 | 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 | |