The Judge's charge-a Robin's-read, Confound the Cats! Laid in unblest abysmal tomb, Thou❜lt rot in Paris, Memphis, Rome Confound the Cats! Would, Richard Whittington! you'd ta'en Confound the Cats! 'Twould have saved Robin-cheeriest fellow! With pipe so clear, and soul so mellow, Amongst his mates a regular swell, Oh Confound the Cats! In scarlet vest and breeches grey, Confound the Cats! Puss eyed him plump and debonnair,— Confound the Cats! Cat venit, vidit, vicit Rob, A Cæsarlike and summary job, Without one quick compunctious throb. Confound the Cats! Swooned Queen Robina at his rape; While her Lord Chamberlain bade drape Confound the Cats! "Confound the Cats," she cried sob-sobbing, "Who took their hard and hungry gob in My royal spouse-my peerless Robin! Ah me, sweet Robin! "O feline and felonious breed! My true love's red breast-Ah foul deed!- Dear murdered Robin! "The bagpipes drone fu' sad and sairlie, Aye liltin' Wae's me for Prince Charlie ;' My heart responds, Wae's me for rarely Gifted Prince Robin! "O early lost and long adored! My dhilka tookra, my soul's lord! Thy virtues how shall I record, My noble Robin? "Victoria builds her Alberteum, As Caria's Queen her Mausoleum; I'll raise, I vow, my Robineum For Consort Robin! "Ad Viduarum nexa choream, Extruam, in majorem gloriam Robini, propriam In Memoriam. O loved-lost-Robin!' Her grief we share :-confound the brutes O one-tailed Cats, remorseless crew! Confound the Cats! When Thetis dipped her bantling stout Far different guerdon thou shouldst win, No heel I'd hold, but plump thee in: Confound the Cats! O utinam the watery strife Absorbed the last Cat's last ninth life, Were the Cat-world one-necked, as Nero But hush, my soul, bereavement-riven ! Needs-be for Cats! WOMEN, women, love of women, Yit all they be nat so. Some be lewd, some all be shrewed,-2 Some be wise, and some be fond, And some be tame, I understond, And some can take bread of a man's hond, Some will be drunken as a mouse; Some be crooked, and will hurt a louse; And some be fair, and good in a house; Yit all be nat so: For some be lewd, and some be shrewed,- Some can prate withouten hire, And some make debate in every shire, Some be lewd, and some be shrewed, Go where they go. Some be brown, and some be white, And some be tender as a tripe, And some of them be cherry-ripe, Yit all they be nat so. Some be lewd, and some be shrewed, Go where they go. 1 The date of this poem may be towards 1460. I have seen three several versions of it. Two of them are nearly alike, and are here substantially reproduced. From the other, which differs considerably, I have taken the stanza which appears third in the present reprint. 2 Curst, hateful. Some of them be true of love Some be lewd, and some be shrewed, Some can whister, and some can cry; Some be lewd, and some be shrewed, He that made this song full good Came of the north and the southern blood, Some be lewd, and some be shrewed, Some be lewd and some be shrewed, A GOOD MEDICINE FOR SORE EYNE.2 FOR a man that is almost blind, Let him go barehead all day again the wind, And than wrap him in a cloak, And put him in a house full of smoke, TRUST IN WOMEN. WHEN these things following be done to our intent, When nettles in winter bring forth roses red,' 1 Kin. And laurel bear cherries abundantly, 2 Date towards 1480: so also for the two poems that follow next. 3 Cover. And kisks give of honey superfluence, Than put women in trust and confidence. And cats do heal men be practising of physic, 1 When sparrows build churches on a heighth, And woodcocks wear woodknives cranes to kill, And greenfinches to goslings do obedience, When crowves take sarmon 3 in woods and parks, And camels in the air take swallows and larks, And when wifes to their husbands do no offence, When hantlopes surmounts eagles in flight, And swans be swifter than hawks of the tower, 1 Sacks. 2 Construct. 3 Salmon. 4 I don't understand these three words-not to speak of some few others passim. |