Judge, 1906-12-22 · page 15 of 48
Judge — December 22, 1906 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous illustrated poem by Franklin P. Adams about a failed romance. The narrative follows Mary Bell through a romantic courtship (shown in the dream-like top panel with cherubs and moonlight) to domestic disappointment (the middle panel showing a couple in an ordinary home setting) to her solitary departure (bottom panel). The satire mocks Victorian romantic ideals—the gap between love's poetic promises ("breathed a deep and deathless vow") and mundane reality. The poem is structured as a villanelle, a formal poetic constraint, which underscores the irony: high literary form applied to a banal domestic letdown. The "Frau" reference suggests she married a German, possibly satirizing cross-cultural marriages or suggesting she fled to Europe to escape her disappointment. The final line admits the artist (or Adams) cannot adequately explain what went wrong—implying marriage's mysteries are beyond explanation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The love affair of Mary Bell, How, 'neath the charm of Cupid's spell, Did not, if I may say so, jell; Who breathed a deep and deathless vow, Each thought respectively of " Thou," And why—tts plain to reason now— Is pictured by this villanelle. Is pictured by this villanelle. Is pictured by this villanelle. ‘ 6 Onnarian love he proffered well, In course of time it so befell Dear reader, | am loath to tell And spoke of, "underneath the bough," That, after two years as a Frau, Just what the artist meant, and how The love affair of Mary Bell. The love affair of Mary Bell The love affair of Mary Bell 's pictured by this villanelle. FRANKLIN P. ADAMS. comicbooks.com