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A Day at Tunbridge Wells
M Still as she treads the fairy-round, And the gay objects re-appear; Sweet bliss ! (she cries) thy seat I've found, Elysium can be only here.
" Between this pair, who form the song, The bard decides thus at first sight : The belle's idea may be wrong, And the pale book-worm's not be right."
Some decades after Addison wrote, a change seems to have come over the water poets, whose verses became less and less innocuous, not indeed in form but in matter, malevolent spirit finding in the recreation opportunity to wreak its spite. One Dr. Dent, a clergyman, was the victim of one of the more malevolent spirits.
" Was Doctor D[en]t
From Heav'n sent, To prate upon a Sunday ?
Or did his Muse
The Dotard chuse, To scribble Rhymes on Monday ? "
" Lampoons," said Derrick in 1772, " are one of the principal amusements of the place. I cannot, indeed, say much for the merits of the writers; but what they want in wit, they make up in gross abuse, and bad poetry. The poor ladies suffer under their hands most R2 259 |
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