[Printed offprint of poem by J. H. Nightingale.] The "Four Liverpool Merchants" and their Letter to the Hempror Napoleon.

On one side of a piece of paper 27.5 x 11.5 cm. Text, in small type, clear and complete. Fair, on aged and lightly-creased paper. 48 lines of verse in 12 four-line stanzas, each followed by the refrain 'Singing ri-too-ral, &c.' A Victorian spoof on semi-literacy, with the 'Air' given as 'Movement in 4 Flats' by Beethoven, and the poem described at the head as 'A poem of intense interest, about four great unbeknowns, a horgust personage, two past their prime ministers, peace and war, commerce and politics, and all that sort of thing.' First stanza reads ' 'Tis of four bold merchants I'm going for to tell | (Which their b'isness 'tis brokers, as is known very well), | They was coming from Manchester when the weathyer was cold, | Having sold but little cotton for Silvier or Gold, | Singing ri-too-ral, &c.' Nightingale, whose papers are in Liverpool Central Library, corresponded with Dickens, and is described by E. L. Blanchard as having 'Died at Shepherd's Bush, in his fifty-fifth year, JH Nightingale, late of Liverpool. He was buried in Brompton Cemetery ; this was the once popular Joe Nightingale, the Liverpool correspondent, who brought up on the stage Miss Millicent.' Scarce: no copy in the British Library or on COPAC.