Anonymous

The loves of a musical student

"By Dis and by Saint Charity.

Alack, and fie for shame!

Young men will do't, if they come to't;

By God they are to blame.

Quoth she, before you tumbled me.

You promised me to web:

So would I ha' done, by yonder sun,

An thou hadst not come to my bed."

Hamlet, Act IV.

As I intend only speaking of those little adventures in which I have been engaged with the fair sex, it would be superfluous were I to enter into a tedious detail of my parentage, schoolboy pranks, or other tittletattle foreign to my present subject; I shall therefore commence with an incident well calculated to prove how absolutely impossible it is ever to erase a first impression from the youthful mind. The circumstance I allude to occurred when I was in the seventh or eighth year of my age; my parents had just finished breakfast, the table was not yet clear of the equipage, and I was standing before the first enjoying the luxury of a plate of well-buttered toast-a treat my father would not indulge me with but on extraordinary occasions. I remember my father was more than usually jocular that morning, and I was ordered by him not to move from the spot where I stood until he called me.