| Citation |
VGW(HU.774.136
29 Dec 1774:13, 21 (1221)
Reflections on the Absurdity, Folly, and Inconsistency, of
various fashionable Customs and Ceremonies practised in
publick and private Companies.
. . . [2 columns criticising social customs, of drinking
healths at tables, etc]
There is yet another custom, which of all others tires the
senses and stupefies the fancy. This is the absurd parade
of asking some pouting miss to sing, who will bear teazing
for a full hour before she complies, and then. in a most
wretched squall, she disturbs your ears for an hour; for
when once set off she rattles away like the clack of a mill,
while all the company are under the necessity of praising
this screaming devil for the very torture she had given
them.
Others again are plaguing some ass of a fellow for a song,
who begins braying in a most dissonant tone, without one
requisite to please; and if you do not keep renew at your
solicitations for the continuance of his noise, he thinks
himself used very ill.
There is a set of fellows in this town who have a few
songs ready cut and dried, and are uneasy until they have
shot them off upon the company. Primrose Billy is a kind of
this kidney; he has no conversation, so that all the
entertainment which you can promise yourself in his company
is the songs that he gives you. These you must keep
demanding, until he has twittered away all his stock. . . so
that you act under the necessity of proceeding from ballad
to ballad till your coach relieves you.
What ear, ye sirens, can endure the pest
Of a man roaring like a storm at west?
Or who can bear, that hath an ear at all,
To hear some Hoyden miss for evenings squall!
. . . [2 more lines]
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