The Age Reviewed A Satire: In two parts: Second edition, revised and corrected [by Robert Montgomery] |
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 | The Age Reviewed |  |
“How sinecures and Germans plunder me;
Around my borrowed purse the world is met,—
The greatest donor with the greatest debt!
To me, all princely vagabonds resort,
And well I cram the minions of my court;
Wet-nurse for aliens, and their toading trains,
I waste my mint and desolate my plains;
While beastly eunuchs, if they twirl and squall,
Pipe on the stage, or straddle at a ball,
From my domain may pick voluptuous fare,
And pocket thousands for a gargled air!
And grunting Malthus beckon to the Line;
Deluded, drain'd, my rev'nue ebbing fast,
Morals corrupt, and English manners past,
While grooms have rose companions for my peers,
And half my ministry wear asses' ears,—
I've paid to burst each bubble as it pass'd,
And so I shall till one myself at last!”
May we presume to ask why a certain miserly prince is paid yearly the enormous sum of £50,000? Is it on account of a late connubial connexion so honourable to him?—he would then shew but decent gratitude in distributing a little of the lavished money over that country, which he, with a whole posse of sinecured gentry, is yearly helping to beggar.
While famine was raging throughout the poorer classes—while half a million of Britons were literally swooning through starvation, in the public streets,—the papers announced, that some of the nobility were soliciting Signor Velluti to condescend to return for £3,000 to pipe at the Opera House for another season!! Condescend!! —Heaven preserve us from Italian condescension! Query: How was it that this same Signor eunuch condescended to attempt to cheat the English ladies that sang for his benefit? It seems the country was not quite so meanly sluggish to allow this to pass unresented: he was properly hooted from it by the public hate.
| The Age Reviewed | |