VIII

But this day Fanny Hutton
Her last dress has put on;
Her fine lessons forgotten,
She died, as the dunce died: 
And prim Betsy Chambers,
Decay’d in her members,
No longer remembers
Things, as she once did;

IX

And prudent Miss Wither
Not in jest now doth wither,
And soon must go—­whither
Nor I well, nor you know;
And flaunting Miss Waller,
That soon must befal her,
Whence none can recal her,
Though proud once as Juno![11]

[Footnote 11:  Here came, in Album Verses, 1830, “The Wife’s Trial,” for which see page 273, where it is placed with Lamb’s other plays.]

NEW POEMS IN LAMB’S POETICAL WORKS, 1836

          IN THE ALBUM OF EDITH S[OUTHEY] (1833)

        In Christian world MARY the garland wears! 
        REBECCA sweetens on a Hebrew’s ear;
        Quakers for pure PRISCILLA are more clear;
        And the light Gaul by amorous NINON swears. 
        Among the lesser lights how LUCY shines! 
        What air of fragrance ROSAMOND throws round! 
        How like a hymn doth sweet CECILIA sound! 
        Of MARTHAS, and of ABIGAILS, few lines
        Have bragg’d in verse.  Of coarsest household stuff
        Should homely JOAN be fashioned.  But can
        You BARBARA resist, or MARIAN? 
        And is not CLARE for love excuse enough? 
        Yet, by my faith in numbers, I profess,
        These all, than Saxon EDITH, please me less.

TO DORA W[ORDSWORTH],

On Being Asked by Her Father to Write in Her Album

An Album is a Banquet:  from the store,
In his intelligential Orchard growing,
Your Sire might heap your board to overflowing;
One shaking of the Tree—­’twould ask no more
To set a Salad forth, more rich than that
Which Evelyn[12] in his princely cookery fancied: 
Or that more rare, by Eve’s neat hands enhanced,
Where, a pleased guest, the angelic Virtue sat. 
But like the all-grasping Founder of the Feast,
Whom Nathan to the sinning king did tax,
From his less wealthy neighbours he exacts;
Spares his own flocks, and takes the poor man’s beast. 
Obedient to his bidding, lo, I am,
A zealous, meek, contributory

        LAMB.

[Footnote 12:  Acetaria, a Discourse of Sallets, by J.E., 1706.]

          IN THE ALBUM OF ROTHA Q[UILLINAN]

        A passing glance was all I caught of thee,
        In my own Enfield haunts at random roving. 
        Old friends of ours were with thee, faces loving;
        Time short:  and salutations cursory,
        Though deep, and hearty.  The familiar Name
        Of you, yet unfamiliar, raised in me
        Thoughts—­what the daughter of that Man should be,
        Who call’d our Wordsworth friend.  My thoughts