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Imperial Waltz! imported from the Rhine
(Famed for the growth of pedigrees and wine),
Long be thine import from all duty free,
And hock itself be less esteem'd than thee;
In some few qualities alike—for hock
Improves our cellar—thou our living stock.
The head to hock belongs-thy subtler art
Intoxicates alone the heedless heart:

Through the full veins thy gentler poison swims,
And wakes to wantonness the willing limbs.

Oh, Germany! how much to thee we owe,
As heaven-born Pitt can testify below,
Ere cursed confederation made thee France's,
And only left us thy d-d debts and dances;
Of subsidies and Hanover bereft,

We bless thee still-for George the third is left!
Of kings the best—and last, not least in worth,
For graciously begetting George the Fourth.
To Germany, and highnesses serene,
Who owe us millions-don't we owe the queen?
To Germany what owe we not besides?
So oft bestowing Brunswickers and brides ;
Who paid for vulgar, with her royal blood,
Drawn from the stem of each Teutonic stud:
Who sent us-so be pardon'd all her faults—
A dozen dukes-some kings-a queen-and Waltz.

But peace to her her emperor and diet, Though now transferr'd to Bonaparte's "fiat;" Back to my theme-O Muse of motion! say, How first to Albion found thy Waltz her way?

Borne on the breath of hyperborean gales,
From Hamburg's port (while Hamburg yet had mails)
Ere yet unlucky fame-compell'd to creep
To snowy Gottenburg-was chill'd to sleep :
Or, starting from her slumbers, deign'd arise,
Heligoland! to stock thy mart with lies;
While unburnt Moscow 5 yet had news to send,
Nor owed her fiery exit to a friend,

She came-Waltz came-and with her certain sets
Of true dispatches, and as true gazettes :

Then flamed of Austerlitz the blest dispatch

Which Moniteur nor Morning Post can match;
And-almost crush'd beneath the glorious news-
Ten plays, and forty tales of Kotzebue's;
One envoy's letters, six composers' airs,

And loads from Frankfort and from Leipsic fairs;

Meiner's four volumes upon womankind,
Like Lapland witches to ensure a wind;
Brunck's heaviest tome for ballast, and to back it,
Of Heyné, such as should not sink the packet.
Fraught with this cargo-and her fairest freight,
Delightful Waltz, on tiptoe for a mate,

The welcome vessel reach'd the genial strand,
And round her flock'd the daughters of the land.
Not decent David, when, before the ark,
His grand pas-seul excited some remark ;
Not love-lorn Quixote, when his Sancho thought
The knight's fandango friskier than it ought;
Not soft Herodias, when with winning tread
Her nimble feet danced off another's head;
Not Cleopatra on her galley's deck,
Display'd so much of leg, or more of neck,
Than thou, ambrosial Waltz, when first the moon
Beheld thee twirling to a Saxon tune!

To you-ye husbands of ten years! whose brows
Ache with the annual tributes of a spouse;
To you of nine years less-who only bear
The budding sprouts of those that you shall wear,
With added ornaments around them roll'd,
Of native brass, or law-awarded gold;
To you, ye matrons, ever on the watch
To mar a son's, or make a daughter's match!
To you, ye children of whom chance accords-
Always the ladies, and sometimes their lords;
To you-ye single gentlemen, who seek
Torments for life, or pleasures for a week;
As Love or Hymen your endeavours guide,
To gain your own, or snatch another's bride;
To one and all the lovely stranger came,
And

every ball-room echoes with her name.

Endearing Waltz-to thy more melting tune
Bow Irish jig and ancient rigadoon;

Scotch reels avaunt! and, country-dance, forego
Your future claims to each fantastic toe:

Waltz-Waltz alone-both legs and arms demands,

Liberal of feet, and lavish of her hands;

Hands which may freely range in public sight

Where ne'er before-but-pray "put out the light."

Methinks the glare of yonder chandelier

Shines much too far-or I am much too near;

And true, though strange-Waltz whispers this remark,

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'My slippery steps are safest in the dark!"

But here the muse with due decorum halts,

And lends her longest petticoat to Waltz.

Observant travellers! of every time;
Ye quartos, publish'd upon every clime;
O say, shall dull Romaika's heavy round,
Fandango's wriggle, or Bolero's bound;
Can Egypt's Almas tantalizing group-
Columbia's caperers to the warlike whoop-
Can aught, from cold Kamschatka to Cape Horn,
With Waltz compare, or after Waltz be borne !
Ah, no! from Morier's pages down to Galt's,
Each tourist pens a paragraph for "Waltz.”

Shades of those belles, whose reign began of yore,
With George the Third's-and ended long before-
Though in your daughters' daughters yet you thrive,
Burst from your lead, and be yourselves alive!
Back to the ball-room speed your spectred host:
Fool's paradise is dull to that you
lost.
No treacherous powder bids conjecture quake;
No stiff starch'd stays make meddling fingers ache
(Transferr'd to those ambiguous things that ape
Goats in their visage, women in their shape);
No damsel faints when rather closely press'd,
But more caressing seems when most caress'd;
Superfluous hartshorn, and reviving salts,
Both banish'd by the sovereign cordial, "Waltz."

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Seductive Waltz!—though on thy native shore
Even Werter's self proclaim'd thee half a whore;
Werter-to decent vice though much inclined,
Yet warm, not wanton; dazzled, but not blind—
Though gentle Genlis, in her strife with Stael,
Would even proscribe thee from a Paris ball;
The fashion hails-from countesses to queens,
And maids and valets waltz behind the scenes;
Wide and more wide thy witching circle spreads,
And turns-if nothing else—at least our heads;
With thee even clumsy cits attempt to bounce,
And cockneys practise what they can't pronounce.
Gods! how the glorious theme my strain exalts,
And rhyme finds partner rhyme in praise of "Waltz.'

Blest was the time Waltz chose for her debut:
The court, the Regent, like herself were new;
New face for friends, for foes some new rewards,
New ornaments for black and royal guards;
New laws to hang the rogues that roar'd for bread;
New coins (most new) to follow those that fled;
New victories-nor can we prize them less,
Though Jenky wonders at his own success ;

New wars, because the old succeed so well,
That most survivors envy those who fell;
New mistresses-no, old-and yet 't is true,
Though they be old, the thing is something new;

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Each new, quite new-(except some ancient tricks),'°

New white-sticks, gold-sticks, broom-sticks, all new sticks.
With vests or ribands-deck'd alike in hue,

New troopers strut, new turncoats blush in blue :
So saith the muse-my-", what say you!
Such was the time when Waltz might best maintain
Her new preferments in this novel reign;
Such was the time, nor ever yet was such,
Hoops are no more, and petticoats not much;
Morals and minuets, virtue and her stays,
And tell-tale powder-all have had their days.
The ball begins-the honours of the house
First duly done by daughter or by spouse
Some potentate or royal or serene-
With Kent's gay grace, or sapient Gloster's mien,
Leads forth the ready dame, whose rising flush
Might once have been mistaken for a blush.
From where the garb just leaves the bosom free,

That spot where hearts 12 were once supposed to be;
Round all the confines of the yielded waist,

The strangest hand may wander undisplaced;

The lady's in return may grasp as much

As princely paunches offer to her touch.

Pleased round the chalky floor how well they trip,
One hand reposing on the royal hip;
The other to the shoulder no less roya
Ascending with affection truly loyal:

Thus front to front the partners move or stand,
The foot may rest, but none withdraw the hand;
And all in turn may follow in their rank,

The Earl of Asterisk-and Lady Blank;

Sir Such a one-with those of fashion's host,

For whose blest surnames-vide "Morning Post;
(Or if for that impartial print too late,

Search Doctors' Commons six months from my date.)
Thus all and each, in movement swift or slow,
The genial contact gently undergo :

Till some might marvel, with the modest Turk,
If "nothing follows all this palming work?" 13
True, honest Mirza-you may trust iny rhyme-
Something does follow at a fitter time;
The breast, thus publicly resign'd to man,
In private may resist him-if it can.

O ye! who loved our grandmothers of yore,
Fitzpatrick, Sheridan, and many more!

And thou, my prince, whose sovereign taste and will
It is to love the lovely beldames still;

Thou, ghost of Queensbury ! whose judging sprite
Satan may spare to peep a single night,
Pronounce if ever in your days of bliss,
Asmodeus struck so bright a stroke as this,
To teach the young ideas how to rise,
Flush in the cheek and languish in the eyes ;
Rush to the heart and lighten through the frame,
With half-told wish and ill-dissembled flame:
For prurient nature still will storm the breast-
Who, tempted thus, can answer for the rest?

But ye who never felt a single thought
For what our morals are to be, or ought;
Who wisely wish the charms you view to reap,
Say-would you make those beauties quite so cheap?
Hot from the hands promiscuously applied,

Round the slight waist, or down the glowing side;
Where were the rapture then to clasp the form,
From this lewd grasp, and lawless contact warm?
At once love's most endearing thought resign,
To press the hand so press'd by none but thine;
To gaze upon that eye which never met
Another's ardent look without regret ;
Approach the lip which, all without restraint,
Comes near enough-if not to touch—to taint;
If such thou lovest-love her then no more,
Or give―like her-caresses to a score ;
Her mind with these is gone, and with it go
The little left behind it to bestow.

Voluptuous Waltz! and dare I thus blaspheme?
Thy bard forgot thy praises were his theme.
TERPSICHORE, forgive !—at every ball
My wife now waltzes-and my daughters shall;
My son (or stop-'t is needless to inquire-
These little accidents should ne'er transpire;
hence our genealogic tree

Some ages

Will wear as green a bough for him as me),

Waltzing shall rear, to make our name amends,
Grandsons for me-
-in heirs to all his friends.

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