WIVES, _awake! unveil your eyes;
Sluggards, no more yawning;
See the Delphick god arise,
Bright Apollo dawning._
_Husbands, rouse at love's alarms,
Drowsy slumbers scorning;
Rovers, quit your favourite charms,
Up! behold, 'tis morning._
_Virgins fair, have at your hearts;
Hymen's torch is flaming;
Cupid whets his pointed darts,
And look! the rogue is aiming._
_Fair the bud of beauty blows,
Mellow sweets are palling;
Crown us with the virgin rose,
And so prevent its falling._
_See the charms that nature yields;_
Why _sleep away your duty?
Arise! the fragrance of the fields
Is friendly to your beauty._
_Lads, for shame! abed till now!
Forsake them, and be wiser;
There's health and pleasure, you'll allow,
In being an early riser._
_Bound with ivy, bound with vines,
Youth serenely passes;
Bacchus round our temples twines,
And sparkles in our glasses._
_No longer drown the mind in sleep;
But breathe the vernal air!
Our hours may thus improvement reap,
And who has any t' spare_?
_Salem Mercury,_ May 17, 1788.
* * * * *
_From the New Monthly Magazine._
=On seeing a Tomb adorned with Angels weeping.=
Though sculptors, with mistaken art,
Place weeping Angels round the tomb;
Yet, when the good and great depart,
These shout to bear their conquerors home.
Glad they survey their labours o'er,
And hail them to their native skies;
Attend their passage to the shore,
And with their mounting spirits rise.
Britain may mourn her Patriot dead,
And pour her sorrows o'er his dust:
But streaming eyes, and drooping head,
Ill suit those guardians of the just.
Parents may shed a tender tear,
And friends indulge a parting groan;
If these in mimic form appear,
Such pious grief becomes the stone.
But if the wounded marble bear
Celestial forms to grace the urn,
Let triumph in their eyes appear,
Nor dare to make an angel mourn.
_Salem Register,_ 1819.
* * * * *
Varieties.
_Origin of the word_ DUN.--Dunny, in the provincial dialect
of several countries, signifies deaf: to dun, then, perhaps
may mean, to deafen with importunate demands. Some derive it
from the word _donnez_, which signifies _give_; but the true
original meaning of the word owes its birth to one Joe Dun,
a famous bailiff of the town of Lincoln, so extremely active
and so dexterous in his business, that it became a proverb,
when a man refused to pay, "Why do you not _dun_ him?" that
is, Why do not you set _Dun_ to arrest him?--Hence it became
a cant-word, and is now as old as since the days of Henry
VII. Dun was also the general name of hangman, before that
of Jack-ketch.
And presently a halter got,
Made of the best strong hempen tear,
And e'er a cat could lick her ear,
Had tied it up with as much art,
As Dun himself could do for 's heart.
COTTON'S VIRGIL TRA. BOOK iv.
It is curious to observe that _Dun_, who, as we said before,
was _finisher of the law_ in the reign of Henry VII., had a
son, who became a bailiff--This bailiff having scraped some
money together, made his son an attorney, who changed the
name of _Dun_ to _Dunning_--the rest of the genealogy are
well known.
_Massachusetts Gazette,_ Aug. 29, 1786.
* * * * *
_Biographical Correctness_.--As a specimen of the accurate
way in which Biographical Dictionaries are made up, the
Enquirer refers to Dr. Watkins' volume, in which he writes
down that John Adams "died in 1803."--And yet for 23 years
after this date, the old patriarch was living in health and
happiness. A still more ludicrous blunder appeared a few
years since in a French Biographical Dictionary, in which it
was stated that the now venerable John Jay, who yet lives
full of years and full of honors, was a Frenchman, who,
after having framed the Constitution of the State of
New-York, and witnessed the close of the American
revolution, returned to France--became a member of the
French Convention, and was finally brought to the
guillotine!--_N.Y. Com. Adv._
_Essex Register,_ Sept. 18, 1826.
The works of John Paul Richter are almost unintelligible to
any but Germans, and even to some of them. A worthy German,
just before Richter's death, edited a complete edition of
his works, in which one particular passage fairly puzzled
him. Determined to have it explained at the source, he went
to John Paul himself and asked him what was the meaning of
the mysterious passage.--John Paul's reply was very German
and characteristic: "My good friend," said he, "when I wrote
that passage, God and I knew what it meant; it is possible
that God knows it still; but as for me, I have totally
forgotten."
_Essex Register,_ Oct. 9, 1826.
* * * * *
ORIGIN OF "FOOLSCAP" PAPER. It is known that Charles I. of
England, granted numerous monopolies for the support of his
government. Among others was the privilege of manufacturing
paper. The water mark of the finest sort was the royal arms
of England. The consumption of this article was great at
this time, and large fortunes were made by those who had
purchased the exclusive right to vend it. This, among other
monopolies, was set aside by the parliament that brought
Charles to the scaffold, and by way of showing their
contempt for the king, they ordered the royal arms to be
taken from the paper, and a fool, with his cap and bells, to
be substituted. It is now more than an hundred and
seventy-five years since the fool's cap and bells were taken
from the paper, but still, paper of the size which the Rump
Parliament ordered for the journals bears the name of the
water mark then ordered as an indignity to Charles.
* * * * *
A new version of "Yankee Doodle," from the "Salem Gazette,"
July, 1811.