EPIGRAM ON THE NUMEROUS EPITAPHS FOR GENERAL WOLFE; FOR BEST OF WHICH A PREMIUM OF £100 WAS THE PROMISED. THE Muse, a shameless mercenary jade! Has now assumed the arch-tongued lawyer's trade; ON A PREMIUM OF £100 BEING OFFERED FOR THE BEST EPITAPH ON GENERAL ONE hundred pounds! too small a boon That nothing might escape her. ON THE DEATH OF DR. TOSHACK OF A GREAT HUMOURIST. Where be those gibes, those flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table in a roar?-Hamlet, Act V. THE Doctor dead! let old St. Johnston mourn; EXTEMPORE, ON BEING ASKED WHICH OF THREE SISTERS WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL. WHEN Paris gave his voice, in Ida's grove, 'Twas no great task to pass a judgment there, But here what could his ablest judgment teach, When wisdom, power, and beauty, reign in each? The youth, nonplus'd, behoved to join with me, And wish the apple had been cut in three. ON THE DEATH OF MR. THOMAS ALAS, poor Tom! how oft with merry heart TO MR. GUION, COMEDIAN, FOR HIS PANEGYRIC ON DR. WEBSTER. THOUGH moralists may wisely say, It is but barely civil For all our enemies to pray, And render good for evil; *Mr. Lancashire possessed a great fund of dry humour, and filled Shuter's line in low comedy. He was a great favourite with the public. He kept a tavern, first in the Canongate, and afterwards in the New Town. He drank and joked with his customers; laughed and grew fat; and at length died, respected by many, and with the good word of all.-Jackson's History of the Scottish Stage. I think it strange that Guion sage, ON SEEING A COLLECTION OF PICTURES O COULD my Muse, like thee, with magic skill, That honours or depraves the human breast; Boldly aspiring at exalted lays, The Poet then should sing the Painter's praise. EPIGRAM ON JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ., AND DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON Two gems, the nation's greatest boast, *Alexander Runciman, landscape painter and house-decorator, whose great work was the decoration of the Hall of Ossian (referred to by the poet) at Penicuik. He was a fellow-Knight with Fergusson of the Cape Club, and painted the poet's portrait. Born in 1736, he died suddenly in the streets of Edinburgh, in 1785. + Dr. Johnson and Mr. Boswell have at last appeared. It seems they sailed from the isle of Skye on the 3rd instant, bound for lcolmkill, but were driven by the remarkable storm which came on that day, to the isle of Coll, where they were wind bound for a fortnight. On getting loose from Coll, as they term it, they reached the isle of Mull, and from thence went to Icolmkill, under the conduct of Sir Allan Maclean.-Extract of a Letter from Inveraray, October 26, 1773. She, fearing that their gracious forms, ON THE MUSIC BELLS PLAYING YESTERDAY FORENOON, PRIOR TO BROWN'S AND WILSON'S EXECUTION, ON THE DEACONS BEING PRE HAPPY the folks that rule the roast! When man's condemned to suffer death ON SEEING A LADY PAINT HERSELF. WHEN, by some misadventure cross'd, And for a moment blinds our eyes; *John Brown and James Wilson were executed for the murder of Adam Thomson on Carnwathmuir. They were each only about twenty-six years old. They had made several efforts to escape from prison, in which they were as often detected; but when they found every attempt vain, they appeared reconciled to their fate, and at last by the persuasive influence of the clergyman who attended them, they were brought to a sense of their guilt, and a confession of the crime for which they were condemned. So, Delia, when her beauty's flown, EXTEMPORE, ON SEEING STANZAS ADDRESSED TO MRS. HARTLEY, THE ACTRESS, WHEREIN SHE IS DESCRIBED AS RESEMBLING MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. HARTLEY resembles Scotland's Queen, Some bard enraptured cries; EPIGRAM ON SEEING SCALES USED IN A MASON LODGE. WHY should the Brethren, met in lodge, To set their scales and weights to judge The law laid down from age to age, For it forbids them to engage With aught but line and plummet. EPIGRAM ON THE AUTHOR'S INTENTION OF GOING TO SEA. FORTUNE and Bob, e'er since his birth, She fairly kick'd him from the earth |