by Coleridge · Cluster: Satire of Society · Epigram · Satire
Abstract
A comic dialogue mocking an author’s bad writing, plus epigrams on idle Tom Slothful and on overdressed Bond-street fops; satire of literary vanity and foppery.
Connections
Archetypes: Fool Motifs: Clothing and Costume Themes & Concepts: Satire of Society, Artist and Society, Pride, Appearance vs Reality Forms & Genres: Epigram
Testo integrale / Full text
Author. Come; your opinion of my manuscript!
Friend. Dear Joe! I would almost as soon be whipt.
Author. But I will have it!
Friend. If it must be had — (hesitating)
You write so ill, I scarce could read the hand —
Author. A mere evasion!
Friend. And you spell so bad,
That what I read I could not understand.
First published in Morning Post, Oct. 11, 1802.
œÉÁ¿Ã¿Æw± OR WISDOM IN FOLLY
Tom Slothful talks, as slothful Tom beseems,
What he shall shortly gain and what be doing,
Then drops asleep, and so prolongs his dreams
And thus enjoys at once what half the world are wooing.
First published in Morning Post, Oct. 11, 1802.
Each Bond-street buck conceits, unhappy elf!
He shews his clothes! Alas! he shews himself.
O that they knew, these overdrest self-lovers,
What hides the body oft the mind discovers.
First published in Morning Post, Oct. 11, 1802.