Ingatestow.
_Tom Track's Ghost._--The following piece of metrical romance has dwelt in
my memory as long {428} as I have been able to remember. I have never seen
it in print, nor heard it, at least for some years, from any one else; and
have not been able to discover who wrote it:
"Tom Track he came from Buenos Ayres;
And now, thought I, for him who cares:
But soon his coming wrought me woe;
He misled Poll,--as you shall know.
All in the togs that I had bought,
With that ere Tom she did consort,
Which gave my feelings great concern,
And caused a row,--as you shall learn.
So then challenge Tom I did;
We met, shook hands, and took a quid;
I shot poor Tom.--The worse for me;
It brought his ghost,--as you shall see.
Says he, 'I'm Tom Track's ghost, that's flat.'
Says I, 'Now only think on that.'
Says he, 'I'm come to torment you now;'
Which was hard lines,--as you'll allow.
'So, Master Ghost, belay your jaw;
For if on me you claps a claw,
My locker yonder will reveal,
A tight rope's end, which you shall feel.'
Then off his winding-sheet he throwed,
And by his trousers Tom I knowed;
He wasn't dead; but come to mess,
So here's an end,--as you may guess."
The _implicatio_, the _agnitio_, and the _peripetia_ are so well worked
out, that Aristotle would, I think, be compelled to admit it as an almost
perfect specimen of that most ancient kind of drama which was recited by
one actor. I refer especially to C. XXII. of the _Poetics_, which says,
that that _agnitio_ is most beautiful which is joined with the _peripetia_,
of which here we have so striking an example. These reasons embolden me to
ask if it be worth preserving in "N. & Q," and who was the author?