He

Molly Trefusis.

says she was "VENUS." I doubt it. Beside,

(Your rhymer so hopelessly loose is!)

His "little" could scarce be to Venus applied,

If fitly to Molly Trefusis.

73

No, no.

It was HEBE he had in his mind;

And fresh as the handmaid of Zeus is,

And rosy, and rounded, and dimpled,—you'll find,—

Was certainly Molly Trefusis!

Then he calls her "a MUSE." To the charge I reply

That we all of us know what a Muse is ;

It is something too awful,-too acid, too dry,—

For sunny-eyed Molly Trefusis.

But "a GRACE." There I grant he was probably right;

(The rest but a verse-making ruse is)

It was all that was graceful, intangible, light,

The beauty of Molly Trefusis!

Was she wooed? Who can hesitate much about that

Assuredly more than obtuse is ;

For how could the poet have written so pat

"My dear little Molly Trefusis!"

And was wed? That I think we must plainly infer,

Since of suitors the common excuse is

To take to them Wives. So it happened to her,

Of course," little Molly Trefusis !”

To the Bard? 'Tis unlikely. Apollo, you see,

In practical matters a goose is ;

'Twas a knight of the shire, and a hunting J.P.,

Who carried off Molly Trefusis!

And you'll find, I conclude, in the "Gentleman's Mag.,"

At the end, where the pick of the news is,

"On the (blank), at the Bath,' to Sir Hilary Bragg,

With a Fortune, MISS MOLLY TREFUSIS."