The Works of Thomas Love Peacock | ||
206
ADDRESS SPOKEN BY LIEUTENANT LASCELLES,
PREVIOUS TO THE COMEDY OF JOHN BULL, OR AN ENGLISHMAN'S FIRESIDE;
PERFORMED BY THE OFFICERS OF H.M.S. VENERABLE
Good friends! kind spectators! and countrymen brave!Who guard Britons' rights on the foam-crested wave!
Our endeavors to-night your attention require
To a tale of John Bull and his family fire.
John Bull is a compound of firmness and wildness
Blending courage with feeling, and spirit with mildness;
To those who embrace him he gives a good greeting;
To those who insult him he gives a good beating;
And proves that John Bull, wheresoever he goes,
Has a hand for his friends and a fist for his foes.
Again for our scenes we those ensigns display,
Which triumph'd with Duncan on Camperdown's day:
And should the proud foe, on the wide-rolling main,
Bid the Ven'rable wave them in battle again,
Victorious again o'er the deep she shall ride,
And bring one trophy more to John Bull's fireside.
The Works of Thomas Love Peacock | ||