The Project Gutenberg EBook of Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 98,
March 1, 1890, by Various

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Title: Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 98, March 1, 1890

Author: Various

Editor: Francis Burnand

Release Date: September 14, 2009 [EBook #29992]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUNCH, CHARIVARI, MARCH 1, 1890 ***

Produced by Neville Allen, Malcolm Farmer and the Online
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PUNCH,

OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

VOLUME 98.

MARCH 1, 1890.

* * * * *

UNTILED; OR, THE MODERN ASMODEUS.

"Tres volontiers," repartit le demon. "Vous aimez les tableaux
changeans: je veux vous contenter."

_Le Diable Boiteux._

[Illustration:]

XXI.

"Though cold the coxcomb, and though coarse the boor,
Though dulness haunts the rich and pain the poor,
In this colossal city,
Yet London is not Rome, O Shade!" I said.
"A later JUVENAL should not find her dead
To purity and pity."

"Satire, of shames and follies in sole quest,
Is a one-eyed divinity at best,"
My guide responded, slowly.
"The tale of ZOILUS hath its moral still.
Such critics are but blowflies, their small skill
To carrion given wholly.

"Not all the Romans of DOMITIAN's days
Were such as live in JUVENAL's savage lays;
Not all the Latian ladies
Were HIPPIAS or COLLATIAS. Neither here
May all be gauged by satire's rule severe,
Or earth would be a Hades.

"The scalpel hath no terrors for the sound,
Nor is the hand that wields it harshly bound
To ceaseless vivisection.
The Cynic sharply sees, but sees not far;
The eye that hunts the mote may miss the star
Too great for scorn's detection.

"Dream not, oh friend, because I let the light
On lurid London through the cloak of night
(As was my undertaking.)
That I've a spirit wholly given to scorn,
Or blind to all, save sin, that with the morn
Will see a bright awaking.

"Yet could the freedman's son but wield his flail
In London, there are those might shrink and pale