Richard Harris Barham

“My Lord Tomnoddy got up one day; It was half after two, He had nothing to do, So his Lordship rang for his cabriolet.”

“What Horace says is, Eheu fugaces Anni labuntur, Postume, Postume!”

“The Jackdaw sat on the Cardinal’s chair!”

“As I laye a-thynkynge, a-thynkynge, a-thynkynge, Merrie sang the Birde as she sat upon the spraye!”

“He stole the Ring,– the Lord Cardinal’s Ring!”

“The Cardinal rose with a dignified look, He call’d for his candle, his bell, and his book!”

“Never was heard such a terrible curse! But what gave rise to no little surprise, Nobody seem’d one penny the worse!”

“With a thimble and pease to drive away cares, And a racket of rhymes and a stanza of prayers.”

“The feast was over, the board was clear’d, The flawns and the custards had all disappear’d.”

“He solemnly cursed that rascally thief! He cursed him at board, he cursed him in bed; From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.”

“Oh, a pitiful story! the Stranger said, And a pitiful story it seems to be.”

“A little girl, but twenty months of age,— One of God’s angels in her infant stage.”

“The Devil, having nothing else to do, Went off to tempt My Lady Poltagrue.”

“When the sacristan saw, on crumpled claw, Come limping a poor little lame Jackdaw.”

“She smoked, and she drank, and she never said ‘No!’”

“Though I'm anything but clever, I could write like that forever.”

“And the Devil he grinned, for his darling sin is pride that apes humility.”