The Sun.
London, England, 1838-05-03 00:00:00

GRAND DINNER OF TYPE AND CO

A POOR POET'S DREAM.

As I sate in my study, lone and still,
Thinking of Sergeant Talfourd's Bill,
And the speech by Lawyer Sudden made,
In spirit congenial, for " the Trade,"
Sudden I sunk to sleep, and, In,
Upon Fancy's reinless night-mare flitting,
I found myself, in a se:ond or so, •
At the table of Messrs. Type and Co.
With a goodly group of diners sitting ;
All in the printing and publishing lino,
Drest, I thought, extremely fine,
And s►pping, like lords, their rosy wine ;
While I, in a state near inanition,
With coat that hadn't much nap to spare,
(Having just gone into its second edition)
Was the only wretch of an author there.
But fancy, how great was my surprise,
When I saw, in casting round my eYe3,
That the dishes, sent up by Type's she-cooks,
Bore all, in appearance, the shape of hooks;
Large folios—God knows where they got 'em,
In these small times—at top and bottom ;
And quartos (such as the Press provides
For no one to read them) down the sides
Then flashed a horrible thought on my brain,
And I said to myself, " 'tis all too plain,
I.ike those well known in school quotations,'

Who ate up for dinner their own relations,
I see now before me, smoking here,
The bodies and bones of my brethren dear;
Bright sons of the lyric and epic Muse,
All cut up in cutlets or hash'd in stews;
Their works, a light through ages to go—
Temselves, eaten up by Type and Co. t"
While thus I moralized, on they went,
Finding the fare most excellent, ~.
let me send you" I
recommend you"
":
And all so kindly, brother to brother,
Helping the tidbits to each other
of Southey Campbell
" And here, my friends, is a treat indeed,
" The immortal Wordsworth fricasseed !"
lAli sliceis cut of
Thus having, the cormorants, fed some time
Upon joints of poetry,—alt of the prime,—
With also (as Type in a whisper aver'd it)
" Cold prose on the sideboard for such as preferr'd it,"—
They rested awhile, to recruit their force,
And then pounced, like kites, on the second course,
Which seas merely small singing.birds,-51oore and others,
Who all shared the fate of their larger brothers ;
And, swarming now though such songsters be,
'Twas really quite distressing to see
A whole dishful of Toms,—Moore, Dibdin, Bayley,
Bolt.fl by Type and Co. so gailly
Nor was this the worst, —I shudder to think
What a scene was diseo.,sal when they came to drink.
The warriors of Odin, as every one knows,
Used to drink out of skulls of slaughtered toes;
And Type's old pert, to my horror I found,
Was iu skulls of bards sent merrily round.
And still as each well.fill'd cranium came.
A health was pledged to its own.r's name,
While Type said slyly, 'midst general laughter,
" We eat them up first, and then drink to them after."
There was no standing this,—incensed I broke
F,om my bonds of sleep and indignant awoke,
Exclaiming.; "Pt) shades of other times,
" Whose voices still sOlincl, like deathlois chimes,
"Could you e'er have foretold n thy would i4G,
Ps Whets a dreamer of dreams could's° clearly see
A patty of sleek and honest Joh', Bulls
"Thus hobnobbing each oth& in poets' senils liv
qui scribit prandia sxvi
Tereos ; ant ccenatn, crudeTliyesta, "tuam.---MAATI AL.
—horning t.yarcint..l!s.

The Archbishop of Canterbury will gilie I iy 4r4
grand dinner on SOurd.47 nqLt t 1.,a *eo pala9e,