“’Twas in the middle of the night,
To sleep Young William tried;
When Mary’s Ghost came stealing in,
And stood at his bed-side.”
“O William dear! O William dear!
My rest eternal ceases;
Alas! my everlasting peace,
Is broken into pieces.”
“I thought the last of all my cares,
Would end with my last minute;
But though I went to my
long
home,
I did not stay
long
in it.”
“The body-snatchers they have come,
And made a snatch at me;
It’s very hard them kind of men,
Won’t let a body be.”
[Pg 4]
You thought that I was buried deep,
Quite decent to the eye;
With roses growing o’er my grave,
In
Dr-mm-nd’s Rosary
.
But William dear, my rest was short,
It was not very chary;
Them boney-men, they did march in,
And bone away your Mary.
I wish you’d speak to Mr. D.
Who owes the
patent
ground;
And tell him that his
patent
graves,
Are neither safe nor sound.
I vow that his
new
land-of-tombs,
Made so genteel and pretty;
Is not a bit more safer than,
Old
Tombland in the City.
Alas! it is a joint-stock-thing,
The shares are down so
low
;
E’re long they’ll break up all the
banks
,
Of
Dr-mm-nd, Son & Co.
[Pg 5]
My tender body was pack’d-up,
And in a sack did go;
To be a
little
body at,
Sir Dalley’s
great depôt.
I was cut up as
Stratford
was,
And
Y-ll-ly
from Carrow;
Came stealing in—and stole away,
My brains and spinal-marrow.
I vow’d that you should have my hand,
But fate gives us denial;
You’ll find it there at Doctor
Wr-ght’s
,
In spirits and a phial.
How very hard my William dear,—
How very hard the loss is;
That both my legs should have to walk,
The Surgery at
Cr-ss’s
.
And that my arms,—the tender arms,
That now in death do part us;
Should both of them be taken down,
To dwell at Doctor
C-rt-r’s
.
[Pg 6]
As for my eyes,—the lovely eyes,
That once beam’d from their sockets;
You’ll find them both at Mr.
H-ll’s
,
In his
large
breeches-pockets.
My very skull was lent to
St-rk
,
Without any apology;
And all my lumps and bumps he found,
That are in Craniology.
But when my skull came back from St-rk,
That clever
organ-finder
;
It was found out that
Cr-wc—r
had,
Pluck’d out—every grinder.
As for my feet,—the little feet,
You used to call so pretty;
There’s one I know at the
Town-close
,
The t’other’s in the
city
.
The
Pupils
dear, them sweet young men,
I vow they wrote on vellum;
A letter to the Doctors
big
,
And got my cerebellum.
[Pg 7]
As for my hair—the auburn hair,
You used to love so well;
Alas! it’s gone to deck the head,
Of
lovely Mrs. B-ll
.
My very liver and my lungs,
E’en them were not forgot;
But given to them cruel men,
Long J-hns-n
and
Page Sc-tt
.
I thought I should have lost a rib,
And many other stores;
But Doctor
Ev-ns
took instead,
A
rib
from Brazen-doors.
To say where my soft kidneys are,
The
Newspapers
will tell;
Therefore you need not ring at night,
At “Doctor
Engl-nd’s
Bell.”
To boil me down—did Doctor
Pure
,
Affirm
’twould be a sin;
And then Old
J-rv-s
wink’d his eye,
And
swore
he’d tan my skin.
[Pg 8]
I can’t tell where my head is gone,
But
M-lls
and
N-ch-ls
can;
Also my trunk which is to go,
By
M-n-ym-nt’s
night-van.
I wish you’d go to Mr. M.
And save me such a ride;
“I don’t half like the
outside
place,
They’ve took for my
inside
.”
“The cock it crows—I must be gone!
My William we must part!
But I’ll be yours in death—altho’
Sweet N-rg-te
has my heart.”
“Don’t go to weep upon my grave,
And think that there I be;
They hav’n’t left an atom there,
Of my
anatomie
.”
