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    Or, the Fea&t of the Violets.

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    Canto Ii.—The Presentations And Bali,.

    And bade them ask Wordsworth to do it ; " for he Has my stamp , " said the god , with a kiss for his fee But now the dance waits us . _" So catching" up two , Since the guests had all entered , he made , as he flew , A grace and a beauty of waiving decorum ( For wit and warm heart carry all things before ' em )

    And leading the way , swept them off to the ball , Into which he plung'd instantly , music and all ; For the band felt his coming , and gave such a rare Storm of welcome , as _seem'd to blow back his bright hair And so he came whirling it , Gods ! how divinely ! The hearts of the whole room , I warrant , beat finely : In fact , hadn ' t he himself kept their wits sound ,

    The room , the whole evening , had seem'd going round : But , what was amazing , he so danc'd with all _. He suffic'd for the total male part of the ball ! Not as dancer theatrical , making a shew " _) ( Bah !—shocking to think of—Excessively wo !) > But _gentleman-god-like , and all comme-il ~ faut . ) Now with one , now with t ' other he danc'd , now with ten !

    For your god in his dancing is several men . Fanny Butler he waltz'd with ; he jigg'd it with Morgan With Hall he develop _ed the rigadoon organ ; To Pardoe he _shew'd Spain ' s impassion'd velocity ; Norton , the minuet ' s high reciprocity . — Then he took Landon , ere she was aware ,

    like a dove in a whirlwind , and whisk'd her in air ; Or as Zephyr might catch up some rose-haunting fay , Or Mercury once netted Flora , they say : And then again , stately , like any Sultaun With his Queen , he and Blessington trod a pavaun , —

    Which meaneth a " peacock-dance . 1 ruiy ' twas grand to see How they came spreading it , pavoneggidndosi ! * — Up , at the sight , rose the oldest at last , And join'd in a gen ' ral dance , " furious and fast , " With which the god mingled , like fire in a wheel , Pervading it , golden ; till reel after reel ,

    ( 23 ) See a charming stanza in Ariosto , a picture by itself , in which he _describes this adventure , —a fiction , I believe , of his own . ( Orlando _Furioao . Canto _jjjy . st . 57 . ) A collection of additions to ancient mythology by modern poets , _Atioeto , Spenser , and others , would make a delightful book . ( 24 ) I find this word , accompanied by a due relish of it , in some late papers on

    Dancing in the New Monthly Magazine . ( See the number for May , 1836 . ) There is no language like the Italian for a happy magniloquence between jest and earnest . What a word is this pavoneggidndosi for expressing the stately flow of an imitation of the peacock ( pavone ) with that lift too and sudden movement in the midst of it , marked by the accent ! But I must not not be tempted into these luxuries of annotation .

    Or, The Fea&T Of The Violets.

    Or _, the Fea _& t of the Violets .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 1, 1837, page 47, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_01071837/page/45/