The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore Collected by Himself. In Ten Volumes |
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THE SONG OF THE BOX. |
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 | The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore |  |
181
THE SONG OF THE BOX.
Let History boast of her Romans and Spartans,
And tell how they stood against tyranny's shocks;
They were all, I confess, in my eye, Betty Martins,
Compar'd to George Gr---te and his wonderful Box.
And tell how they stood against tyranny's shocks;
They were all, I confess, in my eye, Betty Martins,
Compar'd to George Gr---te and his wonderful Box.
Ask, where Liberty now has her seat?—Oh, it isn't
By Delaware's banks or on Switzerland's rocks;—
Like an imp in some conjuror's bottle imprison'd,
She's slily shut up in Gr---te's wonderful Box.
By Delaware's banks or on Switzerland's rocks;—
Like an imp in some conjuror's bottle imprison'd,
She's slily shut up in Gr---te's wonderful Box.
How snug!—'stead of floating through ether's dominions,
Blown this way and that, by the “populi vox,”
To fold thus in silence her sinecure pinions,
And go fast asleep in Gr---te's wonderful Box.
Blown this way and that, by the “populi vox,”
To fold thus in silence her sinecure pinions,
And go fast asleep in Gr---te's wonderful Box.
Time was, when free speech was the life-breath of freedom—
So thought once the Seldens, the Hampdens, the Lockes;
But mute be our troops, when to ambush we lead 'em,
For “Mum” is the word with us Knights of the Box.
So thought once the Seldens, the Hampdens, the Lockes;
182
For “Mum” is the word with us Knights of the Box.
Pure, exquisite Box! no corruption can soil it;
There's Otto of Rose in each breath it unlocks;
While Gr---te is the “Betty,” that serves at the toilet,
And breathes all Arabia around from his Box.
There's Otto of Rose in each breath it unlocks;
While Gr---te is the “Betty,” that serves at the toilet,
And breathes all Arabia around from his Box.
'Tis a singular fact, that the fam'd Hugo Grotius
(A namesake of Gr---te's—being both of Dutch stocks),
Like Gr---te, too, a genius profound as precocious,
Was also, like him, much renown'd for a Box;—
(A namesake of Gr---te's—being both of Dutch stocks),
Like Gr---te, too, a genius profound as precocious,
Was also, like him, much renown'd for a Box;—
An immortal old clothes-box, in which the great Grotius
When suffering, in prison, for views het'rodox,
Was pack'd up incog. spite of gaolers ferocious
,
And sent to his wife , carriage free, in a Box!
When suffering, in prison, for views het'rodox,
183
And sent to his wife , carriage free, in a Box!
But the fame of old Hugo now rests on the shelf,
Since a rival hath ris'n that all parallel mocks;—
That Grotius ingloriously sav'd but himself,
While ours saves the whole British realm by a Box!
Since a rival hath ris'n that all parallel mocks;—
That Grotius ingloriously sav'd but himself,
While ours saves the whole British realm by a Box!
And oh when, at last, ev'n this greatest of Gr---tes
Must bend to the Power that at every door knocks ,
May he drop in the urn like his own “silent votes,”
And the tomb of his rest be a large Ballot-Box.
Must bend to the Power that at every door knocks ,
May he drop in the urn like his own “silent votes,”
And the tomb of his rest be a large Ballot-Box.
184
While long at his shrine, both from county and city,
Shall pilgrims triennially gather in flocks,
And sing, while they whimper, the' appropriate ditty,
“Oh breathe not his name, let it sleep—in the Box.”
Shall pilgrims triennially gather in flocks,
And sing, while they whimper, the' appropriate ditty,
“Oh breathe not his name, let it sleep—in the Box.”
For the particulars of this escape of Grotius from the Castle of Louvenstein, by means of a box (only three feet and a half long, it is said) in which books used to be occasionally sent to him and foul linen returned, see any of the Biographical Dictionaries.
| The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore | |