THE PUPPET-SHEW :

A DIDACTIC POEM:

Partly translated from Addison's Machine Gesticulantes.

Written in 1788.

THE ARGUMENT.

Exordium-Merry Andrew-The Booth-Entrance of the Puppets-PUNCH-Revellings-Simile-A Battle -AMERICAN WAR-PIETY IN PATTENS— OMBRES CHINOISES—A Simile-PATAGONIAN

THEATRE-SERIOUS BALLETS-A Vision-Philosophy of Puppet-Shews-The Marquis de CasaurPoets are Puppets Conclusion.

THE PUPPET-SHEW.

THE wondrous pageants of an humble train,

A tiny race, and nation void of brain,

I sing. No heav'nly spark inflam'd their hearts; Their framer guiltless of Promethean arts.

Where the hoarse drum, and motley droll invite The gaping mob, with foretaste of delight, Where jests are dealt to please the long-ear'd crew, As old as Miller's, and as C-t-y's new.

Admiranda cano levium spectacula rerum, Exiguam gentem, et vacuum sine mente popellum; Quem, non surreptis cæli de fornice flammis, Innocua melior fabricaverat arte Prometheus. Compita qua risu fervent, glomeratque tumultum Histrio, delectatque inhiantem scommate turbam,

Led by the love of sights, or love of fun,
To pit and gallery the audience run.
Not equal benches hold the staring rows,
But peerage-like, the fees their worth disclose.
At length, the figur'd curtain rolls away;
Full on the narrow stage the tapers play,
Where crossing wires deceive the curious eye,
That else too plain the homely fraud would spy.
And now the actors croud, in squeaking droves,
By painted domes, and Lilliputian groves;
'Mid scanty scenes, like us they sport or jar,
In narrow passes forms th' embattled war;
Our pomps, our cares contracted to a span,
The little mimics play gigantic man.

Quotquot lætitiæ studio aut novitate tenentur,
Undique congressi permissa sedilia complent.
Nec confusus honos; nummo subsellia cedunt
Diverso, et varii ad pretium stat copia scamni.
Tandem ubi subtrahitur velamen, lumina passim
Angustos penetrant aditus, qua plurima visum
Fila secant, ne cum vacuo datur ore fenestra,
Pervia fraus pateat: mox stridula turba penates
Ingreditur pictos, et mænia squalida fuco.
Hic humiles inter scenas, angustaque claustra,

Quicquid agunt homines, concursus, bella, triumphos.

But o'er the rest see Punchinello rise, Of hoarser accent, and tremendous size! An ample clasp his jerkin's round confines, His well-taught eye with vivid motion shines; Far-stretch'd before his jutting paunch appears, His lofty back o'erwhelms his humbled ears : Not with more terror to each sweeping gown Thro' country-dances plods the lab'ring clown, Than the small heroes, thro' the parted sheet, See his broad paunch precede his distanc'd feet. Proud of his bulk, and "huge two-handed sway," He reigns, the tyrant of the puppet-play, Gibes his poor wooden slaves in wanton fit,

"And shakes the clumsy bench with" antic " wit.”

Ludit in exiguo plebecula parva theatro.

Sed præter reliquos incedit HOMUNCIO rauca
Voce strepens, major subnectit fibula vestem,
Et referunt vivos errantia lumina motus;

In ventrem tumet immodicum; pone eminet ingens
A tergo gibbus; Pygmæum territat agmen
Major, et immanem miratur tnrba gigantem.
Hic magna fretus mole, imparibusque lacertis
Confisus, gracili jactat convitia vulgo,

Et crebro solvit, lepidum caput, ora cachinno.