'
"'O Lady Wye! O Lady Wye!
Consider what you do;
How can you be so short with me,
I am not so with you!'
"Then ringing for her serving-men,
They show'd him to the door;
Said they, 'you turn out better now,
Why didn't you before?'
"They stripp'd his coat, and gave him kicks
For all his wages due,
And off instead of green and gold
He went in black and blue.
"No family would take him in
Because of this discharge,
So he made up his mind to serve
The country all at large.
"'Huzza!' the serjeant cried, and put
The money in his hand,
And with a shilling cut him off
From his paternal land.
"For when his regiment went to fight
At Saragossa town,
A Frenchman thought he look'd too tall,
And so he cut him down."
Barham's humour, as seen in his "Ingoldsby Legends," is of a lower
character, but shows that the author possessed a great natural facility.
He had keen observation, but his taste did not prevent his employing it
on what was coarse and puerile. Common slang abounds, as in "The Vulgar
Little Boy;" he talks of "the devil's cow's tail," and is little afraid
of extravagances. His metre often assists him, and we have often comic
rhyming as where "Mephistopheles" answers to "Coffee lees," and he
says:--
"To gain your sweet smiles, were I Sardanapalus,
I'd descend from my throne, and be boots at an alehouse,"
But in raising a laugh and affording a pleasant distraction by fantastic
humour on common subjects, the "Ingoldsby Legends" have been highly
successful, and they are recommended by an occasional historical
allusion, especially at the expense of the old monks.
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