Affectionate friend!  I’m disgusted
    With proofs of affection like these,
  I’m growing ‘old, tawny and crusted,’
    Tho’ my nature is easy to please. 
  An Englishman’s home is his castle,
    So I think that my friend Mary Ann
  Should respect, tho’ she deem him her vassal,
    The rooms of a reading young man.

  In the days of our fathers how pleasant
    The May Term up here must have been! 
  No chignons distracting were present,
    And scarcely a bonnet was seen. 
  As the boats paddled round Grassy Corner
    No ladies examined the crews,
  Or exclaimed with the voice of the scorner—­
    ’Look, how Mr. Arculus screws!!

  But now there are ladies in College,
    There are ladies in Chapels and Halls;
  No doubt ’tis a pure love of knowledge
    That brings them within our old walls;
  For they talk about Goldie’s ‘beginning’;
    Know the meaning of ‘finish’ and ‘scratch,’
  And will bet even gloves on our winning
    The Boat Race, Athletics, or Match.

  There’s nothing but music and dancing,
    Bands playing on each College green;
  And bright eyes are merrily glancing
    Where nothing but books should be seen. 
  They tell of a grave Dean a fable,
    That reproving an idle young man
  He faltered, for on his own table
    He detected in horror—­a fan!

  Through Libraries, Kitchens, Museums,
    These Prussian-like Amazons rush,
  Over manuscripts, joints, mausoleums,
    With equal intensity gush. 
  Then making their due ‘requisition,’
    From ‘the lions’ awhile they refrain,
  And repose in the perfect fruition
    Of ices, cold fowl, and champagne.

  Mr. Editor, answer my question—­
    When, O when, shall this tyranny cease? 
  Shall the process of mental digestion
    Ne’er find from the enemy peace? 
  Above all if my name you should guess, Sir,
    Keep it quite to yourself, if you can;
  For I dread, more than words can express, Sir,
    My affectionate friend Mary Ann.

  (1871).

A TRAGEDY OF THE 19TH CENTURY.

  “Et potis es nigrum vitio praefigere Delta.”—­PERSIUS.

  It was a young Examiner, scarce thirty were his years,
  His name our University loves, honours, and reveres: 
  He pondered o’er some papers, and a tear stood in his eye;
  He split his quill upon the desk, and raised a bitter cry—­
  ’O why has Fortune struck me down with this unearthly blow? 
  “Why doom’d me to examine in my lov’d one’s Little-go? 
  “O Love and Duty, sisters twain, in diverse ways ye pull;
  “I dare not ‘pass,’ I scarce can ‘pluck:’  my cup of woe
      is full. 
  “O that I ever should have lived this dismal day to see”! 
  He knit his brow, and nerved his hand, and wrote the fatal D.