Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The History of Johnny Quæ Genus The Little Foundling of the Late Doctor Syntax. A Poem by the Author of the Three Tours.
    The History of Johnny Quæ Genus The Little Foundling of the Late Doctor Syntax. A Poem by the Author of the Three Tours.
    The History of Johnny Quæ Genus The Little Foundling of the Late Doctor Syntax. A Poem by the Author of the Three Tours.
    Ebook369 pages3 hours

    The History of Johnny Quæ Genus The Little Foundling of the Late Doctor Syntax. A Poem by the Author of the Three Tours.

    By Willam Combe and Thomas Rowlandson

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 26, 2013
    The History of Johnny Quæ Genus The Little Foundling of the Late Doctor Syntax. A Poem by the Author of the Three Tours.

    Related to The History of Johnny Quæ Genus The Little Foundling of the Late Doctor Syntax. A Poem by the Author of the Three Tours.

    Related ebooks

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Odd Jobs

      Jul 19, 2017

      Odd Jobs
      3 min read

    • Article

      Bard In The Woods

      Nov 30, 2020

      Bard In The Woods
      4 min read

    • Article

      HERNAN BAS New and Recent Work

      Dec 15, 2018

      HERNAN BAS New and Recent Work
      6 min read

    • Article

      THE BLACK SPIDER Part Two

      Oct 30, 2019

      THE BLACK SPIDER Part Two
      25 min read

    • Article

      In The Garden Of The Fugitives

      May 18, 2018

      In The Garden Of The Fugitives
      24 min read

    • Article

      Cul-de-Sac

      Dec 1, 2021

      That old rage for order: how my father drove a square mouthed mower over-and-back, over-and-back, each row of neatly trimmed grass cut just like he told his barber: boy’s short, regular. O pioneer, taming this joke bit of prairie, no bindweed or dog

      5 min read

    • Article

      Four Of A Kind

      May 3, 2023

      Four Of A Kind
      4 min read

    • Article

      It’s Come to This

      Sep 1, 2021

      It’s Come to This
      16 min read

    • Article

      “Soonest Mended”

      Sep 6, 2017

      “Soonest Mended”
      3 min read

    • Article

      Time, That Gentleman Caller

      Jun 13, 2022

      Time, That Gentleman Caller
      3 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Sep 4, 2018

      In London. England. Who knows why?Perhaps this rumpled guyFrom central casting or a page of Dickens.He’s taking ordinary usTo haunts of the illustrious,Where even dull pulse quickens. A red felt hat’s dark fingered brim,Food-spotted vest are—him.A mo

      4 min read

    • Article

      People Are Strange

      Oct 13, 2019

      People Are Strange
      5 min read

    • Article

      Ritual and Renewal

      Sep 24, 2019

      Ritual and Renewal
      4 min read

    • Article

      A holiday INDOORS

      Apr 7, 2021

      “You’ll have probably noticed that there’s been very little mention on this page during the past year of lockdowns and respiratory disease and bubbles and masks and toilet roll shortages and quarantine, and illicit Darby and Joan club meetings being

      3 min read

    • Article

      Spellcheck

      Jan 1, 2019

      Whose history I do not know. I do know I’ve been e-upbraided for my fast and loose spelling of Woden, the god whose last worshipper must have slipped under the sod during the medieval period, somewhere in the 10th century—imagine those bog-soaked des

      5 min read

    • Article

      On Aging

      Mar 1, 2022

      On Aging
      9 min read

    • Article

      Any Given Day

      Mar 29, 2021

      Any Given Day
      11 min read

    • Article

      Woman About Town

      Jul 28, 2022

      Woman About Town
      5 min read

    • Article

      Notes From A Nothing

      Feb 14, 2020

      Notes From A Nothing
      13 min read

    • Article

      The Courage To Be Happy

      Feb 1, 2023

      MARRIAGE and columns have this in common: you tend to repeat yourself. More than once in these pages, I have quoted the New Yorker’s legendary film critic Pauline Kael. After President Nixon’s landslide victory in 1972 she wrote: ‘I live in a rather

      3 min read

    • Article

      DULCE DOMUM From The Wind In The Willows

      Nov 1, 2022

      DULCE DOMUM From The Wind In The Willows
      11 min read

    Reviews for The History of Johnny Quæ Genus The Little Foundling of the Late Doctor Syntax. A Poem by the Author of the Three Tours.

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The History of Johnny Quæ Genus The Little Foundling of the Late Doctor Syntax. A Poem by the Author of the Three Tours. - Willam Combe

      Project Gutenberg's The History of Johnny Quæ Genus, by William Combe

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: The History of Johnny Quæ Genus

             The Little Foundling of the Late Doctor Syntax. A Poem by

                    the Author of the Three Tours.

      Author: William Combe

      Illustrator: Thomas Rowlandson

      Release Date: March 10, 2013 [EBook #42299]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF JOHNNY QUÆ GENUS ***

      Produced by Chris Curnow, Mary Akers and the Online

      Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This

      file was produced from images generously made available

      by The Internet Archive)

      THE ILLUSTRATED POCKET LIBRARY

      OF PLAIN AND COLOURED BOOKS

      THE HISTORY OF

      JOHNNY QUÆ GENUS

      What various views of our uncertain State

      These playful, unassuming Rhymes relate!

      Anon

      Drawn by Rowlandson

      Quæ Genus on his Journey To London.

      THE HISTORY

      OF

      JOHNNY QUÆ GENUS

      THE LITTLE FOUNDLING OF

      THE LATE DOCTOR SYNTAX

      A POEM BY THE AUTHOR OF

      THE THREE TOURS

      WITH TWENTY-FOUR

      COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS

      BY THOMAS ROWLANDSON

      A NEW EDITION

      METHUEN & CO.

      LONDON

      1903

      NOTE

      THIS Issue is founded on the Edition

      published by R. Ackermann in the

      year 1822

      HISTORY

      OF

      QUÆ GENUS, ETC.

      THE favour which has been bestowed on the different Tours of Doctor Syntax, has encouraged the Writer of them to give a History of the Foundling, who has been thought an interesting Object in the latter of those Volumes; and it is written in the same style and manner, with a view to connect it with them.

      This Child of Chance, it is presumed, is led through a track of Life not unsuited to the peculiarity of his Condition and Character, while its varieties, as in the former Works, are represented by the Pencil of Mr. Rowlandson with its accustomed characteristic Felicity.

      The Idea of an English Gil Blas predominated through the whole of this Volume; which must be considered as fortunate in no common degree, if its readers, in the course of their perusal, should be disposed to acknowledge even a remote Similitude to the incomparable Work of Le Sage.

      The AUTHOR.

      PREFACE

      THIS prolonged work is, at length, brought to a close.—It has grown to this size, under rare and continuing marks of public favour; while the same mode of Composition has been employed in the last, as in the former Volumes. They are all equally indebted to Mr. Rowlandson's talents.

      It may, perhaps, be considered as presumption in me, and at my age, to sport even with my own Dowdy Muse, but, from the extensive patronage which Doctor Syntax has received, it may be presumed that, more or less, he has continued to amuse: And I, surely, have no reason to be dissatisfied, when Time points at my eightieth Year, that I can still afford some pleasure to those who are disposed to be pleased.

      The AUTHOR.

      May 1, 1821.

      LIST OF THE PLATES

      THE HISTORY

      OF

      JOHNNY QUÆ GENUS

      OR

      The Foundling of Doctor Syntax

      CANTO I

      JOHNNY QUÆ GENUS! what a name

      To offer to the voice of Fame!

      (Though she 'tis hop'd may condescend

      To act as Little Johnny's friend)

      This may be said, when first the eye

      Does, by a careless glance, descry

      The striking range of marshall'd words

      Which a gay Title-Page affords.

      But what's a name, as Shakespeare says,

      It neither gives nor lessens praise;

      Adds no fresh odour to the rose,

      Nor any other flower that blows:

      Whether with rare or common name

      The fragrance will be just the same.

      'Tis not a title can confer

      The good or ill of character,

      Howards have been both beat and bang'd,

      And some with ancient names been hang'd:

      Look at a ship with convicts stor'd

      What noble names are oft on board!

      It is the living, current course

      Or of the better or the worse,

      That stamps, whate'er may be the name,

      Or with a good or evil fame.

      But howsoe'er the thing we view

      Our little Johnny's title's new:

      Or for the child or for the man,

      In an old phrase, 'tis spick and span.

      But such is life's uncertain hour,

      And such is fate's tyrannic power,

      That while our comforts smile around

      The fatal dart inflicts the wound:

      Thus e'er another month was past

      Syntax, alas! had breath'd his last.

      Whene'er he heard the widow sigh

      Quæ Genus wept he scarce knew why:

      Of a kind friend fate had bereft him,

      And an odd name was all he left him.

      His urchin fancy only thought

      As his enquiring mind was taught,

      That his adopted sire was gone

      Where the good go to worlds unknown,

      To happy regions plac'd on high

      Above the blue and starry sky,

      Where, he was with the hope endued,

      That he should go, if he were good.

      Here, gentle reader, here begins

      The account of our young Hero's sins:

      But all which thus far form'd his fate,

      Quæ Genus will himself relate,

      And what truth bids him to rehearse,

      My hum-strum Muse records in verse.

      in search of service

      Drawn by Rowlandson

      Quæ Genus, in search of Service.

      Quæ Genus.

      "'Tis the first time I e'er applied

      To ask your counsel for my guide:

      But strange events have brought me here,

      And at your desk I now appear,

      But not without the means to pay,

      For all you do and all you say.

      And here, good Sir, there's no concealing

      We must be cautious in our dealing:

      I want employment that will give

      Means to be honest and to live.

      Such is my warm, heart-felt desire,

      Such is the boon I now require,—

      And if you do my wishes aid,

      I tell you Sir,—you shall be paid."

      Sticking his pen behind his ear

      And with a keen enquiring leer,

      Sharpsight the curious figure view'd,

      And thus the important talk pursued.

      Sharpsight.

      Quæ Genus.

      Sharpsight appear'd to look astray,

      But still he took a glance that way.

      I'm not, he said, to be beguil'd;

      Though when he glanc'd that way, he smil'd,

      And, turning to the other side,

      In a calm, soften'd tone replied.

      Sharpsight.

      "Here money is not that way earn'd,

      My reputation is concern'd;

      But still I can my duty do,

      And strive to be a friend to you.

      Sir Jeff'ry Gourmand you may suit;

      A Knight renown'd, of high repute,

      As all who know his name can tell,

      For being rich and living well;

      A gen'rous man, but full of whim,

      And you may be the thing for him:

      In such a way your

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1