ANSWERTO AN INVITATION TO DINNER.
ANSWERTO AN INVITATION TO DINNER.
ANSWERTO AN INVITATION TO DINNER.
“Thisisa poem! Thisisa copy of verses!”
Your mandate Igot—You may all go to pot:Had your senses been right,You’d have sent before night.As I hope to be sav’d,I put off being shav’d,For I could not make bold,While the matter was cold,To meddle in suds,Or to put on my duds.So tell Horneck and Nesbitt,And Baker and his bit,And Kauffman beside,And the Jessamy44bride,With the rest of the crew,The Reynoldses two,Little Comedy’s45face,And the Captain46in lace.—(By the by, you may tell himI have something to sell him;Of use, I insist,When he comes to enlist.Your worships must know,That a few days agoAn order went out,For the foot-guards so stoutTo wear tails in hightaste—Twelve inches at least:Now, I’ve got him a scaleTo measure each tail;To lengthen a short tail,And a long one to curtail.)Yet how can I, when vext,Thus stray from my text!Tell each other to rueYour Devonshire crew.For sending so lateTo one of my state.But ’tis Reynolds’s way,From wisdom to stray,And Angelica’s whimTo be frolick likehim—But, alas! your good worships, how could they be wiser,When both have been spoil’d in to-day’sAdvertiser?47
Your mandate Igot—You may all go to pot:Had your senses been right,You’d have sent before night.As I hope to be sav’d,I put off being shav’d,For I could not make bold,While the matter was cold,To meddle in suds,Or to put on my duds.So tell Horneck and Nesbitt,And Baker and his bit,And Kauffman beside,And the Jessamy44bride,With the rest of the crew,The Reynoldses two,Little Comedy’s45face,And the Captain46in lace.—(By the by, you may tell himI have something to sell him;Of use, I insist,When he comes to enlist.Your worships must know,That a few days agoAn order went out,For the foot-guards so stoutTo wear tails in hightaste—Twelve inches at least:Now, I’ve got him a scaleTo measure each tail;To lengthen a short tail,And a long one to curtail.)Yet how can I, when vext,Thus stray from my text!Tell each other to rueYour Devonshire crew.For sending so lateTo one of my state.But ’tis Reynolds’s way,From wisdom to stray,And Angelica’s whimTo be frolick likehim—But, alas! your good worships, how could they be wiser,When both have been spoil’d in to-day’sAdvertiser?47
Your mandate Igot—You may all go to pot:Had your senses been right,You’d have sent before night.As I hope to be sav’d,I put off being shav’d,For I could not make bold,While the matter was cold,To meddle in suds,Or to put on my duds.So tell Horneck and Nesbitt,And Baker and his bit,And Kauffman beside,And the Jessamy44bride,With the rest of the crew,The Reynoldses two,Little Comedy’s45face,And the Captain46in lace.—(By the by, you may tell himI have something to sell him;Of use, I insist,When he comes to enlist.Your worships must know,That a few days agoAn order went out,For the foot-guards so stoutTo wear tails in hightaste—Twelve inches at least:Now, I’ve got him a scaleTo measure each tail;To lengthen a short tail,And a long one to curtail.)
Yet how can I, when vext,Thus stray from my text!Tell each other to rueYour Devonshire crew.For sending so lateTo one of my state.But ’tis Reynolds’s way,From wisdom to stray,And Angelica’s whimTo be frolick likehim—
But, alas! your good worships, how could they be wiser,When both have been spoil’d in to-day’sAdvertiser?47
Oliver Goldsmith.
FOOTNOTES:44Miss Mary Horneck.45Miss Catherine Horneck, afterwards Mrs. Bunbury.46Ensign Horneck.47The allusion is to some complimentary verses, in theAdvertiser, on Kauffman and Reynolds.
44Miss Mary Horneck.
44Miss Mary Horneck.
45Miss Catherine Horneck, afterwards Mrs. Bunbury.
45Miss Catherine Horneck, afterwards Mrs. Bunbury.
46Ensign Horneck.
46Ensign Horneck.
47The allusion is to some complimentary verses, in theAdvertiser, on Kauffman and Reynolds.
47The allusion is to some complimentary verses, in theAdvertiser, on Kauffman and Reynolds.