Читать книгу The Wit and Humor of America, Volume V - Marshall Pinckney Wilder - Страница 5

Zenobia, they tell us, was a leader born and bred;

Of any sort of enterprise she'd fitly take the head.

The biggest, burliest buccaneers bowed down to her in awe;

To Warriors, Emperors or Kings, Zenobia's word was law.

Above her troop of Amazons her helmet plume would toss,

And every one, with loud accord, proclaimed Zenobia's boss.

The reason of her power (though the part she didn't look),

Was simply that Zenobia had once lived out as cook.

Xantippe was a Grecian Dame—they say she was the wife

Of Socrates, and history shows she led him a life!

They say she was a virago, a vixen and a shrew,

Who scolded poor old Socrates until the air was blue.

She never stopped from morn till night the clacking of her tongue,

But this is thus accounted for: You see, when she was young—

(And 'tis an explanation that explains, as you must own),

Xantippe was the Central of the Grecian telephone.