PREFATORY SONNET

MUSIC-HALL sketches and a barroom-ball;

Queen Marguerite, a purpling cameo;

And gutter-Naiads with their smiles of woe,

Drowning old sorrows in beer-glasses tall;

Wine-shops with ivy and vine-branch over all:

The poet Villon, in dungeon far below:

My torment sweet and a red herring or so;

Peasant amours, where rustic breezes call;

Such are the subjects I have treated here:

Your choice of bric-a-brac, medallions dear,

Enamels, pastels, an eau-forte or a print,

Big-eyed idols, whose charms hold much deceit,

Or old Brauwer’s yokels, carousing without stint;

Which will you have? The price is very neat.