ON A WORM-EATEN EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE IN A NOBLEMAN'S LIBRARY.

THROUGH and through th' inspired leaves,

Ye maggots make your windings;
But oh! respect his lordship's taste,
And spare the golden bindings.

BURNS.

FROM ALPHA TO OMEGA.

ONE fault I cannot bear, poetic sinning,
Thy verses have, and that is the beginning.
But this great fault, in some sort to amend,
They have one excellence, and that's the end.

SATIRICAL.

HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. ?

CHARLES THE SECOND AND ROCHESTER.

CHARLES THE SECOND, in a gay moment, asked Rochester to write his Epitaph; which he did immediately, as follows:

HERE lies the mutton-eating King,
Whose word no man relied on;
Who never said a foolish thing,
Nor ever did a wise one.

CHARLES, who could always relish a joke, on being shown this Epitaph, wrote the following comment upon it:

Ir death could speak, the King would say,

In justice to his crown,

His acts, they were the ministers',

His words, they were his own!

ON SIR WALTER RALEIGH.

O HADST thou served the heroine all thy days,
Had Heaven from storms of envy screened thy bays;
Hadst thou still flourished in a warlike reign,
Thy sword had made a conquest like thy pen!
But nought to such untimely fate could bring
The valiant subject, but a timorous King.

ON A PICTURE

GIVEN by Henry IV. to the Chevalier d'Aubigny, who had done him essential services:

BEHOLD how services by kings are paid!

They take in substance, and they give in shade.

ON DRYDEN.

DRYDEN, in immortal strain,
Had raised the table-round again,

But that a ribald king and court

Bade him toil on, to make them sport;
Demanded for their niggard pay,

Fit for their souls, a looser lay,

Licentious satires, song and play:

The world defrauded of the high design,

Profaned the God-given strength, and marred the lofty line.

WALTER SCOTT.

THE TRIAL OF QUEEN CAROLINE.

ON HEARING IT ASSERTED THAT QUEEN CAROLINE HAD NOT RECEIVED

A FAIR TRIAL.

'TIS false:-the trial of the Queen was fair,
Therefore, another time pray change your story;
Of Law and Justice she has had her share,
For everything brought forward was PER-JURY.

SINGULAR COINCIDENCE.

THE examination of the witnesses against Queen Caroline commenced amidst a storm of thunder and lightning, and it concluded at the moment of an eclipse of the Sun. These singular coincicidences gave rise to the following epigram:

WHEN Gifford commenced his attack on the Queen,
Loud rattled the thunder, red lightnings were seen;
When Copley summed up all he'd proved had been done,
'Twas almost a total eclipse of the Sun;

In the whole of the case, we may clearly remark,
Accusation in thunder, and proof in the dark.

THE ADDRESS OF THE CORPORATION OF COVENTRY

TO QUEEN ELIZABETH.

WE men of Coventry

Are very glad to see

Your Royal Majesty:

Good Lord! how fair you be!

HER MAJESTY'S ANSWER.

My Royal Majesty

Is very glad to see

Ye men of Coventry:

Good Lord! what fools ye be!

THE TWO ADMIRALS.

AN Epigram written on the occasion of the freedom of the City of London being presented to the celebrated Admirals Keppel and Rodney in February 1780. To the one it was given in an oak box, to the other in a gold one.

"YOUR wisdom, London's council, far

Our highest praise exceeds;

In giving each illustrious tar

The very thing he needs.

For Rodney brave, but low in cash,
Your golden gifts bespoke:

To Keppel rich, but not so rash,

You gave a heart of oak.”

LORD WELLINGTON AND THE MINISTERS, 1813.

So gentle in peace Alcibiades smiled,

While in battle he shone forth so terribly grand,
That the emblem they graved on his seal was a child
With a thunderbolt placed in its innocent hand.
Oh, Wellington! long as such ministers wield

Your magnificent arm, the same emblem will do ;
For, while they're in the council and you in the field,
We've the babies in them, and the thunder in you.

MOORE.

THE CONGRESS AT VIENNA.

IN cutting, and dealing, and playing their cards,
Revoking and shuffling for tricks and rewards,

The kings have been changed into knaves, and the rest
Of the honours have either been lost or suppress'd.

ON THE EARL OF CHATHAM AND SIR RICHARD STRAHAN, LEADERS OF THE UNFORTUNATE WALCHEREN EXPEDITION.

THE Earl of Chatham with his sword drawn,

Was waiting for Sir Richard Strahan;

Sir Richard, burning to be at 'em,

Was waiting for the Earl of Chatham.

ON A RUNAWAY SOLDIER WHO WORE A RING.

WHY doth a golden ring thy finger grace?
Soldier, thy foot had been a fitter place;
For that, thou know'st, bestead thee better far
Than both thy hands, but lately in the war.

SIR THOS. MORE.

WHIG AND TORY.

WHIG and Tory scratch and bite,
Just as hungry dogs, we see:
Toss a bone 'twixt two, they fight;
Throw a couple, they agree.

LINES FROM MR. GARRICK TO A NOBLEMAN WHO
ASKED HIM IF HE DID NOT INTEND BEING
IN PARLIAMENT.

MORE than content with what my labours gain,

Of public favour, though a little vain,
Yet not so vain my mind, so madly bent,
To wish to play the fool in Parliament;
In each dramatic unity to err,

Mistaking time and place and character.
Were it my fate to quit the mimic art,
I'd "strut and fret" no more in any part;
No more in public scenes would I engage,
Or wear the cap and mask on any stage.

TO WARREN HASTINGS.

HASTINGS! I knew thee young, and of a mind,
While young, humane, conversable, and kind;
Nor can I well believe thee, gentle then,
Now grown a villain, and the worst of men.
But rather some suspect, who have oppressed
And worried thee, as not themselves the best.

COWPER.

ON EDMUND BURKE, FOR HIS HOSTILITY TO WARREN

HASTINGS.

OFT have we wondered that on Irish ground
No poisonous reptile has e'er yet been found;
Revealed the secret stands of Nature's work,
She saved her venom to create a Burke.*

"VOX ET PRÆTEREA NIHIL."

"I WONDER if Brougham thinks as much as he talks," Said a punster, perusing a trial;

66

I vow, since his lordship was made Baron Vaux,
He's been Vaux et præterea nihil."

* Burke was a native of Ireland, and was the most active and persevering of all Warren Hastings' enemies in a trial which lasted seven years.

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