"COX AND BOX."
!TO THE Eurron OF THE "SPECTATOEn Ste,—The following impromptu lines, written by the late Lionel Lewin—a great friend of Sullivan's and a most versatile and amusing fellow—on the occasion of the production of Cox and Box may interest your readers.—I am, Sir, &c.,
E. v. G.
"Aye, destroy the Constitution, Welcome rain, death, and gore, We have seen a revolution Worse than ever Gallia saw, Aye a mighty crime is wroughten Whereat shattered reason rocks, Rise in judgment, J. M. Morton,* Rise and hear of Cox and Box.
Cox was Cox, and Cox a hatter, Box was Box, and Box set type (Box was Buckstone, now grown fatter, Cox was Compton, then less ripe), Summer then might stand for winter,
Morning then be construed nor, Just as soon as Cox be printer,
Just as soon as hatter Box.
Wow—but keep your temper, readers, Though the tidings sting like gnats— Cox is Box and sets the leaders,
Box is Cox and vends the hats, They whose names through time's reverses Stood in glory, Box and Cox, Have been changed, aye • changed at nurses,' And resulted Cox and Box.
And the Bouncer, she the base nu, Lives-no more before our eyes, Artful as the wife of Jason,
Machiavellian in her lies,
• John Haddison Morton, author of Boa and Cu. Belt is she of cap and gown, Sir,
Shorn is she of corkscrew locks, And a male, a Mister Bouncer, Lets the room to Cox and Box.
Sob in sadness, Sullivano, ' Veil, Burnando, veil your head, Ye have wrought this crime—but ah, no, We forgive you all we've said, For your words are 'that amusing,' And your tunes could soften stocks, And—we couldn't dream of losing
This your opera, Cox and Bor."
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