The Works of Richard Owen Cambridge Including several pieces never before published: with an account of his life and character, by his son, George Owen Cambridge |
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 | The Works of Richard Owen Cambridge |  |
301
VERSES
OCCASIONED BY THE MARRIAGE AND GAME ACT, BOTH PASSED THE SAME SESSION.
THE Parliament rose, and Miss Jenny came down
To the seat in the country, quite sick of the town.
She stroll'd all alone to partake the sweet air
In the grove, with the nightingale, linnet, and hare.
Oh! puss I rejoice beyond measure to meet
My companion again in this happy retreat.
To the seat in the country, quite sick of the town.
She stroll'd all alone to partake the sweet air
In the grove, with the nightingale, linnet, and hare.
Oh! puss I rejoice beyond measure to meet
My companion again in this happy retreat.
I was sadly afraid—but no poacher will dare,
From henceforward, be seen with a gun or a snare.
While here I indulge a contemplative life
You may skip to the sound of my pastoral fife.
Then frisk it securely; for your preservation
Is, at present, the principal care of the nation.
Oh! Miss, quoth the hare, you are none of those friends
Who in acting for others consult their own ends:
But I fear, let me tell you, those associators
Will be found to our kindred the worst of all traitors.
'Tis true they protect from the jaws of the clown
The poor innocent game they devote to their own.
And I fear, if some squeamish fantastical glutton
Should turn up his nose at your beef or your mutton,
Your father would order a hare to be shot,
And, as chance might decree, your poor friend go to pot.
Oh! brittle condition of friendship so frail,
So rare to establish, so subject to fail!
How plain to foresee my unfortunate end!
Has the law any better secured me my friend?
(The law which would never till now see a crime in
The most private mysterious secrets of Hymen)
By this Act you are safe from each amorous spark,
From the Ensign, the Curate, the Butler, the Clerk;
But the first booby 'Squire that shall knock at your gate,
With a crack'd constitution and mortgaged estate,
Shall transform (then adieu the poor pastoral life)
The contemplative nymph to a mope of a wife:
With your fortune redeem his confiscated lands,
And your father the foremost to publish the banns.
From henceforward, be seen with a gun or a snare.
While here I indulge a contemplative life
You may skip to the sound of my pastoral fife.
Then frisk it securely; for your preservation
Is, at present, the principal care of the nation.
Oh! Miss, quoth the hare, you are none of those friends
Who in acting for others consult their own ends:
302
Will be found to our kindred the worst of all traitors.
'Tis true they protect from the jaws of the clown
The poor innocent game they devote to their own.
And I fear, if some squeamish fantastical glutton
Should turn up his nose at your beef or your mutton,
Your father would order a hare to be shot,
And, as chance might decree, your poor friend go to pot.
Oh! brittle condition of friendship so frail,
So rare to establish, so subject to fail!
How plain to foresee my unfortunate end!
Has the law any better secured me my friend?
(The law which would never till now see a crime in
The most private mysterious secrets of Hymen)
By this Act you are safe from each amorous spark,
From the Ensign, the Curate, the Butler, the Clerk;
But the first booby 'Squire that shall knock at your gate,
With a crack'd constitution and mortgaged estate,
Shall transform (then adieu the poor pastoral life)
The contemplative nymph to a mope of a wife:
With your fortune redeem his confiscated lands,
And your father the foremost to publish the banns.
| The Works of Richard Owen Cambridge | |