William Shakspeare.

“Ah sir! not only the mermaid singeth, but the merman sweareth, as another old song will convince you.”

Sir Thomas.

“I would fain be convinced of God’s wonders in the great deeps, and would lean upon the weakest reed like unto thee to manifest his glory.  Thou mayest convince me.”

William Shakspeare.

1.

“’A wonderful story, my lasses and lads,
Peradventure you’ve heard from your grannams or dads,
Of a merman that came every night to woo
The spinster of spinsters, our Catherine Crewe.

2.

      “’But Catherine Crewe
      Is now seventy-two,
   And avers she hath half forgotten
The truth of the tale, when you ask her about it,
And says, as if fain to deny it or flout it,
   “Pooh!  The merman is dead and rotten.”

3.

“’The merman came up as the mermen are wont,
To the top of the water, and then swam upon ’t;
And Catherine saw him with both her two eyes,
A lusty young merman full six feet in size.

4.

      “’And Catherine was frighten’d,
      Her scalp-skin it tighten’d,
And her head it swam strangely, although on dry land;
   And the merman made bold
   Eftsoons to lay hold
(this Catherine well recollects) of her hand.

5.

“’But how could a merman, if ever so good,
Or if ever so clever, be well understood
By a simple young creature of our flesh and blood?

6.

      “’Some tell us the merman
      Can only speak German,
   In a voice between grunting and snoring;
But Catherine says he had learned in the wars
The language, persuasions, and oaths of our tars,
   And that even his voice was not foreign.

7.

“’Yet when she was asked how he managed to hide
The green fishy tail, coming out of the tide
   For night after night above twenty,
“You troublesome creatures!” old Catherine replied,
   “In his pocket; won’t that now content ye?"’”

Sir Thomas.

“I have my doubts yet.  I should have said unto her, seriously, ‘Kate!  Kate!  I am not convinced.’  There may be witchcraft or sortilege in it.  I would have made it a star-chamber matter.”

William Shakspeare.

“It was one, sir.”

Sir Thomas.

“And now I am reminded by this silly, childish song,—­which, after all, is not the true mermaid’s,—­thou didst tell me, Silas, that the papers found in the lad’s pocket were intended for poetry.”

Sir Silas.

“I wish he had missed his aim, sir, in your park, as he hath missed it in his poetry.  The papers are not worth reading; they do not go against him in the point at issue.”