" "Proceed, son," said the Pope; "we will not be deterred from providing for the public weal by the ribaldry of a ratcatcher.

Blasphemy and ribaldry in every quarter.

He mistakes ribaldry for wit, though nothing is more unlike; and believes himself to be the finer man the filthier he talks, as if he were above civility as fanatics are above ordinances, and held nothing more shameful than to be ashamed of anything.

But what he saw must surely have completely reassured him; there was no suggestion of unseemly ribaldry about the young lad who had been busy laying out the table with spoons and mugs, and was at this moment vigorouslysomewhat ostentatiously, perhapspolishing a carved oak chair, bending to his task in a manner which fully accounted for the high color in his cheeks.

The mob, for it was that now, bore him with jeers and jokes and ribaldry along the edge of the park.

Not coyly did she give this, with inciting, blushing implications, but rather with an unbending, disapproving sternness, as if with intent to divert the minds of her listeners from the song's frank ribaldry to its purely musical values.

Neither could this self-complacent feeling be much allayed, by the vague and abusive ribaldry with which his satire was repaid.