A Metrical History of England Or, Recollections, in Rhyme, Of some of the most prominent Features in our National Chronology, from the Landing of Julius Caesar to the Commencement of the Regency, in 1812. In Two Volumes ... By Thomas Dibdin |
 | I. |
| II. |
 | A Metrical History of England |  |
117
“They call me a foul-feeder.”
Shakespeare.
Shakespeare.
“There's no bottom, none
“In my voluptuousness.
Ibid.
“In my voluptuousness.
Ibid.
HARDICANUTE.
To each unprincely appetite inclined,
Hardy in form, but imbecile in mind;
Two years (too long) he reign'd, when at a feast
The tyrant died, as he had lived, a beast.
A surfeit stopp'd the sensual Caitiff's breath,
And merry England celebrates his death.
Hogstide the anniversary they call
Of that good day which saw the glutton fall.
During his life, his brother from the grave
He dragg'd, and gave his body to the wave;
The wave rejects it, and fraternal crime,
Disturbs the hapless corse a second time.
Earl Godwin joins with sacrilegious hand,
To hurl dead Harold from the shelt'ring land.
Godwin, who, when Prince Edward dares to call,
To answer for young Alfred's timeless fall;
With venal off'ring of a splendid barge
Buys from the shameless King his crime's discharge.
Hardy in form, but imbecile in mind;
Two years (too long) he reign'd, when at a feast
The tyrant died, as he had lived, a beast.
A surfeit stopp'd the sensual Caitiff's breath,
And merry England celebrates his death.
Hogstide the anniversary they call
Of that good day which saw the glutton fall.
During his life, his brother from the grave
He dragg'd, and gave his body to the wave;
The wave rejects it, and fraternal crime,
Disturbs the hapless corse a second time.
Earl Godwin joins with sacrilegious hand,
To hurl dead Harold from the shelt'ring land.
118
To answer for young Alfred's timeless fall;
With venal off'ring of a splendid barge
Buys from the shameless King his crime's discharge.
The Danegelt next provokes the subjects' ire,
Whose 'plaints are answer'd but with sword and fire;
In fine, tho' brief, from crime this reign appears
In two-and-twenty lines as many years.
Whose 'plaints are answer'd but with sword and fire;
In fine, tho' brief, from crime this reign appears
In two-and-twenty lines as many years.
| A Metrical History of England | |