Moll of Wapping: An Eastern Tale

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Introduction

Anonymous. “Moll of Wapping: An Eastern Tale.” The Snob: A Literary and Scientific Journal 1.4 (1829): 25.


Transcription

Article IV. Moll of Wapping.

(See PDF Version)

But she, unconscious of her breathing sweetness, strode firmly on, and already had she passed o’er half her tedious journey, unseeing and unseen, when suddenly a voice, rough as a door-mat, swept, like the parish-scavenger, all down the street, and in harsh accents broke upon her ear, “Go it, my kiddy,—you’re the ticket, though I says it as should’nt,—cut along my rum un, never say die.” These were the sounds that rolled their undulating existence through the atmosphere of tangible disgust, and started Molly from her reverie. She, turning round, three whiffs of heartfelt exultation gave, for she perceived that, trotting on his five-and-forty shilling freeholder, came sooty Dobbs. But let me pause a moment, while

“I vainly try to tell

“The thousand graces of this covish swell.”

A cap, which always “puzzled the wig,”[1] as Hamlet has it, so many hair-breadth escapes did it allow, covered half his capillary excrescences.;[2] the other half, like many late M.P.’s*[3] had deserted their constituents, and stood on end in beautiful irregularity; of this quality likewise his nose partook, for two-thirds down it bore the impress of Rome and nobleness, but then at once it changed its course, and became not gradually and without hesitation, but suddenly and with decided promptitude, a decided turn-up,—it would have seemed as if aspiring to catch the dews and breezy softness of heaven, had not, in the sublime words of Milton,

“Its hairy sides “With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild, “Access denied.” [4]

to all that dared approach its sacred penetralia. How stupendous! How magnanimous the change! Well might his nose swell with the vanity of liberalism; well might his eyes dwell with the squint of continued delight on this interesting instance of nasal independence.

(To be continued.)

Notes

  1. ↑ From Hamlet III.I: “no traveler returns—puzzles the will.”
  2. ↑ Excresence, n.: An unattractive or superfluous addition or feature, often caused by disease. (OED)
  3. ↑ Modern perriwigs.—Printer’s devil. (Original Footnote). “M.P.” traditionally stands for “Member of Parliament.”
  4. ↑ See Milton, Paradise Lost, 4.5-7


Edited by: Seeley, Amanda: Section 1, Winter 2013


From: Volume 1, Issue 5 (The Snob: A Literary and Scientific Journal)

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