Click in the field, then press CTRL+C to copy the HTML code
<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=498839" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Jackaw of Rheims, The</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Jackdaw sat on the Cardinal's chair!<br>Bishop, and abbot, and prior were there;<br>Many a monk, and many a friar,<br>Many a knight, and many a squire,<br>With a great many more of lesser degree,--<br>In sooth a goodly company;<br>And they served the Lord Primate on bended knee.<br>Never, I ween,<br>Was a prouder seen,<br>Read of in books, or dreamt of in dreams,<br>Than the Cardinal Lord Archbishop of Rheims!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In and out<br>Through the motley rout,<br>That little Jackdaw kept hopping about;<br>Here and there<br>Like a dog in a fair,<br>Over comfits and cates,<br>And dishes and plates,<br>Cowl and cope, and rochet and pall,<br>Mitre and crosier! he hopp'd upon all!<br>With saucy air,<br>He perch'd on the chair<br>Where, in state, the great Lord Cardinal sat<br>In the great Lord Cardinal's great red hat;<br>And he peer'd in the face<br>Of his Lordship's Grace,<br>With a satisfied look, as if he would say,<br>'We two are the greatest folks here to-day!'<br>And the priests, with awe,<br>As such freaks they saw,<br>Said, 'The Devil must be in that little Jackdaw!'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The feast was over, the board was clear'd,<br>The flawns and the custards had all disappear'd,<br>And six little Singing-boys--dear little souls!<br>In nice clean faces, and nice white stoles,<br>Came, in order due,<br>Two by two,<br>Marching that grand refectory through!<br>A nice little boy held a golden ewer,<br>Emboss'd and fill'd with water, as pure<br>As any that flows between Rheims and Namur,<br>Which a nice little boy stood ready to catch<br>In a fine golden hand-basin made to match.<br>Two nice little boys, rather more grown,<br>Carried lavender-water, and eau de Cologne;<br>And a nice little boy had a nice cake of soap,<br>Worthy of washing the hands of the Pope.<br>One little boy more<br>A napkin bore,<br>Of the best white diaper, fringed with pink,<br>And a Cardinal's Hat mark'd in 'permanent ink.'<br>The great Lord Cardinal turns at the sight<br>Of these nice little boys dress'd all in white:<br>From his finger he draws<br>His costly turquoise;<br>And, not thinking at all about little Jackdaws,<br>Deposits it straight<br>By the side of his plate,<br>While the nice little boys on his Eminence wait;<br>Till, when nobody's dreaming of any such thing,<br>That little Jackdaw hops off with the ring!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There's a cry and a shout,<br>And a deuce of a rout,<br>And nobody seems to know what they're about,<br>But the Monks have their pockets all turn'd inside out.<br>The Friars are kneeling,<br>And hunting, and feeling<br>The carpet, the floor, and the walls, and the ceiling.<br>The Cardinal drew<br>Off each plum-colour'd shoe,<br>And left his red stockings exposed to the view;<br>He peeps, and he feels<br>In the toes and the heels;<br>They turn up the dishes,--they turn up the plates,--<br>They take up the poker and poke out the grates,<br>--They turn up the rugs,<br>They examine the mugs:--<br>But, no!--no such thing;--<br>They can't find THE RING!<br>And the Abbott declared that, 'when nobody twigg'd it,<br>Some rascal or other had popp'd in, and prigg'd it!'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Cardinal rose with a dignified look,<br>He call'd for his candle, his bell, and his book!<br>In holy anger, and pious grief,<br>He solemnly cursed that rascally thief!<br>He cursed him at board, he cursed him in bed;<br>From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head;<br>He cursed him in sleeping, that every night<br>He should dream of the devil, and wake in a fright;<br>He cursed him in eating, he cursed him in drinking,<br>He cursed him in coughing, in sneezing, in winking;<br>He cursed him in sitting, in standing, in lying;<br>He cursed him in walking, in riding, in flying,<br>He cursed him in living, he cursed him in dying!--<br>Never was heard such a terrible curse!<br>But what gave rise<br>To no little surprise,<br>Nobody seem'd one penny the worse!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The day was gone,<br>The night came on,<br>The Monks and the Friars they search'd till dawn;<br>When the Sacristan saw,<br>On crumpled claw,<br>Come limping a poor little lame Jackdaw!<br>No longer gay,<br>As on yesterday;<br>His feathers all seem'd to be turn'd the wrong way;--<br>His pinions droop'd--he could hardly stand,--<br>His head was as bald as the palm of your hand;<br>His eye so dim,<br>So wasted each limb,<br>That, heedless of grammar, they all cried, 'THAT'S HIM!--<br>That's the scamp that has done this scandalous thing!<br>That's the thief that has got my Lord Cardinal's Ring!'<br>The poor little Jackdaw,<br>When the Monks he saw,<br>Feebly gave vent to the ghost of a caw;<br>And turn'd his bald head, as much as to say,<br>'Pray, be so good as to walk this way!'<br>Slower and slower<br>He limp'd on before,<br>Till they came to the back of the belfry door,<br>Where the first thing they saw,<br>Midst the sticks and the straw,<br>Was the Ring in the nest of that little Jackdaw!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then the great Lord Cardinal call'd for his book,<br>And off that terrible curse he took;<br>The mute expression<br>Served in lieu of confession,<br>And, being thus coupled with full restitution,<br>The Jackdaw got plenary absolution!<br>--When those words were heard,<br>That poor little bird<br>Was so changed in a moment, 'twas really absurd.<br>He grew sleek, and fat;<br>In addition to that,<br>A fresh crop of feathers came thick as a mat!<br>His tail waggled more<br>Even than before;<br>But no longer it wagg'd with an impudent air,<br>No longer he perch'd on the Cardinal's chair.<br>He hopp'd now about<br>With a gait devout;<br>At Matins, at Vespers, he never was out;<br>And, so far from any more pilfering deeds,<br>He always seem'd telling the Confessor's beads.<br>If any one lied,--or if any one swore,--<br>Or slumber'd in pray'r-time and happen'd to snore,<br>That good Jackdaw<br>Would give a great 'Caw!'<br>As much as to say, 'Don't do so any more!'<br>While many remark'd, as his manners they saw,<br>That they 'never had known such a pious Jackdaw!'<br>He long lived the pride<br>Of that country side,<br>And at last in the odour of sanctity died;<br>When, as words were too faint<br>His merits to paint,<br>The Conclave determined to make him a Saint;<br>And on newly-made Saints and Popes, as you know,<br>It's the custom, at Rome, new names to bestow,<br>So they canonized him by the name of Jim Crow!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Richard+Harris+Barham">Richard Harris Barham</a><div class=q>
<img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share">
<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=498839" data-title="Jackaw of Rheims, The de Richard Harris Barham" data-description="The Jackdaw sat on the Cardinal's chair!
Bishop, and abbot, and prior were there;
Many a monk, and many a friar,
Many a knight, and many a squire,
With a great many more of lesser degree,--
In sooth a goodly company;
And they served the Lord Prima..."></div>
</div>
</div>