BEFORE THE BURNE-JONESES.

_A Fiancé_. This is the "_Wheel of Fortune_," EMILY, you see.

(_Reads._) "Sad, but inexorable, the fateful figure turns the wheel.

The sceptred King, once uppermost, is now beneath his Slave ... while

beneath the King is seen the laurelled head of the Poet."

_His Fiancée_ (_who would be charming if she would not try--against

Nature--to be funny_.) It's a kind of giddy-go-round then, I

suppose; or is it BURNE-JONES's idea of a revolution--don't you

see--_revolving_?

_Fiancé_ (_who makes a practice--even already--of discouraging these

sallies_.) It's only an allegorical way of representing that the

Slave's turn has come to triumph.

_Fiancée_. Well, I don't see that he has much to _triumph_ about--he's

tied on like the rest of them, and it must be just as uncomfortable on

the top of that wheel as the bottom.

[_Her Fiancé recognises that allegory is thrown away upon

her, and proposes to take her into the Hall and show her Gog

and Magog._

_A Niece_ (_to an Impenetrable Relative--whom she plants, like a heavy

piece of ordnance, in front of a particular canvas_). There, Aunt,

what do you think of _that_ now?

_The Aunt_ (_after solemnly staring at it with a conscientious effort

to take it in._) Well, my dear, I must say it--it's very 'ighly

varnished. [_She is taken home as hopeless._

* * * * *

Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 102, May 14, 1892 · 第 14 / 27 题