WHICH WILL, UNDER ITS VARIOUS HEADS, REFER THE READER TO THE FOLLOWING DESCRIPTION Embellished with a humourous characteristic Frontispiece, and Twenty-nine Wood-cuts, designed by VOL. III. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY JONES AND CO. TEMPLE OF THE MUSES (Late Lackington's), FINSBURY SQUARE; AND MAY BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS. 1828. INTRODUCTION. THE rapid and extensive sale, accorded by an indulgent public to the UNIVERSAL SONGSTER, prompts the compiler of these pages to offer his most grateful acknowledgements to the patrons of lyric poetry and harmony on the completion of this third volume of his undertaking. As the provider of an ample feast endeavours to store his banquet with viands suited to every taste, it is confidently hoped that some effusions have been found calculated to gratify the most dainty or fastidious appetite. The love-stricken heart,-the mind attuned to moody melancholy,--the lofty spirit panting for naval or military glory,—the wit,— the bon vivant,-the votary of Bacchanalian mirth, as well as the advocate for broad humour, fun, and gig,—all may alike find food to satisfy desire, though he stood in need of a repast even more profuse than that prepared by an Heliogabalus. In short, no source has been neglected for the supply of variety of matter, nor any pains spared in its selection; a toil amply compensated by the liberal patronage enjoyed, affording the most convincing testimony of having acquired favour. In order, therefore, to support that credit so firmly established, it is our intention to suspend, for a time, the continuance of THE MUSEUM OF MIRTH, until a sufficient store of novelty shall have appeared to create additional zest, as a redundancy of old or hacknied effusions might tend to blunt the keen edge of appetite, and thereby prove detrimental to the volumes already extant. In one respect the compiler is certainly placed in a far more enviable situation than that enjoyed by any of his brother scribes; for, if what the divine bard says be true, and who dares dispute the words of Shakspeare when he asserts- The man that hath not music in his soul, Or is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils?— Then none such have we to fear, since warblers only patronise our toil ; whereas, in other walks of literature, the unharmonious snarling critic is ever ready to let fly his gall-tipped shafts and seal the trembling votary for perdition. To the humane children of harmony, therefore, we again present the meed of heart-felt gratitude, and until the opening of a fresh vocal choir, on the commencement of a fourth volume of our Songster, at a future period, the editor concludes by quoting his favourite motto, as applicable to all good friends, SING WE IN HARMONY APOLLO'S PRAISE. |