University of Virginia Library


20

TO THE ACADEMICIANS.

SUPPOSE you paint the Dev'l with smiling mien,
Whisp'ring deceit to any king or queen,
'Tis what the prince of soot hath often done—
For lo, with many a king and many a queen,
In close confab the gentleman is seen—
With such hath Satan oft a world of fun—
More fun, or diadems are much bely'd,
Than all the little under world beside.
The Dev'l's a fellow of much sterling humour,
If we may credit public rumour,
And all so civil in each act and look,
That whensoever we incline
On some rare dish of sin to dine,
We can't employ a nicer cook.
Who, too, so generous disdains
To take a sixpence for his pains—.
Nay, at our money would be vext;
Happy to please us gratis with his art,
Provided, when from this world we depart,
We join his fire-side in the next.
Like Gloucester, who for pay can leave his party,
Some years ago I join'd his corps so hearty,
Thinking the Prince of Erebus ill treated:
Fir'd by the subject, in my rhiming mode
I complimented Satan with an ode,
Which, for the brushmen's sake, shall be repeated.