Mirth and Metre :: :: University of Virginia Library

Of all the various caps which fit the heads of various people,
Or round, or square, or long, or short, with squat crown, or with steeple,
None, Spanish, Danish, French, or Dutch, Greek, Portuguese, or Persian,
Can equal one of which I'll sing, and that's a bold assertion;
And Heaven rest his honest soul, to whose account we place it,
And horns and head-ach be his lot, whoever shall disgrace it!

120

'Tis not the velvet cap of grave philosophers I hint at,
Nor yet the beauty's cap, when cock'd, which beaux so often squint at;
Who fancies I the fool's cap mean, must lack that thing y'clip'd head;
That cap, at times by all worn—present company excepted.

Spoken.]

No, no; the cap I mean has the virtue, when worn by a fool, to make him a wise man; while a wise man cuts a very foolish figure without it.]

And Heaven, &c.

'Tis not the scholar's trencher cap, stuff'd full of Greek and Latin,
Nor yet the cap of cardinals, which friars get so fat in;
'Tis not the famous wishing cap, in story book you read of,
Nor yet the cap of maintenance, which most folks stand in need of.

Spoken.

[Yet 'tis a cap without which we should have nothing worth maintaining.]

And Heaven, &c.

'Tis not the jockey cap, tho' peers as graceful oft conceive it;
Peers jockey now and then, they say; but, Lord! I can't believe it.
He must be either fool or knave; as likely both together,
Who in their caps of dignity would stick so foul a feather.

Spoken.

[Perhaps you think I mean the cap of nobility; no, no; it is a cap of greater dignity still.]

And Heaven, &c.

121

But now to end my wondrous theme, and make you understand too,
What cap I mean, which other caps must all come capin-hand to;
I mean, what can a Briton's heart more fast than dearest fibre tie,
That blessing life's a blank without, the English Cap of Liberty?”
And Heaven, &c.