University of Virginia Library

“'Tis requisite, in your decision,
To give the evidence revision,
And make an honest calculation
Of Capra's worth—in reputation.
Who is this Capra? Horned jury,
'Tis painful business, I assure ye,
To urge enquiries which embrace
A fellow-creature's sad disgrace.
But when a female, dead to shame
Will thus the public notice claim;
When she enlists in such a cause,
Not for the love of virtue's laws,
But for the purpose of destroying
The fame which others are enjoying,
Tis ours the question to pursue....
Who is the prosecutrix?...Who?
On her own statement, she's a beast
Who'll bear an insult well at least;
And live in friendship with the brute
Who treats her like a prostitute;
Conceal his insults from her mate,
For nearly three years after date.
If we can credit her report,
Made here on oath before the court,
She bore with patient resignation
A wrong of deepest aggravation;
Permitted her chaste matron ear
The wrong repeatedly to hear;
Endured a base attempt at force,
And yet pursued her friendly course,
And still the treacherous wretch carest
Who thus profaned her virtuous breast!
Her guardian, too! whose sacred duty
Was not to taste, but guard her beauty,
In whom she saw a fiend of night
Clad in habiliments of light!
It was a crime against her mate,
The partner of her wayward fate;
An insult to her Mammoth king,
From whom our various blessings spring;
And yet, surprising to relate,
She never told her tender mute;
Nor do we hear of such a thing
As her complaining to the king:
The angel still, unknown to evil,
Associated with the devil!
Two years roll'd on, and all was peace,
Her friendship suffered no decrease;
No cloud obscured the atmosphere,
No storm of rage did yet appear;
(And still, 'tis seen by all the jury,
She's got the temper of a fury.)
Why, sirs, the story of this Goat
Will cut her own polluted throat;
It cannot stand....the truth has weight
To make it sink in spite of fate.
'Tis loaded with intrinsic proof,
Either that insult kept aloof,
Or that, if it approach'd her breast,
'Twas there invited and carest.