Prison thoughts :: :: University of Virginia Library

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]

Moncrieff, W. T. (1794-1857)

[epigraph]

[section]

ELEGY WRITTEN In the Ring's Bench Prison.

The Warrant.

LINES Written on the Back of a Horse.

ALL THE WORLD'S AT LAW.

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LINES Written on the Back of a Horse.

A Day Rule, granted from day to day to Debtors, so that they may travel beyond the Gate or Rules, but only in Term time. It is called a “Horse” among the Professors and Amateurs of the Surrey College.

A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse.
—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.

Which, strange to tell, its hunted master still
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.

Ah, had the Frenchman had a horse like this,
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!

University of Virginia Library

LINES Written on the Back of a Horse. A Day Rule, granted from day to day to Debtors, so that they may travel beyond the Gate or Rules, but only in Term time. It is called a “Horse” among the Professors and Amateurs of the Surrey College.

LINES Written on the Back of a Horse.

A Day Rule, granted from day to day to Debtors, so that they may travel beyond the Gate or Rules, but only in Term time. It is called a “Horse” among the Professors and Amateurs of the Surrey College.