Prison thoughts Elegy written in the King's bench: In Imitation of Gray. Lines written on the back of a "horse" and All the World's at Law. By a Collegian [i.e. W. T. Thomas] |
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LINES Written on the Back of a Horse.
A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse.
—Shakespeare.
—Shakespeare.
Mourn, Astley, thy equestrian fame's decline!
Behold a Horse outdoes the best of thine.
A Horse that when in prison we're confined
Enables us to leave its walls behind;
And through the gate, however fast they lock it,
Will carry us, if stabled in the pocket.
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Protects from dun, and bailiff's grievous ill;
Mocking the sheriff and the plaintiff's power,
And making law the fiction of an hour.
Of Canace's horse of brass let Chaucer vapour,
What is't to Brooshooft's gifted horse of paper?
And what th' Arabian's magic horse of wood,
Say, is not our's as wondrous and as good?
Got by Security, out of Legality,
Thro' dint of Poundage, sanctioned by Formality.
It needs nor bit nor spur, nor corn nor hay,
And yet costs four and sixpence every day.
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He had not mourn'd o'er such untimely miss,
As when to feed his nag on nought he tried,
And just accomplish'd it, the day it died.
Ah, wondrous Horse!—fruit of judicial germs,
What pity thy existence has its terms.
Oh, who sufficient in thy praise could say,
Did but thy life endure beyond a day!
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