“THE GIANT AND THE DWARF.”
The reply of Leigh Hunt’s friends
to Moore’s squib, “The ‘Living Dog’
and the ‘Dead Lion’” (see Letter
291, p. 205, note 1 [Footnote 2]), ran as follows:
“THE GIANT AND THE DWARF.
“Humbly inscribed to T. Pidcock, Esq., of Exeter
’Change.
“A Giant that once of a Dwarf made
a friend,
(And their friendship the
Dwarf took care shouldn’t be hid),
Would now and then, out of his glooms,
condescend
To laugh at his antics,—as
every one did.
“This Dwarf-an extremely diminutive
Dwarf,—
In birth unlike G—y,
though his pride was as big,
Had been taken, when young, from the bogs
of Clontarf,
And though born quite a Helot,
had grown up a Whig.
“He wrote little verses—and
sung them withal,
And the Giant’s dark
visions they sometimes could charm,
Like the voice of the lute which had pow’r
over Saul,
And the song which could Hell
and its legions disarm.
“The Giant was grateful, and offered
him gold,
But the Dwarf was indignant,
and spurn’d at the offer:
‘No, never!’ he cried, ’shall
my friendship be sold
For the sordid contents of
another man’s coffer!
“’What would Dwarfland, and
Ireland, and every land say?
To what would so shocking
a thing be ascribed?
My Lady would think that I was
in your pay,
And the Quarterly say
that I must have been bribed.
“’You see how I’m puzzled;
I don’t say it wouldn’t
Be pleasant just now to have
just that amount:
But to take it in gold or in bank-notes!—I
couldn’t,
I wouldn’t accept
it—on any account.
“’But couldn’t you just
write your Autobiography,
All fearless and personal,
bitter and stinging?
Sure that, with a few famous heads
in lithography,
Would bring me far more than
my Songs or my singing.
“’You know what I did for
poor Sheridan’s Life;
Your’s is sure
of my very best superintendence;
I’ll expunge what might point at
your sister or wife,—
And I’ll thus keep my
priceless, unbought independence!’
“The Giant smiled grimly: he
couldn’t quite see
What diff’rence there
was on the face of the earth,
Between the Dwarf’s taking the money
in fee,
And his taking the same thing
in that money’s worth.
“But to please him he wrote; and
the business was done:
The Dwarf went immediately
off to ‘the Row;’
And ere the next night had pass’d
over the sun,
The MEMOIRS were purchas’d
by Longman and Co.
“W. GYNGELL, Showman, Bartholomew Fair.”
* * * *
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