If practice e'er with precept tallies And held the mirror to her view; And if an ugly wart arose, Alike to blemishes and beauties: And say So that in Shakespeare's time 'tis plain Christian, Infidel or Jew, Ruths, Rebeccas, Rachels, Sarahs, Dulcibellas, Celestinas, Say is there one more free from blame, One that enjoys a fair fame, One more endowed with Christian graces, (Although I say it to our faces, And flattery we don't delight in), Than Catherine at this present writing? Where but between the K and C? Who led them all so much astray? A character more full of spite! That stubborn back, to bend unskilful, In page the first you're sagely told And woe betide the man who tries, Who from his palace near the Pole Was snatched, while yet alive and merry, A Katharine of his own creating. In evil hour this simple Czar, She wrung his head off like a chicken; In short this despot of a wife Robbed the poor man of crown and life; And robbing Peter paid not Paul, But cleared the stage of great and small. Besides these genial pleasantries, many shorter poems on local and temporary subjects enlivened the brilliant circle of which Miss Catharine Fanshawe formed so precious an ornament. Many have perished as occasional verses will perish, however happy. I insert one specimen to show how her lively fancy could embellish the merest trifle. When the Regent's Park was first laid out she parodied the two well-known lines from Pope's "Elegy on an Unfortunate Lady:" "Here shall the spring its earliest sweets bestow, and by only altering one word of the first line, and a single letter of the second, changed their entire meaning, and rendered them applicable to the new resort of the Londoners: "Here shall the spring its earliest coughs bestow, One wonders what Pope would have thought of such a parody. It is really a great honour. But would he have thought so? VOL. I. N XIV. MARRIED POETS. ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING-ROBERT BROWNING. MARRIED poets! Charming words are these, significant of congenial gifts, congenial labour, congenial tastes;-quick and sweet resources of mind and of heart, a long future of happiness live in those two words. And the reality is as rare as it is charming. Married authors we have had of all ages and of all countries; from the Daciers, standing stiff and stately under their learning, as if it were a load, down to the Guizots, whose story is so pretty, that it would sound like a romance to all who did not know how often romance looks pale beside reality; from the ducal pair of Newcastle, walking stately and stiff under their strawberry-leafed coronets, to William and Mary Howitt, ornaments of a sect to whom coronets are an abomination. Married authors have been plentiful as |