informed, than the poet, among whose latest works it was to continue and vary the story of "Don Juan." It is highly characteristic of the author, and of the representation it celebrates with so much truth and vivacity.
SONNET TO PUNCH.
Triumphant Punch! with joy I follow thee
Through the glad progress of thy wanton course;
Where life is painful with such truth and force,
Its equal on our stage we never see,
Whether thou kill'st thy wife with jolly glee,
Hurl'st thy sweet babe away without remorse,
Mount'st, and art quickly thrown from off thy horse,
Or dance with "pretty Poll," so fair and free;
Having first slain with just disdain her sire,
Deaf to music of thy sheep-bell lyre:
Who loves not music, is not fit to live!
Then, when the hangman comes, who can refuse
To laugh, when thou his head into the noose
Hast nimbly thrust, while he gets no reprieve? Who feigns to grieve
Thou goest unpunish'd in the fiend's despite,
And slay'st him too, is but a hypocrite. 'Tis such delight
To see thee cudgel his black carcase antique,
For very rapture I am almost frantic!
- ↑ In reference to the origin of his family name, we may add, that some have erroneously derived it from the liquor punch, (which itself comes from the Indian Palepuntz, or Palepunsche,) on the same principle that the Italian character Macaroni is said to have been taken from the approved dish of that name and as our Jack Pudding and the German Hanns Wurst, (before mentioned,) from the attachment of the mob to puddings or sausages. The fact is, that Punch is only a familiar abbreviation of Punchinello, which is itself corrupted from Pulcinella.
