The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb Volume IV Part 30

XXIV

"But how do you know the fair maid's mind?"-- Quoth he, "Her loss was but recent; And I could not speak _my_ mind you know, Just when I was fetching her father below-- It would have been hardly decent.

XXV

"But a leer from her eye, where Cupids lie, Of love gave proof apparent; And, from something she dropp'd, I shrewdly ween'd, In her heart she judged, that a _living Fiend_ Was better than a _dead Parent_.

XXVI

"But the time is short; and suitors may come, While I stand here reporting; Then make your son a bit of a Beau, And give me your blessing, before I go To the other world a courting."

XXVII

"But what will you do with your horns, my son?

And that tail--fair maids will mock it--"

"My tail I will dock--and as for the horn, Like husbands above I think no scorn To carry it in my pocket."

XXVIII

"But what will you do with your feet, my son?"

"Here are stockings fairly woven: My hoofs I will hide in silken hose; And cinnamon-sweet are my pett.i.toes-- Because, you know, they are _cloven_."

XXIX

"Then take a blessing, my darling Son,"

Quoth she, and kiss'd him civil-- Then his neckcloth she tied; and when he was drest From top to toe in his Sunday's best, He appear'd a comely devil.

x.x.x

So his leave he took:--but how he fared In his courtship--barring failures-- In a Second Part you shall read it soon, In a bran new song, to be sung to the tune Of the "Devil among the Tailors."

THE SECOND PART

_Containing the Courtship, and the Wedding_

I

Who is She that by night from her balcony looks On a garden, where cabbage is springing?

'Tis the Tailor's fair La.s.s, that we told of above; She muses by moonlight on her True Love; So sharp is Cupid's stinging.

II

She has caught a glimpse of the Prince of the Air In his Luciferian splendour, And away with her coyness and maiden reserve!-- For none but the Devil her turn will serve, Her sorrows else will end her.

III

She saw when he fetch'd her father away, And the sight no whit did shake her; For the Devil may sure with his own make free-- And "it saves besides," quoth merrily she, "The expence of an Undertaker.--

IV

"Then come, my Satan, my darling Sin, Return to my arms, my h.e.l.l Beau; My Prince of Darkness, my crow-black Dove"-- And she scarce had spoke, when her own True Love Was kneeling at her elbow!

V

But she wist not at first that this was He, That had raised such a boiling pa.s.sion; For his old costume he had laid aside, And was come to court a mortal bride In a coat-and-waistcoat fashion.

VI

She miss'd his large horns, and she miss'd his fair tail, That had hung so retrospective; And his raven plumes, and some other marks Regarding his feet, that had left their sparks In a mind but too susceptive:

VII

And she held in scorn that a mortal born Should the Prince of Spirits rival, To clamber at midnight her garden fence-- For she knew not else by what pretence To account for his arrival.

VIII

"What thief art thou," quoth she, "in the dark That stumblest here presumptuous?

Some Irish Adventurer I take you to be-- A Foreigner, from your garb I see, Which besides is not over sumptuous."

IX

Then Satan, awhile dissembling his rank, A piece of amorous fun tries: Quoth he, "I'm a Netherlander born; Fair Virgin, receive not my suit with scorn; I'm a Prince in the Low Countries--

X

"Though I travel _incog_. From the Land of Fog And Mist I am come to proffer My crown and my sceptre to lay at your feet; It is not every day in the week you may meet, Fair Maid, with a Prince's offer."