The
Republic of Hamburg was never as great
As of old were Venice and Florence,
But, for oysters, Hamburg has beaten them both—
You get the best from Laurence.
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text .
•
note.
•
•
2
When
Campe and I to his cellar repaired,
'Twas an evening of glorious weather;
On oysters and Rhine wine we went to sup—
To riot in style together.
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text .
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x
3
I
warrant the company gathered there
Was neither sour nor ascetic.
I found old friends like Chaufepie,
And new ones as sympathetic.
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text .
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x
4
There
was Wille, whose face is an album in which
The names of his foes academic
Are legibly writ in the blows and scars
Delivered in wars polemic.
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text .
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x
5
And
Fuchs was among them, a heathen blind,
And a personal foe of Jehovah,
Who believes but in Hegel, and also, perhaps,
In the Venus of Canova.
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text .
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x
6
My
Campe that night was Amphitryon,
He was beaming and gay and pacific.
Like a blessed Madonna he sat and smiled,
Serene and beatific.
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text .
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x
7
I
ate and drank with an appetite good,
And I thought to myself, as I watched him,
"This Campe is really a first-rate man;
What publisher ever matched him?
dt
text .
8
"Who
knows ? Another publisher might
Have left me to starve and perish,
But he gives me food, and he gives me wine—
The man is a man to cherish.
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text .
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x
8
"I
thank Thee, Mighty Lord of all,
For the gift of the grape was Thy one;
I thank Thee for making a publisher
Of Campe, and making him my one!
