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.
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