"For I knew it," he cried: "both eternally | There's a pasty. fail, The one with his speeches, and t'other with "I don't care if I keep a corner for 't too." Thrale.R "What the de 'il, mon, a pasty!" re-echoed the Scot;

But no matter, I'll warrant we'll make up the party

"Though splitting, I'll still keep a corner for that."

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With two full as clever and ten times as hearty. The one is a Scotchman, the other a Jew; "We'll all keep a corner," the lady cried out; They're both of them merry, and authors like "We'll all keep a corner, was echoed about. you; While thus we resolved, and the pasty delayed, The one writes the 'Snarler,' the other the With looks that quite petrified, entered the 'Scourge;' Some think he writes Cinna'-he owns to A visage so sad, and so pale with affright, 'Panurge.' Waked Priam in drawing his curtains by While thus he described them by trade and by night.s name,

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They entered, and dinner was served as they

came.

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At the top a fried liver and bacon were seen; At the bottom was tripe, in a swingeing? tureen;

maid:

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But we quickly found out-for who could mistake her?

That she came with some terrible news from
the baker:

And so it fell out, for that negligent sloven
Had shut out the pasty on shutting his oven.

At the sides there was spinach and pudding Sad Philomel thus-but let similes drop;
made hot;

And now that I think on 't, the story may stop. In the middle a place where the pasty-was To be plain, my good Lord, it's but labour misplaced

not.

Now my lord, as for tripe, it's my utter aver- To send such good verses to one of your taste; sion, You've got an odd something-a kind of dis

And your bacon I hate like a Turk or a Per-
sian;

So there I sat stuck, like a horse in a pound,
While the bacon and liver went merrily round:
But what vexed me most was that d-d Scot-

tish rogue,

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So, perhaps, in your habits of thinking amiss, With his long-winded speeches, his smiles, and You may make a mistake, and think slightly

his brogue,

90

And, Madam," quoth he, "may this bit be

my poison,

A prettier dinner I never set eyes on;

Pray a slice of your liver, though may I be curst,

But I've eat of your tripe till I'm ready to burst.''

"The tripe!" quoth the Jew, with his chocolate cheek;

"I could dine on this tripe seven days in a week:

I like these here dinners so pretty and small; But your friend there, the doctor, eats nothing at all."

"Oho!" quoth my friend, "he'll come on in a trice;

He's keeping a corner for something that's

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of this.

FROM RETALIATION*

Of old, when Scarron1 his companions invited,

Each guest brought his dish, and the feast was united;

8 See 2 Henry IV., I, 9 See Hamlet, III., i.
i. 72.
85.

1 A French burlesque poet.

* Goldsmith, because of his vanity and frequently empty talk, was the occasion of much diversion among his friends, and sometimes a butt of ridicule. At a gathering at St. James's coffee-house, he desired to try with David Garrick, the actor, his skill at epigram, and each was to write the other's epitaph. Garrick immediately composed the well-known couplet:

"Here lies Nolly Goldsmith, for shortness
called Noll.

Who wrote like an angel, but talked like poor
Poll."

Goldsmith took his time to reply, and the

If our landlord supplies us with beef and with To persuade Tommy Townshend to lend him fish, a vote;

Let each guest bring himself-and he brings Who, too deep for his hearers, still went on the best dish. refining,

Our Dean shall be venison, just fresh from And thought of convincing while they thought the plains; of dining: Our Burke shall be tongue, with the garnish of Though equal to all things, for all things unfit,

brains;

Our Will shall be wild-fowl of excellent flavour, And Dick with his pepper shall heighten the savour;

Our Cumberland's sweet-bread its place shall obtain,

11

And Douglas is pudding, substantial and plain;
Our Garrick's a salad; for in him we see
Oil, vinegar, sugar, and saltness agree:
To make out the dinner, full certain I am
That Ridge is anchovy, and Reynolds is lamb;
That Hickey's a capon, and, by the same rule,
Magnanimous Goldsmith a gooseberry fool.2
At a dinner so various, at such a repast,
Who'd not be a glutton, and stick to the last?
Here, waiter, more wine! let me sit while I'm
able,

Till all my companions sink under the table: 20
Then, with chaos and blunders encircling my
head,

Let me ponder, and tell what I think of the dead.

Here lies the good Dean, reunited to earth, Who mixed reason with pleasure, and wisdom with mirth:

If he had any faults, he has left us in doubt
At least, in six weeks I could not find 'em out;
Yet some have declared, and it can't be denied
'em,

That sly-boots was cursedly cunning to hide
'em.

Here lies our good Edmund, whose genius was such,

We scarcely can praise it, or blame it too much;

30

Who, born for the universe, narrowed his mind. And to party gave up what was meant for mankind.

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man;

As an actor, confessed without rival to shine; Though fraught with all learning, yet strain-As a wit, if not first, in the very first line: ing his throat

result was Retaliation, a poem which he left unfinished, and which was published after his death. The characters whom he imagines gathered about the table are Thomas Barnard,

Dean of Derry: Edmund Burke, with William

Burke, a kinsman, and Richard, a younger brother: Richard Cumberland, the dramatist:

John Douglas, a Scotch canon: David Garrick John Ridge and Tom Hickey two Irish lawyers: Sir Joshua Reynolds, the painter: and himself. A kindlier satire-if satire it may be called--has scarcely been written. 2 A dish of crushed gooseberries.

Yet, with talents like these, and an excellent heart,

The man had his failings, a dupe to his art. Like an ill-judging beauty, his colours he spread.

And beplastered with rouge his own natural

red.

100

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"Twas only that when he was off he was acting. With no reason on earth to go out of his way, He turned and he varied full ten times a day: Though secure of our hearts, yet confoundedly sick,

If they were not his own by finessing and trick:

He cast off his friends, as a huntsman his pack, For he knew when he pleased he could whistle them back.

EDWARD GIBBON (1737-1794)

THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE

After a siege of forty days, the fate of Constantinople could no longer be averted. The diminutive garrison was exhausted by a double attack; the fortifications, which had stood for ages against hostile violence, were dismantled on all sides by the Ottoman cannon; many

Of praise a mere glutton, he swallowed what breaches were opened; and near the gate of

came,

St. Romanus four towers had been leveled with

And the puff of a dunce, he mistook it for the ground. For the payment of his feeble fame; 110 and mutinous troops, Constantine was com'Till his relish grown callous, almost to dispelled to despoil the churches, with the promise

ease,

Who peppered the highest was surest to please.
But let us be candid, and speak out our mind:
If dunces applauded, he paid them in kind.
Ye Kenricks, ye Kellys, and Woodfalls so
grave,

of a fourfold restitution; and his sacrilege of fered a new reproach to the enemies of the union. A spirit of discord impaired the remnant of the Christian strength; the Genoese and Venetian auxiliaries asserted the preeminence of their respective service; and Jus

What a commerce was yours, while you got and tiniani and the great Duke, whose ambition you gave! was not extinguished by the common danger, How did Grub Street re-echo the shouts that accused each other of treachery and cowardice. you raised,

During the siege of Constantinople, the words

While he was be-Rosciuseds and you were be- of peace and capitulation had been sometimes praised!

But peace to his spirit, wherever it flies,

To act as an angel and mix with the skies: 120 Those poets who owe their best fame to his skill

Shall still be his flatterers, go where he will, Old Shakespeare receive him with praise and with love,

pronounced; and several embassies had passed between the camp and the city. The Greek emperor was humbled by adversity, and would have yielded to any terms compatible with religion and royalty. The Turkish sultan was desirous of sparing the blood of his soldiers; still more desirous of securing for his own use the Byzantine treasures; and he accom

And Beaumonts and Bens? be his Kellys above. plished a sacred duty in presenting to the

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Gabours the choice of circumcision, of tribute,

Here Reynolds is laid, and, to tell you my or of death. The avarice of Mahomet might mind,

He has not left a wiser or better behind;
His pencil was striking, resistless, and grand;
were gentle, complying, and
140

His manners

bland;

Still born to improve us in every part,
His pencil our faces, his manners our heart:

have been satisfied with an annual sum of one hundred thousand ducats; but his ambition grasped the capital of the East; to the prince he offered a rich equivalent, to the people a free toleration or a safe departure; but, after some fruitless treaty, he declared his resolu

1 Giaours, "infidels"

To coxcombs averse, yet most civilly steering: From The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, When they judged without skill, he was still

hard of hearing;

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chapter LXVIII. Long after Rome had fallen before the incursions of the barbarians, Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Empire, "the decrepit daughter of ancient Rome, alone remained standing, and for ten centuries. like a rocky island, defied the fury of the waves." (Victor Duruy.) The last Christian emperor was a Greek, Constantine Palæol'ogus; and when the city was finally besieged, in 1453, by the Ottoman Turks under Mahomet II., the defence was conducted by an alliance of Greeks, Venetians, and Genoese, sadly divided by their own religious differences. Their foremost general was Justiniani. a Genoese nobleman. On the sig. nificance of this event to western literature, see Eng. Lit., p. 77, and on Gibbon, see the same, p. 213.

Far different was the state of the Christians; who, with loud and impotent complaints, deplored the guilt, or the punishment, of their sins. The celestial image of the Virgin had been exposed in solemn procession; but their divine patroness was deaf to their entreaties; they accused the obstinacy of the emperor for refusing a timely surrender; anticipated the horrors of their fate; and sighed for the repose and security of Turkish servitude. The noblest of the Greeks, and the bravest of the allies, were summoned to the palace, to prepare them, on the evening of the twenty-eighth, for the duties and dangers of the general assault. The last speech of Palæologus was the funeral oration of the Roman Empire: he promised, he conjured, and he vainly attempted to infuse the hope which was extinguished in his own mind. In this world all was comfortless and gloomy; and neither the gospel nor the church have proposed any conspicuous recompense to the heroes who fall in the service of their country. But the example of their prince and the confinement of a siege had

tion of finding either a throne or a grave un- God;" and the sea and land, from Galatas to der the walls of Constantinople. A sense of the seven towers, were illuminated by the honour and the fear of universal reproach | blaze of their nocturnal fires. forbade Palæologus to resign the city into the hands of the Ottomans; and he determined to abide the last extremities of war. Several days were employed by the sultan in the preparations of the assault; and a respite was granted by his favourite science of astrology, which had fixed on the twenty-ninth of May as the fortunate and fatal hour. On the evening of the twenty-seventh, he issued his final orders; assembled in his presence the military chiefs; and dispersed his heralds through the camp to proclaim the duty and the motives of the perilous enterprise. Fear is the first principle of a despotic government; and his menaces were expressed in the Oriental style, that the fugitives and deserters, had they the wings of a bird, should not escape from his inexorable justice. The greatest part of his bashaws2 and Janizaries3 were the offspring of Christian parents; but the glories of the Turkish name were perpetuated by successive adop tion; and, in the gradual change of individ uals, the spirit of a legion, a regiment, or an oda is kept alive by imitation and discipline. In this holy warfare, the Moslems were ex-armed these warriors with the courage of dehorted to purify their minds with prayer, their bodies with seven ablutions; and to abstain from food till the close of the ensuing day. A crowd of dervishes visited the tents, to instil the desire of martyrdom, and the assurance of spending an immortal youth amidst the rivers and gardens of paradise and in the embraces of the black-eyed virgins. Yet Mahomet principally trusted to the efficacy of temporal and visible rewards. A double pay was promised to the victorious troops: "The city and the buildings," said Mahomet, "are mine; but I resign to your valour the captives and the spoil, the treasures of gold and beauty; be rich and be happy. Many are the provinces of my empire: the intrepid soldier who first ascends the walls of Constantinople shall be rewarded with the government of the fairest and most wealthy; and my gratitude shall accumulate his honours and fortunes above the measure of his own hopes." Such various and potent motives diffused among the Turks a general ardour, regardless of life and impatient for action; the camp re-echoed with the Moslem shouts of "God is God, there is but one God, and Mahomet is the apostle of

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spair; and the pathetic scene is described by the feelings of the historian Phranza,8 who was himself present at this mournful assembly. They wept, they embraced; regardless of their families and fortunes, they devoted their lives; and each commander, departing to his station, maintained all night a vigilant and anxious watch on the rampart. The emperor, and some faithful companions, entered the dome of St. Sophia, which in a few hours was to be converted into a mosque; and devoutly received, with tears and prayers, the sacrament of the holy communion. He reposed some moments in the palace, which resounded with cries and lamentations; solicited the pardon of all whom he might have injured; and mounted on horseback to visit the guards and explore the motions of the enemy. The distress and fall of the last Constantine are more glorious than the long prosperity of the Byzantine Cæsars.9

In the confusion of darkness an assailant may sometimes succeed; but in this great and general attack, the military judgment and astrological knowledge of Mahomet advised

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him to expect the morning, the memorable was directed and impelled by his voice and twenty-ninth of May, in the fourteen hundred eye. His numerous ministers of justice were and fifty-third year of the Christian era. The posted behind the line, to urge, to restrain, and preceding night had been strenuously em- to punish; and, if danger was in the front, ployed: the troops, the cannon, and the fas- shame and inevitable death were in the rear of cines10 were advanced to the edge of the ditch, the fugitives. The cries of fear and of pain which, in many parts, presented a smooth and were drowned in the martial music of drums, level passage to the breach; and his fourscore trumpets, and attaballs; 12 and experience has galleys almost touched, with the prows and proved that the mechanical operation of sounds, their scaling-ladders, the less defensible walls by quickening the circulation of the blood and of the harbour. Under pain of death, silence spirits, will act on the human machine more was enjoined; but the physical laws of mo- forcibly than the eloquence of reason and tion and sound are not obedient to discipline honour. From the lines, the galleys, and the or fear; each individual might suppress his bridge, the Ottoman artillery thundered on all voice and measure his footsteps; but the march sides; and the camp and city, the Greeks and and labour of thousands must inevitably pro- the Turks, were involved in a cloud of smoke, duce a strange confusion of dissonant clam- which could only be dispelled by the final deours, which reached the ears of the watchmen liverance or destruction of the Roman empire. of the towers. At daybreak, without the cus- The single combats of the heroes of history tomary signal of the morning gun, the Turks or fable amuse our fancy and engage our afassaulted the city by sea and land; and the fections; the skillful evolutions of war may similitude of a twined or twisted thread has inform the mind, and improve a necessary been applied to the closeness and continuity of though pernicious, science. But, in the uniform their line of attack. The foremost ranks con- and odious pictures of a general assault, all sisted of the refuse of the host, a voluntary is blood, and horror, and confusion; nor shall crowd, who fought without order or command; I strive, at the distance of three centuries and of the feebleness of age or childhood, of peas- a thousand miles, to delineate a scene of which ants and vagrants, and of all who had joined there could be no spectators, and of which the the camp in the blind hope of plunder and actors themselves were incapable of forming martyrdom. The common impulse drove them any just or adequate idea. onward to the wall; the most audacious to elimb were instantly precipitated; and not a dart, not a bullet, of the Christians was idly wasted on the accumulated throng. But their strength and ammunition were exhausted in this laborious defense; the ditch was filled with the bodies of the slain; they supported the footsteps of their companions; and of this devoted vanguard the death was more serviceable than the life. Under their respective bashaws and sanjaks, 11 the troops of Anatolia and Romania were successively led to the charge: their progress was various and doubtful; but, after a conflict of two hours, the Greeks still maintained and improved their advantage; and the voice of the emperor was heard, encouraging his soldiers to achieve, by a last effort, the deliverance of their country. In tht fatal moment the Janizaries arose, fresh, vigorous and invincible. The sultan himself on horseback, with an iron mace in his hand, was the spectator and judge of their valour; he was surrounded by ten thousand of his domestic troops, whom he reserved for the decisive occasion; and the tide of battle

10 bundles of sticks for filling ditches 11 provincial governors

The immediate loss of Constantinople may be ascribed to the bullet, or arrow, which pierced the gauntlet of John Justiniani. The sight of his blood, and the exquisite pain, appalled the courage of the chief, whose arms and counsels were the firmest rampart of the city. As he withdrew from his station in quest of a surgeon, his flight was perceived and stopped by the indefatigable emperor. "Your wound," exclaimed Palæologus, "is slight; the danger is pressing; your presence is necessary; and whither will you retire?" "I will retire, said the trembling Genoese, "by the same road which God has opened to the Turks;" and at these words he hastily passed through one of the breaches of the inner wall. By this pusillanimous act he stained the honours of a military life; and the few days which he survived in Galata, or the isle of Chios, were embittered by his own and the public reproach. His example was imitated by the greatest part of the Latin auxiliaries, and the defence began to slacken when the attack was pressed with redoubled vigour. The number of the Ottomans was fifty, perhaps a hundred, times superior to

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