The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 4 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 293 pages of information about The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 4.
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The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 4 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 293 pages of information about The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 4.

I PRESUME everybody has heard of me.  My name is the Signora Psyche Zenobia.  This I know to be a fact.  Nobody but my enemies ever calls me Suky Snobbs.  I have been assured that Suky is but a vulgar corruption of Psyche, which is good Greek, and means “the soul” (that’s me, I’m all soul) and sometimes “a butterfly,” which latter meaning undoubtedly alludes to my appearance in my new crimson satin dress, with the sky-blue Arabian mantelet, and the trimmings of green agraffas, and the seven flounces of orange-colored auriculas.  As for Snobbs —­ any person who should look at me would be instantly aware that my name wasn’t Snobbs.  Miss Tabitha Turnip propagated that report through sheer envy.  Tabitha Turnip indeed!  Oh the little wretch!  But what can we expect from a turnip?  Wonder if she remembers the old adage about “blood out of a turnip,” &c.? [Mem. put her in mind of it the first opportunity.] [Mem. again —­ pull her nose.] Where was I?  Ah!  I have been assured that Snobbs is a mere corruption of Zenobia, and that Zenobia was a queen —­ (So am I. Dr. Moneypenny always calls me the Queen of the Hearts) —­ and that Zenobia, as well as Psyche, is good Greek, and that my father was “a Greek,” and that consequently I have a right to our patronymic, which is Zenobia and not by any means Snobbs.  Nobody but Tabitha Turnip calls me Suky Snobbs.  I am the Signora Psyche Zenobia.

As I said before, everybody has heard of me.  I am that very Signora Psyche Zenobia, so justly celebrated as corresponding secretary to the “Philadelphia, Regular, Exchange, Tea, Total, Young, Belles, Lettres, Universal, Experimental, Bibliographical, Association, To, Civilize, Humanity.”  Dr. Moneypenny made the title for us, and says he chose it because it sounded big like an empty rum-puncheon. (A vulgar man that sometimes —­ but he’s deep.) We all sign the initials of the society after our names, in the fashion of the R. S. A., Royal Society of Arts —­ the S. D. U. K., Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, &c, &c.  Dr. Moneypenny says that S. stands for stale, and that D. U. K. spells duck, (but it don’t,) that S. D. U. K. stands for Stale Duck and not for Lord Brougham’s society —­ but then Dr. Moneypenny is such a queer man that I am never sure when he is telling me the truth.  At any rate we always add to our names the initials P. R. E. T. T. Y. B. L. U. E. B. A. T. C. H. —­ that is to say, Philadelphia, Regular, Exchange, Tea, Total, Young, Belles, Lettres, Universal, Experimental, Bibliographical, Association, To, Civilize, Humanity —­ one letter for each word, which is a decided improvement upon Lord Brougham.  Dr. Moneypenny will have it that our initials give our true character —­ but for my life I can’t see what he means.

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The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 4 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.