>From "The Knight and the Friar"
Part The First
George Colman the Younger (17621836)
Pious Æneas, who in his narration
Of his own prowess felt so great a charm
(For though he feigned great grief in the relation,
He made the story longer than your arm*)--
Pious Æneas no more pleasure knew
Than did our knight, who could be pious too--
In telling his exploits and martial brawls;
But pious Thomas had no Dido near him,
No queen, king, lord, nor commoner to hear him,
So he was forced to tell them to the walls;
And to his castle walls, in solemn guise,
The knight full often did soliloquize.
For"walls have ears," Sir Thomas had been told;
Yet thought the tedious hours would seem much shorter
If now and then a tale he could unfold
To ears of flesh and blood, not stone and mortar.
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* "Quis talia fando
Temperet a lachrymis?"
says Æneas, by way of proem; yet for a hero tolerably "used to the
melting mood," he talks on this occasion much more than he cries; and
though he begins with a wooden horse,and gives a general account of the
burning of Troy, still the "quorum pars magna fui" is evidently the
great inducement to his chattering; accordingly, he keeps up Queen Dido
to a scandalous late hour after supper, for the good folks of Carthage,
to tell her an egotistical story that occupies two whole books of the
"Æneid." Oh, these heroes! I once knew a worthy general but I wont
tell that story."
[This is an extract from a longish comic poem. The knight of the
title,Sir Thomas Erpingham, having fought in France for King Henry V,
has returned home to his castle, but has found no one to listen to his
military exploits.His situation is contrasted with that of Æneas. (The
comic learned note is also Coleman's.) After a great deal of ennui,Sir
Thomas resolves to find a wife.
Source:Colman, George (1898) "Broad Grins, My Nightgown and Slippers and
Other Humorous Works of George Colman the Younger " London:Chatto &
Windus.]
Peter JVD Bryant
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
7 Cobea Court
Mount Claremont
Perth
Western Australia 6010
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