www "BEAUTY CLARE." [Extract.] HAMILTON AÏDÉ. ALF Lucrece, half Messalina, When I see you, I compare You with common, quiet creatures, Beauty Clare! Surely Nature must have meant you For a Syren, when she sent you That sweet voice and glittering hair : --Was it touch of human passion Made you woman, in a fashion Beauty Clare? A 2 BEAUTY CLARE. I think not. The moral door-step Cautiously you never o'er-step When your victims you ensnare— -Lead them on with hopes-deceive them- Beauty Clare. Some new slave I note each season, Wearing life away, his knees on (Moths around the taper's flare !) Guardsman fine,—or young attaché, Black and smooth as papier-maché; Beauty Clare. In your box I see them dangling, Trophies ranged behind your chair; How they watch the fan you flutter! How they drink each word you utter, Beauty Clare! BEAUTY CLARE. 3 When at kettle-drums presiding, Smiles to each, in equal share, Or another grow less zealous, Beauty Clare! What perfection in your waltzing! How in vain the women all sing, When you warble some sweet air! But, your sentimental ditty Over, you are then the witty Beauty Clare. How you light the smouldering embers Of decrepit Peers and Members! While you still have smiles to spare For a new-fledged boy from college, Sitting at your feet for knowledge! -Beauty Clare ! 4 BEAUTY CLARE. At your country seat in Salop, With you, on your chestnut mare! How the country-misses hate you, Seeing o'er a five-barred gate,—you, Beauty Clare! All-accomplished little creature! Were your inward soul laid bare, What should we discover under That seductive mask, I wonder, Beauty Clare? |