Or worser, (i) to be eat quite whole,

By Giant tall his enemy,

Who put a flint-stone in his eye,

And threw him in a dirty hole.
To hurt her joy, her grief to spare,
She knew her power to a hair.

It was forbid by magic book,

The life of any one be took;
But yet in pains, and punishment,
(As skinning men) it power lent:
Each mercy soft was scorned by him

Who practised in the book of sin,

1

And, as they read the cruel page,

Soon cherished misanthropic rage.

(i) No grammatical remarks on this comparative can be made without being still worse; Shakespear will bear a comparison :

"Then throw away the worser part of it,

And live the purer with the other half."

Hamlet,

XIX.

Now louder, at the garden-gate,

The noise was heard, both near and great;

When from beneath some cabbage green,

The little Dwarf again was seen :

It is not known how he came there,
Perhaps it was was a ruse de guerre
Of General Giant's, to ensnare;
And make the tailors to suppose,
They had not great, but little foes;

And thus engage them to oppose:

But I, who oft have pondered o'er

The thing, both backward and before,

Do verify, the figure there

Was nothing more than Backstitch heir; (k)

(k) This little personage, whoever he might have been, is meant to put the reader in mind of Gilpin Horner, Esq. a little man who was always lost when he was seen, and never found till he was lost, according to Walter Scott, his pa

tentee.

Who, changed into a little man,

About the cabbage beds he ran.

XX.

Now every tailor's eye, intent,

Towards Backstitch's unknown foes was bent;

So near they seemed, they thought them close;

And fearing now too near approach,

With fortitude the Widow spoke;

Denied the gentle petticoat.

"Women and weakness-I'll have none;

See that my orders now be done.

The bravest of you must be gone,

And face the giants every one:
I do not mean to fight, as yet,
But only just to talk a bit."-

(Billy of Make-sure, it was he,
Who now could boast of bravery ;)

And in the twinkling of an eye,

Dashed forth the foreman, manfully.

XXI.

Armed he went, for all did say

He'd never more behold the day;
Unshook by fear, with shears in hand,
He gloried in the dread command:
Happy is he, who thus can find
Shear fortitude within his mind;
In sign of" parlez-vous," he put
His hand upon his nether gut;
One leg extended in the air, (1)

Shewed that he bore a mission rare.

The Giant, and his little Dwarf,

When they spied him coming off,
Changed quick their front by échelon,
To hear the Tailor, pro and con.

(1) An admirable position for an ambassador, meaning to represent the present M-n-s-t-y, or the goose Parliament, as those amphibious birds generally stand upon one leg; the motion of the hand would be also rightly if not elegantly expressed, as they have no bowels.

XXII.

"You monstrous giant, ma'am, of thee

Demands the Widow, do you see,
Why 'gainst the truce of neighbourhood,
In hostile guise you here have stood;

And begs to know, if giants more,

For supernumerary corps,

Upon your rear, are now in store?

The Widow begs you will take heed,
That if one man you cause to bleed,

Or do our garden so much bad,

As steal one cabbage that it had;

Odd's bobkins! but we 'll have a fight,

Shall warn you of the tailors tight.'

XXIII.

Flowed fiercely then the Giant's blood,

But calmly took it as she could :—

"If 't please the Widow, here, good Sir,

To learn the reason of this stir,