VIGNETTES IN RHYME.

THE DRAMA OF THE DOCTOR'S WINDOW.

"W

IN THREE ACTS, WITH A PROLOGUE.

"A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus,
And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth."

MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM.

PROLOGUE.

ELL, I must wait!" The Doctor's room,

Where I used this expression,

Wore the severe official gloom

Attached to that profession;

Rendered severer by a bald

And skinless Gladiator,
Whose raw robustness first appalled

The entering spectator.

No one would call "The Lancet" gay,-
Few could avoid confessing

That Jones, "On Muscular Decay,"

Is, as a rule, depressing:

So, leaving both, to change the scene,
I turned toward the shutter,
And peered out vacantly between
A water-butt and gutter.

Below, the Doctor's garden lay,

If thus imagination

May dignify a square of clay

Unused to vegetation,

Filled with a dismal-looking swingThat brought to mind a gallowsAn empty kennel, mouldering,

And two dyspeptic aloes.

No sparrow chirped, no daisy sprung,
About the place deserted;
Only across the swing-board hung
A battered doll, inverted,
Which sadly seemed to disconcert
The vagrant cat that scanned it,
Sniffed doubtfully around the skirt,
But failed to understand it.

A dreary spot! And yet, I own, Half hoping that, perchance, it Might, in some unknown way, atone

For Jones and for "The Lancet,"

I watched; and by especial grace,

Within this stage contracted, Saw presently before my face A classic story acted.

Ah, World of ours, are you so gray
And weary, World, of spinning,
That you repeat the tales to-day
You told at the beginning?

For lo! the same old myths that made

The early " stage successes,"

Still "hold the boards," and still are played, "With new effects and dresses."

Small, lonely "three-pair-backs" behold,

To-day, Alcestis dying;

To-day, in farthest Polar cold,

Ulysses' bones are lying;

Still in one's morning "Times"

one reads

How fell an Indian Hector; Still clubs discuss Achilles' steeds,

Briseis' next protector ;

Still Menelaus brings, we see,
His oft-remanded case on;
Still somewhere sad Hypsipyle
Bewails a faithless Jason;

G