Oscar Wilde in a poetic fervour and a lily-like kimono, recited with tremulous intensity this masterpiece of his own: Oh, Peter! Pumpkin-fed and proud, Ah me! ah me! (Sweet squashes, mother!) Thy woe knells like a stricken cloud; Hurroo, Hurree!) Lo! vanisht like an anguisht wraith; (Sweet squashes, mother!) Wan hope a dolorous Musing saith; (Ah me; ah me! Dum diddle dee!) Hist! dare we soar? The Pumpkin shell Ah me! ah me! (Sweet squashes, mother!) (Fast and forever! Sooth, 'tis well. Faloodle dee!) There was little to be said after this, so the meeting was closed with a solo by Lady Arthur Hill, using with a truly touching touch: In the pumpkin, oh, my darling, Though I couldn't set you free. It was best to leave you there, dear, Two of our most gentle and kindly humorists may not be quoted, because it would be a crime to separate their text and pictures. Peter Newell and J. G. Francis have drawn some of the most delicately witty pictures and have written quatrains or Limericks to accompany them, but picture and text must be shown together, if at all. For the same reason our cartoonists may not be touched upon. Nor can we include any writers whose work did not appear before 1900. The scope of this book is bounded by the twentieth century, and much as we should like to present the Columnists and the more recent versifiers, they must be left for a later chronicler. definition of the Ridiculous, 3, 70 Artist and Public, Friedrich Rückert, "As with my hat upon my head," As You Like It (extract), Shakes- Ass and the Flute, The, Thomas Ass's Testament, The, Rutebœuf, At the Sign of the Cock, Sir Owen AUDEMUS, JOHANNES, Advice to Ponticus, 194 To a Friend in Distress, 194 Convenient Partnership, 78 Good Wife and the Bad Husband, Lerneans, The, 79 Long and Short, 78 On Late Acquired Wealth, 190 On the Inconstancy of Woman's Love, 191 Perplexity, 79 Voice from the Grave, A, 190 Wife's Ruse, A: A Rabbinical AYTOUN, WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE, Husband's Petition, The, 494 Baby's Début, The, James Smith, 466 Epigrams, 291 Baharistan, The (extracts), Jami, 196 BAKIN, KIOKUTEI, On Clothes and Comforts (from Ballad (from Hans Breitmann Bal- 680 Ballad literature, 365 Ballad of the Primitive Jest, Andrew Ballad of the Women of Paris, Ballad of Women's Doubleness, Ballade of an Anti-Puritan, A, Gilbert K. Chesterton, 558 Ballade of Literary Fame, Andrew Ballade of Old Time Ladies, A, Ballade of Suicide, A, Gilbert K. BALZAC, HONORÉ DE, Innocence (from Contés Drola- Slight Misunderstanding, A (from BANGS, JOHN KENDRICK, Bards or rhapsodists, 26 BAR HEBRÆUS, GREGORY, The Book of Laughable Stories BARHAM, RICHARD HARRIS, Ingoldsby Legends, 455 Raising the Devil, 456 66 True and Original" Version, A, BARROW, DR. ISAAC, Battle of the Frogs and Mice, The, Version by "Singing Mouse," 53 BAYLY, THOMAS HAYNES, Why Don't the Men Propose? Beating of Thersites, The (from Beer, Julian, 76 Bison, The, 556 Beneficence and Gratitude, Ivan BERANGER, PIERRE JEAN De, 563 Education of Young Ladies, The, BOILEAU-DESPREAUX, NICOLAS, On Cotin, 405 To Perrault, 405 Book of Laughable Stories, The Boston Lullaby, A, James Jeffrey BROWNE, CHARLES FARRAR Pope and the Net, The, 502 BRYANT, WILLIAM CULLEN, To a Mosquito, 655 Buddha's Jatakas, 34, 214 Burdensome Wife, A (from Hie! |