NOCTES AMBROSIANÆ. XXXIII. (MAY 1834.) Ꭼ Ꭱ Ꭱ Ꭺ Ꭲ Ꭺ. VOL. I. Preface, page ix, line 13 from top, for " thirty" read "thirty-two;" and ibid. lines 14 and 16, for "forty-one" read "thirty-nine." And a very fit motto to put to our Noctes.] C. N. ap. Ambr. Scene I.-Tent in the Fairy's Cleugh.-NORTH and the REGISTRAR1 lying on the brae. (In attendance, AMBROSE and his Tail.) Registrar. "The day is placid in its going, To a lingering motion bound, Can there be a softer sound?” What, my dear North! Can't I waken you from your reverie even by a stanza of your own bard-Wordsworth? 1 "The Registrar" was Mr Samuel Anderson, formerly of the firm of Brougham and Anderson, wine-merchants, Edinburgh. He afterwards obtained from Lord Chancellor Brougham (his partner's brother) the appointment of Registrar of the Court of Chancery. He was an esteemed friend of Professor Wilson's, and a general favourite in society. He died in 1849. VOL. IV. A 2 NORTH DREAMING OF ELLERAY. Hollo! are you asleep, you old somnolent sinner? (Shouting through the hollow of his hands into North's ear.) Nay, you must be dead. That posture grows every hour more alarming, and if this be not death, why then I pronounce it an admirable imitation. Laid out! Limb and body stiff and stark as a winter clod-mouth open-eyes ditto, and glazed like a window-pane in frost. How white his lips! And is there no breath? (Puts his pocket-mirror to North's mouth.) Thank heaven it dims-he lives! North, I say again, you old somnolent sinner, "awake, arise, or be for ever fallen!" North (motionlessly soliloquising in a dream). Never in this well-wooded world, not even in the days of the Druids, could there have been such another Tree! It would be easier to suppose two Shakespeares. Registrar. Sleeping or waking-always original. I must let the bald-headed bard enjoy a little while longer his delusion. (Pats North on the forehead.) What a pile ! North. Yet have I heard people say it is far from being a large Tree. A small one it cannot be with a house in its shadow. An unawakened house that looks as if it were dreaming! True, 'tis but a cottage-a Westmoreland cottage Registrar. The buck is at the Lakes. North. But then it has several roofs shelving away there in the lustre of loveliest lichens Registrar. แ And apt alliteration's artful aid." Yet methinks such affectations are beneath the dignity of his genius. Kit, you're a conceited callant. North. Each roof with its own assortment of doves and pigeons pruning their plumage in the morning pleasance. Registrar. Again? Poopoo on such prettinesses, North. North. The sun is not only a great genius, but what is far better, a good Christian. Registrar. That's not so much amiss by way of an obs. North. Now is he rising to illuminate all nature; yet in his universal mission, so far from despising this our little humble dwelling, God bless his gracious countenance! he looks as if for it and for us he were bringing back the beautiful day from the sea. Registrar. The habits and customs of our waking life we carry along with us into dream-land. The unit calls himself Us. |