120. Edward Moulton-Barrett (brother) to EBB & Henrietta Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 1, 116–117.
[London]
[March 1821] [1]
To—
Ba and Henrietta
on
their birthday——
I’ve heard, or seen it writ, I know not where,
In Homer, Virgil, Ovid, or Lempriere. [2]
Some give these worthy gentlemen the lie,
And say they dont believe’t, no more do I;
But whether meant in earnest or in fun
It answers still my purpose, and all’s one.
And thus the story runs, one day was found
By prying boy, on tree top or the ground
Hid in a well strawed barn, on thick grown rushes
Perhaps in blackbird’s nest, perhaps in thrushes
A largish egg, (I hope the term is granted
One cannot always find the word that’s wanted
I’d bring authorities of our first shining
Poetic lights, who never stick at coining,)
But to resume the thread of my discourse,
This egg was going to aid the second course,
The ready cook applied the spoon so well,
*That two large babies tumbled from the shell
But Cook enraged (such things were common) waddled
Away in rage and swore the egg was addled
One was called Castor t’other Pollux, this
Is an example which I would not miss;
And therefore do include in this one sheet
The wish I lay at Ba’s and Addle’s feet.
EMB—
*This accident however saved, no doubt,
Alderman Somebody a fit of gout,
Eggs are inflammatory I’ve heard tell
Does Asculapius [3] say so?—no Bell–
Address, on integral page: For / Ba and Co / Hope End / Ledbury.
Publication: None traced.
Source: Transcript in editors’ file.
1. Conjectural dating based on handwriting and these facts: there exists a different birthday ode from Bro to Henrietta for 1820, and Henrietta and EBB were not together at the time of their 1822 birthdays.
2. John Lemprière (1765–1824), compiler of Bibliotheca Classica (1788).
3. Æsculapius, son of Apollo, was the Greek god of medicine and healing.
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