SLPAD - 79 - really quite wonderful

[Michael Bailey]

I've snuff and tobaccy, and excellent jacky,
I've scissors, and watches, and knives;
I've ribbons and laces to set off the faces
Of pretty young sweethearts and wives.

I've treacle and toffee, I've tea and I've coffee,
Soft tommy and succulent chops;
I've chickens and conies, and pretty polonies,
And excellent peppermint drops.

Quoth Buttercup, in her eponymous song.


It’s really quite wonderful, now that I know the reference -

“ there was in her eyes something that might have been a dismayed and
               delayed acknowledgement that what was hazarding this
particular plowboy was deeper
               than any problem of seasonal change or doubtful fertility,
precisely as he had recognized
               earlier that her capacity to give involved nothing over or
above the list of enumerated
               wares: scissors, watches, knives, ribands, laces;”

- to realize that this passage harkens back to the “Buttercup/plow boy”
exchange, & how so much verbiage involving the game that Levine has said
this coupling would be better than has made its way into his thoughts.