Dialogue
BETWEEN A CANARY BIRD AND MALE SPARROW .
CANARY BIRD .
What are you about there, with your foraging bill?
Was Canary-seed made hopping Sparrows to fill?
You'll have dainties forsooth till you're pamper'd and sick,
Though in fields or in hedges a meal you can pick.
SPARROW .
With submission, my Lord, it's no desperate sin
For your chaff and your husk if a beggar puts in;
You're so rich, and so nice, that your taste can afford
What is dropp'd now and then from your plentiful board.
Though I 'm charm'd with your song, though I covet your plumes,
If my homage is bold, if my rapture presumes,
Think what myriads besides are such culprits of yours —
The forbearance of mercy their number ensures .
CANARY BIRD .
With a taste so refin'd you will never offend —
You are no common bird; eat away, my good friend!
Your brown jacket's quite smart, though it wants a lapelle:
It's a very fine day; — you left all at home well?
SPARROW .
Yes, — my wife, or my wives I should rather have said,
Are as well as the wives that in London are bred;
I have married a dozen or two as I came,
But so much was in haste that not one could I name:
The nice dear little bob-tails were pleas'd as we met,
But they left me all mirth, and their husband forget.
CANARY BIRD .
Oh, my dear little rake! how I envy your life,
That whenever you ramble pick up a new wife:
I have no such amusements, but live in parade,
And I sing to be fed by the mistress or maid.
Oh, for nature and freedom! the hedge and the wood!
Independence is wealth, and good spirits are food.
But the wives above all! —
SPARROW .
You shall have them to-morrow —
If your cage in return, and your seed, I can borrow,
But your song and your beauty are mine by the change,
For the charter of air, and the license to range.
CANARY BIRD .
Little merchant! I'll whisper two words in your ear;
We are best as we are; I can make it appear:
Should the cage be left open, and we fly away,
No canary bird female around us can play;
For the want of a maid or a mistress to carve,
In the midst of your berries and fruits we should starve.
You have nature before you, — no dish comes amiss;
We are curs'd with a taste that eats nothing but this:
Nay the song if you left us, a song without food,
Our master will tell you, will do us no good;
He can sing pretty well, but like us in a cage —
And his notes, like his years, are accus'd of old age .
SPARROW .
I am off; and my nature would now be my choice:
I can chirp, though I have not an Opera voice;
For a mate at command, romp with all I can meet;
And for want of a palate all dishes can eat.
CANARY BIRD .
What are you about there, with your foraging bill?
Was Canary-seed made hopping Sparrows to fill?
You'll have dainties forsooth till you're pamper'd and sick,
Though in fields or in hedges a meal you can pick.
SPARROW .
With submission, my Lord, it's no desperate sin
For your chaff and your husk if a beggar puts in;
You're so rich, and so nice, that your taste can afford
What is dropp'd now and then from your plentiful board.
Though I 'm charm'd with your song, though I covet your plumes,
If my homage is bold, if my rapture presumes,
Think what myriads besides are such culprits of yours —
The forbearance of mercy their number ensures .
CANARY BIRD .
With a taste so refin'd you will never offend —
You are no common bird; eat away, my good friend!
Your brown jacket's quite smart, though it wants a lapelle:
It's a very fine day; — you left all at home well?
SPARROW .
Yes, — my wife, or my wives I should rather have said,
Are as well as the wives that in London are bred;
I have married a dozen or two as I came,
But so much was in haste that not one could I name:
The nice dear little bob-tails were pleas'd as we met,
But they left me all mirth, and their husband forget.
CANARY BIRD .
Oh, my dear little rake! how I envy your life,
That whenever you ramble pick up a new wife:
I have no such amusements, but live in parade,
And I sing to be fed by the mistress or maid.
Oh, for nature and freedom! the hedge and the wood!
Independence is wealth, and good spirits are food.
But the wives above all! —
SPARROW .
You shall have them to-morrow —
If your cage in return, and your seed, I can borrow,
But your song and your beauty are mine by the change,
For the charter of air, and the license to range.
CANARY BIRD .
Little merchant! I'll whisper two words in your ear;
We are best as we are; I can make it appear:
Should the cage be left open, and we fly away,
No canary bird female around us can play;
For the want of a maid or a mistress to carve,
In the midst of your berries and fruits we should starve.
You have nature before you, — no dish comes amiss;
We are curs'd with a taste that eats nothing but this:
Nay the song if you left us, a song without food,
Our master will tell you, will do us no good;
He can sing pretty well, but like us in a cage —
And his notes, like his years, are accus'd of old age .
SPARROW .
I am off; and my nature would now be my choice:
I can chirp, though I have not an Opera voice;
For a mate at command, romp with all I can meet;
And for want of a palate all dishes can eat.
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