An enthusiastic French student of Shakspeare thus comments on the tragedy of Macbeth:--
"Ah! your Mossieu' Shak-es-pier! He is gr-r-aand--mysterieuse--sooblime! You 'ave reads ze Macabess--ze scene of Mossieu' Macabess vis ze Vitch--eh? Superb sublimitee! W'en he say to ze Vitch, 'Ar-r-roynt ye, Vitch!' she go away; but what she say when she go away? She say she will do s'omesing dat aves got no naame! Ah, ha! she say, 'I go, like ze r-r-aa-t vizout ze tail, but I'll do! I'll do!' W'at she do? Ah, haviola le graand, mysterieuse Mossieu' Shak-es-pier! She not say what she do!"
This was "grand," to be sure; but the prowess of Macbeth, in his "bout" with Macduff, awakens all the mercurial Frenchman's martial ardor:--
"Mossieu' Macabess, he see him come, clos' by: he say (proud empressement), 'Come-o-o-n, Mossieu' Macduffs, and d----d be he who first say enuffs!' Zen zey fi-i-ght-moche. Ah, ha! voila! Mossieu' Macabess, vis his br-r-ight r-r-apier, 'pink' him, vat you call, in his body. He 'ave gots mal d'estomac: he say, vis grand simplicite, 'Enoffs!' What for he say 'Enoffs'? 'Cause he got enoffs--plaanty: and he expire r-right away, mediately, pretty quick! Ah, mes amis, Mossieu' Shak-es-pier is rising man in La Belle France!"
"I was born in Indiany," said a stranger lank and slim, As us fellers in the restaurant was kind o' guyin' him, And Uncle Jake was slidin' him another pun'kin pie And a extra cup o' coffee, with a twinkle in his eye,-- "I was born in Indiany, more'n forty year ago; And I hain't been back in twenty, and I'm workin' back'ards slow; "But I've et in every restarunt 'twixt here and Santa Fee, And I want to state, this coffee tastes like gittin' home to me! "Pour us out another, daddy," says the feller, warmin' up, A-speakin' 'crost a saucerful, as uncle tuck his cup. "When I seed yer sign out yender," he went on to uncle Jake,-- "'Come in and git some coffee like your mother used to make,'-- I thought of my old mother and the Posey-county farm, And me a little kid agin', a-hangin' on her arm; And she set the pot a-bilin', broke the eggs, and poured 'em in"-- And the feller kind o' halted with a trimble in his chin. And uncle Jake he fetched the feller's coffee back, and stood As solemn, for a minute, as a undertaker would.