University of Virginia Library


117

LIBERTY'S LAST SQUEAK;

AN ELEGIAC BALLAD.

Farewel, O my pen and my tongue!
To part with such friends I am loath;
But Pitt, in majorities strong,
Voweth horrible vengeance on both.
No more on a king or a queen,
Apple-dumpling, and smuggling so sweet;
Like their stomachs your wit shall be keen,
Hogs, hay, and fat bullocks, and wheat.
No more upon smugglers at court,
Mother Schwellenberg, bulses, and shawls;
Nor at levees and drawing-rooms sport,
Where man the poor sycophant crawls.
The meanness no more of high folk
In the rope of your satire shall swing;
For, behold, there is death in the joke
That squinteth at queen or at king.
Thus untax'd by your satire, my friends,
Courts smile at th' intended decree;
Thus the reign of poor ridicule ends,
And follies, like shawls, will go free.

118

Yes, Folly will prattle and grin
With her scourges Oppression will rise,
Since satire's a damnable sin,
And a sin to be virtuous and wise.
But wherefore not laugh at a------?
And wherefore not laugh at a------?
A laugh is a laudable thing,
When people are silly and mean.
When we paid civil list without strife,
When we paid the old quack for his cure,
When we pray'd at Peg Nicholson's knife,
The k---laughed at us, to be sure.
Ev'n the minions of courts will escape;
Dundas, Pitt, and Jenky, and Rose,
Yes, Satire gets into a scrape,
If she takes the four R---s by the nose.
No more must ye laugh at an ass;
No more run on topers a rig,
Since Pitt gets as drunk as Dundas,
And Dundas gets as drunk as a pig.
A laugh at a delegate hurts;
Yes, 'twere dangerous to hazard your sneers;
And mock the sweet mercy of courts,
That return'd him his forfeited ears.
Now farewel to fair Buckingham-house,
To Windsor, and Richmond, and Kew;
Farewel to the tale of the Louse!
Mother Red-cap, and Monarchs adieu!
Like ferrets, since all must be muzzled,
(And muzzled indeed we shall be!)
Say Pitt (for I'm grievously puzzled),
May we venture a horse-laugh at thee?