The Poetical Works of the Right Hon. George Canning Comprising the Whole of his Satires, Odes, Songs, and Other Poems |
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 | The Poetical Works of the Right Hon. George Canning |  |
To thee, proud Barras bows;—thy charms controul
Rewbell's brute rage, and Merlin's subtle soul;
Raised by thy hands, and fashion'd to thy will,
Thy power, thy guiding influence, governs still,
Where at the blood-stain'd board expert he plies,
The lame artificer of fraud and lies
He with the mitred head and cloven heel;
Doom'd the coarse edge of Rewbell's jests to feel ;
To stand the playful buffet, and to hear
The frequent ink-stand whizzing past his ear;
While all the five directors laugh to see
“The limping priest so deft at his new ministry.”
Rewbell's brute rage, and Merlin's subtle soul;
Raised by thy hands, and fashion'd to thy will,
Thy power, thy guiding influence, governs still,
Where at the blood-stain'd board expert he plies,
The lame artificer of fraud and lies
He with the mitred head and cloven heel;
Doom'd the coarse edge of Rewbell's jests to feel ;
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The frequent ink-stand whizzing past his ear;
While all the five directors laugh to see
“The limping priest so deft at his new ministry.”
For instance, in the course of a political discussion Rewbell observed to the Ex-bishop—“that his understanding was as crooked as his legs”—“Vil Emigre, tu n'as pas le sens plus droit que les pieds,”—and there withal threw an inkstand at him. It whizzed along, as we have been informed, like the fragment of a rock from the hand of one of Ossian's heroes:—but the wily apostate shrunk beneath the table, and the weapon passed over his innocuous and guiltless of his blood or brains.
| The Poetical Works of the Right Hon. George Canning | |