L'ENVOI GOOD-BYE to you, KELLY, your fetters are broken! Good-bye to you, CUMBERLAND, GOLDSMITH has spoken! Good-bye to sham Sentiment, moping and mumming, For GOLDSMITH has spoken and SHERIDAN'S coming; And the frank Muse of Comedy laughs in free air As she laughed with the Great Ones, with SHAKESPEARE, MOLIÈRE! PROLOGUE TO ABBEY'S "QUIET LIFE" VEN as one in city pent, EV Dazed with the stir and din of town, Drums on the pane in discontent, And sees the dreary rain come down, Yet, through the dimmed and dripping glass, Beholds, in fancy, visions pass Of Spring that breaks with all her leaves, Weary of human ills and woes, And vaguely craving for repose, Deserts awhile the stage of strife To draw the even, ordered life, The easeful days, the dreamless nights, EPILOGUE. LET the dream pass, the fancy fade! DEDICATION OF "THE STORY OF ROSINA" WH (TO AN IDEAL READER) HAT would our modern maids to-day? A dubious tale?-an Ibsen play?— A pessimistic lecture? I know not. But this, Child, I know You like things sweet and seemly, Old-fashioned flowers, old shapes in Bow, "Auld Robin Gray" (extremely); You with my "Dorothy "1-delight You still can read, at any rate, To you, My Dear, I dedicate 1 See ante, p. 104. PROLOGUE TO "EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY VIGNETTES" (THIRD SERIES) "Versate Quid valeant humeri."-HOR, Ars Poetica. HOW shall a Writer change his ways? Read his Reviewers' blame, not praise In blame, as Boileau said of old, There! Let that row of stars extend To hide the faults I mean to mend. : Yet something of my Point of View |