An Excellent Ballad of Charity [pp. 436-439]

An Excellent Ballad of Charity.
weary time! Then I laugh, and the baron only sighs! He eats little or nothing,
and at th is m ome nt I c ould devour a raw
buffalo, orI'm a dandy! To end the whole
matter I'm going to see my wife-I'm
going to breakfastwith nay int e nded! A
nob l e w oman, a real fairy, though she's
so fat. But who cares? I rather like fat
people! They laugh where lean ones
groan; I'll have this one! If I don't I'll
eat my head!"
The Captain seemed inspired by the
reflection and pushed on more rapidly.
Then as he gazed in the direction of the
Ordinary his brow clouded-he was thinking of Falconbridge.
"A noble fellow!" he muttered,-" a
heart of oak-,an honest boy! And he's
going to his doom as sure as my name's
Wagner. Well, I've done all I can, and
more than I have liked-things must go
on their way. lie has had full warning,
and though my breast aches at the thought
that he's going to bleed, I am done with
it. Woman, woman! why can't we male
things stay away from them? We die for
thenm-which is better than living for'em
sometimes! We laugh at'em, sneer at
'em, curl our mustaches with a highhanded air, and then we go kneel down,
and make fools of ourselves. Why did
they enter the world ever? What is it
that draws us so toward'em?"
The Captain knit his brows as he saw
the tavern before him, and a fter some
moments of silence, muttered grimly:
"Woman! woman! wherever you turn
in this miserable world, you're sure to
find a woman!?-and an individual of the
masculine sex not far off!"
TO BE CONTINUED.
AN EXCELLENT BALLAD OF CHARITY.
As written by the good Priest THOMAS ROWLEY, 1464.
Thomas Chatterton, author of the Rowley Poemns, was born in Bristol, England, on the
20thl of November, 1752. His education consisted of the limited instruction afforded by
a charity school, which he attended for nearly seven years. While a pupil hlie discarded
the amusements usually sought by those of his age, and devoted every moment of freedom firom the restraints of his school duties to solitary reading. He perused works of
every character; his insatiable appetite made no choice, but devoured every volume
which the circulating library, or the small collections of his friends presented to him.
Yet he had a preference, for he was especially interested in the study of the old English
poets and heraldry. After leaving the charity'school he was apprenticed to a scrivener,
and performed his duties faithfully. He was regular in his conduct, but scornful to his
companions, who, therefore, regarded him with dislike. He lived within himself, and
in the person of the poet he was creating. When he looked out upon the world, it was
with the feelings of a misanthrope. Having laboured in secret for many months, hlie, on
convenient occasions, produced scraps of ancient poetry, revealed curious historic facts
relating to his native city, and traced distinguished lineages, all through the agency of
certain manuscripts pretended to be the productions of a priest of the 15th century,
which had remained long concealed in the coifres of the St. Mary Redeliffe Church.
At length his ambition prompted him to leave Bristol, where lie met with too little encouragement, anadl try his fortune in London. He pictured to himself heaps of gold and
a splendid reputation, awaiting only the exertion of his genius to become his own. The
infatuated boy entered the metropolis with little money and few friends, and was immediately employed in political writing for the magazines and newspapers. Itn addition to
his political essays, hlie composed songs and satires, and burlettas and stories, with a
rapidity and abundance which, though doing little credit to the quality of his genius,
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