THE DOUBLE TRANSFORMATION. A TAL E. SECLUDED from domestic strife, Jack Book-worm led a college life; Made him the happiest man alive; Such pleasures, unallay'd with care, O had the archer ne'er come down H Or Flavia been content to stop Or Jack had wanted eyes to gaze ! O!—But let exclamation cease: peace. So with decorum all things carry'd; Miss frown'd, and blush'd, and then was—marry’d. The raptures of the bridal night? The honey-moon like lightning flew, Found half the charms that deck'd her face That very face had robb'd her mind. 'T is true she dress'd with modern grace, But when at home, at board or bed, To be a dull domestic friend? Could any curtain lectures bring To decency so fine a thing? In short, by night, 't was fits or fretting; Fond to be seen, she kept a bevy Of powder'd coxcombs at her levee; The 'squire and captain took their stations, And twenty other near relations; Jack suck'd his pipe, and often broke A sigh in suffocating smoke; While all their hours were past between Thus as her faults each day were known, He thinks her features coarser grown: Or thins her lip, or points her nose: Whenever rage or envy rise, How wide her mouth, how wild her eyes! He knows not how, but so it is, Her face is grown a knowing phiz; And, though her fops are wondrous civil, He thinks her ugly as the devil. Now, to perplex the ravell'd noose, Promis'd to hold them on for life, power And, rifling every youthful grace, Left but the remnant of a face. The glass, grown hateful to her sight, Each former art she vainly tries Poor madam, now condemn'd to hack The rest of life with anxious Jack, For tawdry finery is seen |