SONNET approach'd (to mourn his dismal fate)
Who still could walk and speak, for he'd a harder pate.
Down on the speechless man his eye he cast,
Compar'd his present state with glory past,
And (hiccupping,) in interrupted strains,
Thus of his loss unspeakable complains:
Oh! son of jollity, how art thou sunk!
On the flat floor, mute, motionless, and drunk!
Ah! what avail thy gay, convivial powers,
(Thou boon companion of my social hours!)
Thy fun, thy stories, thy high-season'd song*,
And all the jokes of a free-speaking tongue3?
Curs'd be the hand, which (aided by thy wine)
Has laid so low that sacred head of thine".'
-But, Bow-wow shall not welter on his bier,
Without the meed of some melodious tear"!'
No! soon as sober, I'm resolv'd upon it,
I'll wail thy fate in a PATHETIC SONNET."
B. C. page 106.
• Milton: Lycidas.
Still had he wept and sigh'd, but, through the door, RESIN's fresh levies from the card-room pour;
He sees DRAWCANSIR, dark as midnight storm3,
And crown'd with hat of fire-shovel form:
The flame polemic from its summit wreathes,
And everlasting burnings on dissenters breathes9.
On either side their oracle attend
The Gemini', and Gaffer Smut his friend.
Next VEGETABLE comes, trim, smooth, and sleek,
'Fore titled ladies so polite and meek!
Who Fashion's shoes will lick with ready tongue;
But turns with horror from the vulgar throng:
Who clears the altar for the great and gay,
By shoving worthy-bidden guests away.
2 The reader will naturally advert to the line in Lycidas, from whence my uncle borrowed the above; and be reminded at the same time of the
species of church pastors which Milton there describes ;
Such, as for their bellies sake
Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold.
Him follows SKIPPER3, petulant and bold,
Well vers'd, in language fierce, to write or scold;
Not that he issued from the wicked den,
Detested (in his mind) by gods and men*,
Where Gentiles shuffle the infernal pack,
And, greedily, each other's money sack3
No! from the street he'd heard the uproar loud,
And, rushing in, had join'd the card-room crowd.—
Last of the levy comes the gruff MOROSE-
To him, his aid to ask, BILL SONNET goes,
Tells, clearly as he's able, all the matter
Which first excited such infernal clatter:
Of other care they little reckoning make,
Than how to scramble at the shearer's feast,
And shove away the worthy-bidden guest:
Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold
A sheep-hook, or have learn'd aught else the least
That to the faithful herdsman's art belongs!
A term understood by the lower ranks of "Gentlemen of play," to mean the depositing of the contents of one friend's pockets in the pockets of another.
Adds Bow-wow's fall, and RAMROD's desp'rate state;
. Entreats his kind assistance ere too late:
And, the petition sooner to obtain,
Presents his snuff-box with submissive mien:
MOROSE upon the poet turns his eyes,
O'ersets the tortoise-shell, and savagely replies:
“Bl-st your snuff-box! d-n your mull®!
Fill my waistcoat pockets full.
Give me, give me but enough
Of genuine Caledonian snuff;
And I, familiar with the laws,
Will advocate the monarch's cause;
And, by the magic of my tongue,
(Which still can prove that right is wrong;
Or, make it clear, as solar light,
That, vice versa, wrong is right':)
Will once again restore your King,
And back to duty all his subjects bring."
The Scotch call their little horn snuff-boxes, mulls.
Qui facere assûerat―
Candida de nigris, et de candentibus atra.
As bold Mezentius the gods defied3,
And, in the midst of impious boastings, died;
So, while MOROSE's mouth with oaths is full,
DICK SABLE's arm descended on his skull;
Cursing he fell, and press'd the groaning floor:
Walls, roof, and orchestra, rebellow to his roar.
So falls the ox, and yells with dreadful sound,
When smitten by the butcher to the ground.
And (suddenly bereav'd of sense and strength)
The slaughter-house half covers with his hairy length'.
Whilst some with triumph, some with horror, saw
Th' unlook'd-for downfall of the Man of Law,
Shouts, curses, groans, and agonizing cries,
From every quarter of the room arise;
The fiddlers frighten, and astound the skies.
⚫ Sternitur, exanimisque tremens, procumbit humi bos.
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