The Age Reviewed A Satire: In two parts: Second edition, revised and corrected [by Robert Montgomery] |
| I. |
| II. |
| The Age Reviewed | ||
Ye tinkling twisters of malignant rhyme,
Ye Hunts and Cobbetts who purvey for crime,
Ye Shiels and Connells—all ye remnant vile,
That lie for lucre, and subsist on guile,—
Can aught of patriotic fervour grace
The heart-corruptions of your reptile race?
Will the foul frothings of ignoble spite
Protect your country, or the freeman right?
Go!—dip your nasty quills in Grub-Street mire,
Traduce for malice, and lampoon for hire;
Cling to the cursed columns that ye scrawl,
Like bloated beetles on a slime-lick'd wall,—
There mask the foulness of your covert aim,
And strut in all the energy of shame!
Ye Hunts and Cobbetts who purvey for crime,
98
That lie for lucre, and subsist on guile,—
Can aught of patriotic fervour grace
The heart-corruptions of your reptile race?
Will the foul frothings of ignoble spite
Protect your country, or the freeman right?
Go!—dip your nasty quills in Grub-Street mire,
Traduce for malice, and lampoon for hire;
Cling to the cursed columns that ye scrawl,
Like bloated beetles on a slime-lick'd wall,—
There mask the foulness of your covert aim,
And strut in all the energy of shame!
| The Age Reviewed | ||