The works of Lord Byron A new, revised and enlarged edition, with illustrations. Edited by Ernest Hartley Coleridge and R. E. Prothero |
 | I. |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
| 7. |
 | The works of Lord Byron |  |
Then, hapless Britain! be thy rulers blest,
The senate's oracles, the people's jest!
Still hear thy motley orators dispense
The flowers of rhetoric, though not of sense,
While Canning's colleagues hate him for his wit,
And old dame Portland fills the place of Pitt.
The senate's oracles, the people's jest!
Still hear thy motley orators dispense
The flowers of rhetoric, though not of sense,
While Canning's colleagues hate him for his wit,
And old dame Portland fills the place of Pitt.
A friend of mine being asked, why his Grace of Portland was likened to an old woman? replied, “he supposed it was because he was past bearing.” (Even Homer was a punster —a solitary pun.) His Grace is now gathered to his grandmothers, where he sleeps as sound as ever; but even his sleep was better than his colleagues' waking. 1811.
| The works of Lord Byron | |