o
his wont,"

"Laughed heartily to hear the subtle witted
Infant give such a plausible account,
And every word a lie."

So the Music-hall Muse "winks" knowingly, and knavishly, at her
audience, and her audience "laugh heartily," in Jovian guffaws, at her
winks. What wonder then that she should lyrically apostrophise "The
Wink" in laudatory numbers?

"Say, boys, now is it quite the thing?"

she cries in sham deprecation, but all the while she "winks the other
eye" in a way her hearers quite understand. "Cabby knows his fare,"
and the Music-hall Muse knows her clients. What, we wonder, would
be her reception did she really carry out her ironically pretended
protest and sing to the chuckling cads who applaud her, the following
version of her favourite lay?

NO. II.--THE WINK OF ROGUERY'S EYE.

AIR--"_WINK THE OTHER EYE_."

Say, boys, whatever do men mean
When they wink the other eye?
Why, when "sharps" say the world is "green,"
Do they wink the other eye?
The Radicals and Tories both tell stories, not a few,
About Measures falsely promised, and reforms long overdue;
And when the simple Mob believes that every word is true.
Then they--wink the other eye!

_Chorus_.--Say, boys, now is it quite the thing!
Say, should we let them have their fling?
Ah, when they get us "on a string"
Then they wink the other eye!

Say, boys are Leaders to be loved,
When they wink the other eye?
By artful speech the Mob is moved,
Till _it_ winks the other eye;
The optic Wink's the language of the sly and sordid soul,
The mute freemasonry of Fraud, sign-post to Roguery's goal.
When Circe sees her votaries swine ready in sludge to roll
Then _she_ winks the other eye!

_Chorus_.--Say, boys, _is_ it so fine a thing,
Low Cunning, which Cheat's laureates sing,
The Comus of the Mart and Ring,
Who--winks the other eye?

Say, boys, is Cunning's promise good,
When she winks the other eye?
Noodledom seeks her neighbourhood,
And winks _its_ other eye.
For no one winks so freely as a fool who _thinks_ he's sly;
The dupe of deeper knavery smirks in shallow mimicry
Of the smirking JERRY DIDDLER who is sucking him so dry,
And who winks the other eye.

_Chorus_.--Say, boys, now is the Wink a thing
Worthy of worship; will you fling
Your caps in air for the Knave-King
Who--winks the other eye?

T