Malapropos
(Rondeau.)
Imitated from the French of Count Anthony Hamilton.
Malàpropos do English wits revive
The Rondeau, which our beauties hear with scorn;
Hide in an extinct form a heart alive,
And woo bright lasses, whom they wish to wive,
Malàpropos, with Gaulish verse outworn.
More fondly would these rosebuds of the morn
Unfold to airs-gay, playful, amative-
Even Astrophel five phrases would contrive—
Malàpropos.
O dazzling youth, to fashion’s follies sworn,
Would you their breasts with love’s sweet pains were torn?
Rondeau and Ballade to the Devil drive;
Use honest English when for them you strive,
Since never to their hearts would thus arrive—
Malàpropos.
G. H. (In “The Lute.”)