DROLLEKIES OF THE WOODS 181 



into their midst ha ! ha ! what a scurrying ! Silence in- 

 stantaneous, and how profound ! 



"Whither have the brave and clamorous champions of the 

 old wood fled ? Gone ! gone ! not a blue coat or a brag- 

 gart top-knot to be seen ah me ! It is a deceitful world, 

 and valor is a most deceitful virtue. 



The Blue Jay is the very Falstaff of heroes, and Jack was 

 never more ready aye faith, than Jay to fight nine knights 

 in Buckram-green, and with his dinted sword to make loud 

 boasts thereof. But our knave has fun in him as well ; 

 therefore we can afford him seeming pardon, for never Merry 

 Andrew took a kick so well. It almost seems a sin to be so 

 serious with him, and yet the fellow has enough of ugly mis- 

 chief in him too. His long list of accomplishments, begin- 

 ning at braggart and poltroon, may most properly be wound 

 up with dandy and thief. He is that very Prince of dandies 

 that, in olden times, was generally called Popinjay, and 

 which has been modernized into Grammont, Brummel, or 

 D'Orsay. He is certainly the most felicitous specimen of the 

 exquisite that ever wore plumes, whether borrowed or not. 

 The natural inference would be, that they were borrowed 

 from his inveterate propensity for pilfering from his neigh- 

 bors, but that the beauty of the plumage which really be- 

 longs to him, relieves him from the imputation of any such 

 necessity. 



See him, of a fine Spring morning, in love-making time ! 

 and oh ! ye comely gallants, ye swash-buckler knights, 

 that haunt about the environs of gay Dan Cupid's court, 

 away with your swelling airs, you fanfaronade of mincing 

 courtesies, and dainty terms ye are all eclipsed away ! 

 The transcendent graces of yon blue-plumed Euphuist of the 

 acorn tree, doth so utterly surpass ye all, that your diminish- 

 ed heads were best hidden now, in very shame. See him 

 raise up and down upon the mossy limb, his gay crest bent 

 in quick and frequent salutation, while a rich, round, thril- 

 ling love-note, rolls liquidly from off his honeyed tongue. 



