gals and catches,
Not for heart wounds, but for scratches,
O Marquise!
Just a pinky porcelain trifle,
"_Belle Marquise!_"
Wrought in rarest _rose-Dubarry,_
Quick at verbal point and parry,
Clever, doubtless;--but to marry,
No, Marquise!

IV

For your Cupid, you have clipped him,
Rouged and patched him, nipped and snipped him,
And with _chapeau-bras_ equipped him,
"_Belle Marquise!_"
Just to arm you through your wife-time,
And the languors of your lifetime,
"_Belle Marquise!_"
Say, to trim your toilet tapers
Or--to twist your hair in papers,
Or--to wean you from the vapors;--
As for these,
You are worth the love they give you,
Till a fairer face outlive you,
Or a younger grace shall please;
Till the coming of the crows'-feet,
And the backward turn of beaux' feet,
"_Belle Marquise!_"
Till your frothed-out life's commotion
Settles down to Ennui's ocean,
Or a dainty sham devotion,
"_Belle Marquise!_"

V

No: we neither like nor love you,
"_Belle Marquise!_"
Lesser lights we place above you,--
Milder merits better please.
We have passed from _Philosophe_-dom
Into plainer modern days,--
Grown contented in our oafdom,
Giving grace not all the praise;
And, _en partant, Arsinoe_,--
Without malice whatsoever,--
We shall counsel to our Chloe
To be rather good than clever;
For we find it hard to smother
Just one little thought, Marquise!
Wittier perhaps than any other,--
You were neither Wife nor Mother.
"_Belle Marquise!_"

A BALLAD TO QUEEN ELIZABETH

OF THE SPANISH ARMADA

King Philip had vaunted his claims;
He had sworn for a year he would sack us;
With an army of heathenish names
He was coming to fagot and stack us;
Like the thieves of the sea he would track us,
And shatter our ships on the main;
But we had bold Neptune to back us,--
And where are the galleons of Spain?

His carackes were christened of dames
To the kirtles whereof he would tack us;
With his saints and his gilded stern-frames,
He had thought like an egg-shell to crack us;
Now Howard may get to his Flaccus,
And Drake to his Devon again,
And Hawkins bowl rubbers to Bacchus,-