MY dear Lady -- ! I've been just sending out About five hundred cards for a snug little rout -- (By the bye, you've seen Rokeby? -- this moment got mine -- The Mail-Coach edition -- prodigiously fine!) But I can't conceive how, in this very cold weather, I'm ever to bring my five hundred together; As, unless the thermometer's near boiling heat, One can never get half of one's hundreds to meet -- (Apropos -- you'd have laugh'd to see Townsend, last night, Escort to their chairs, with his staff so polite, The "three maiden Miseries," all in a fright! Poor Townsend, like Mercury, filling two posts, Supervisor of @3thieves@1, and chief usher of @3ghosts!@1) But, my dear Lady -------! can't you hit on some notion, At least for one night to set London in motion? -- As to having the R -- g -- nt, @3that@1 show is gone by -- Besides, I've remark'd that (between you and I) The Marchesa and he, inconvenient in more ways, Have taken much lately to whispering in doorways; Which -- considering, you know, dear, the @3size@1 of the two -- Makes a block that one's company @3cannot@1 get through, And a house such as mine is, with doorways so small, Has no room for such cumbersome love-work at all! -- (Apropos, though, of love-work -- you've heard it, I hope, That Napoleon's old Mother's to marry the Pope, -- What a comical pair!) -- but, to stick to my rout, 'Twill be hard if some novelty can't be struck out. Is there no Algerine, no Kamchatkan, arrived? No Plenipo Pacha, three-tail'd and ten-wived? No Russian, whose dissonant consonant name Almost rattles to fragments the trumpet of Fame? I remember the time, three or four winters back, When -- provided their wigs were but decently black -- A few patriot monsters, from Spain, were a sight That would people one's house for one, night after night. But -- whether the Ministers @3paw'd@1 them too much -- (And you know how they spoil whatsoever they touch) Or whether Lord G -- rge (the young man about town) Has, by dint of bad poetry, written them down -- One has certainly lost one's @3peninsular@1 rage, And the only stray patriot seen for an age Has been at such places (think, how the fit cools) As old Mrs. V ----- n's or Lord L -- v -- rp -- l's! But, in short, my dear, names like Wintztschitstopschinzoudhoff Are the only things now make an evening go smooth off -- So, get me a Russian -- till death I'm your debtor -- If he brings the whole alphabet, so much the better. And -- Lord! if he would but, @3in character@1, sup Off his fish-oil and candles, he'd quite set me up! @3Au revoir@1, my sweet girl -- I must leave you in haste -- Little Gunter has brought me the liqueurs to taste. POSTSCRIPT. By the bye, have you found any friend that can construe That Latin account, t'other day, of a Monster? If we can't get a Russian, and @3that thing@1 in Latin Be not @3too@1 improper, I think I'll bring that in. |