Page:Halleck.djvu/315

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TO E. SIMPSON, ESQ.
283

By-the-way, “Billy Niblo’s”35 would much better suit us,
And box, pit, and gallery, roar at the wit.

How sparkled the eyes of the raptured beholders,
To see Kilner,36 a Roman, in robes “à la Grec!”
How graceful they flowed o’er his neatly-turned shoulders!
How completely they set off his Johnny-Bull neck!

But to hint at the thousand fine things that amuse me,
Would take me a month—so adieu till my next.
And your actors, they must for the present excuse me;
One word though, en passant, for fear they’ll be vexed.

Moreland, Howard, and Garner, the last importation!
Three feathers as bright as the Prince Regent’s plume!
Though puffing is, certainly, not my vocation,
I always shall praise them, whenever I’ve room.

With manners so formed to persuade and to win you,
With faces one need but to look on to love,
They’re like Jefferson’s “Natural Bridge” in Virginia—
Worth a voyage across the Atlantic,” by Jove!

H.