Humph! I do hope the happy Royal Pair
(Whose counterfeit presentments front me there,
Inspiring, in young manhood and frank beauty)
Will think their Laureate hath fulfilled his duty,
His labour of most loyal love, discreetly.
Compliments delicate, piled not sickly-sweetly,
Like washy WARTON's, nor so loud thrasonical--
Like Glorious JOHN's--that they sound half ironical!
'Tis hard indeed for loyal love to hit
The medium just 'twixt sentiment and wit----

[TOBY _barks, and a mellifluous voice soundeth, courteously
intervenient, as two splendid Shades steal silently through
the verdurous shadows._

_First Voice._ But you _have_ hit it, never-missing-One!

_Second Voice._ For fulsome twaddle finds best check in Fun!

_Mr. Punch_ (_with respectful heartiness_). What! Sweet-voiced SPENSER!
Chivalrous-souled SIDNEY!!
This _is_ a joy! For heroes of your kidney
PUNCH hath a heartier homage, as he hopes,
Than the most thundering Swinburnian tropes
Could all express!

_Spenser_ (_smiling mildly_). ALGERNON's one of Us!
In fierce superlatives, and foam and fuss,
He deals o'ermuch, but proof lies in his page.
_He_'s of the true Parnassian lineage,
And should be Laureate--if he care to be so.

_Sidney._ Would he but heed what HORACE wrote to PISO!
"The singing-skill of god APOLLO's giving"
Is his, however, and no lyrist living
Hath such a stretch of finger, or such tone.

_Mr. Punch._ Faith, but he sings immortal Fames--your own,
My PHILIP, latest and not least--in strains
That thrill our nerves and mount into our brains.
If he would study less in GOSSON's "School"
(That of "Abuse," o'er which you laid the rule
In your "Defence of Poesy"), and stay
Less in dim Orcus than Arcadia,
Then--well, I might have well been spared this task.
SPENSER, _you_ penned _your own_; now may I ask
Epithalamion-recipes from you?

_Spenser_ (_smiling_). Yes--when you need them! I was Laureate too!
There's enough inspiration in those faces
[_Pointing to portraits of the_ Duke of YORK _and the_ Princess MAY.
To bring the needful Muses, and the Graces,
All to your aid!

_Mr. Punch._ By Jove! That "takes the cake."
You great Elizabethans had the knack
Of courtly compliment. Young GEORGE, fair MAY,
Shall have your _mot_ upon their marriage day,
As a choice wedding gift, to pa