George Colman the Younger

Johnson's style was grand and Gibbon’s elegant; the stateliness of the former was sometimes pedantic, and the polish of the latter was occasionally finical. Johnson marched to kettle-drums and trumpets. Gibbon moved to flutes and hautboys. …

Mynheer Vandunck, though he never was drunk, Sipped brandy and water gayly.

As the lone Angler, patient man, At Mewry-Water, or the Banne, Leaves off, against his placid wish, Impaling worms to torture fish

Three stories high, long, dull, and old, As great lords' stories often are.

And what's impossible can't be, And never, never comes to pass.

His heart runs away with his head.

Says he, 'I am a handsome man, but I'm a gay deceiver.'

Thank you, good sir, I owe you one.

'Tis a very fine thing to be father-in-law To a very magnificent three-tailed Bashaw!

And, on the label of the stuff, He wrote this verse; Which one would think was clear enough, And terse:— When taken, To be well shaken.

But when ill indeed, E'en dismissing the doctor don't always succeed.

On their own merits modest men are dumb.

Not to be sneezed at.

Oh, London is a fine town, A very famous city, Where all the streets are paved with gold, And all the maidens pretty.

Lord help you! Tell ’em Queen Anne's dead.

Praise the bridge that carried you over.

My father was an eminent button maker — but I had a soul above buttons — I panted for a liberal profession.