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Poems on Several Occasions

In Two Volumes. By Mr. Joseph Mitchell

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[Ye Commons and Peers]
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


228

[Ye Commons and Peers]

I

Ye Commons and Peers,
Pray lend me your Ears,
I sing how a Serjeant was bit.
Let Men of the Law
An Inference draw,
And learn from a Ballad some Wit.

II

To Westminster-Hall,
Where Wranglers caball,
And Godliness seldom is Gain;

229

One Day came a Peasant
With Eggs of a Pheasant,
In Manner most simple and plain.

III

A Sergeant at Law,
Renown'd for his Maw,
And exquisite Gusto in Feeding,
Soon eyeing the Eggs,
The Rate of 'em begs,
No Trick of a Countryman dreading.

IV

Without mincing Words,
The Price he affords,
And Home with the Cargo hies Then.
Half dress'd up outright,
He eat with Delight,
And half he set under a Hen.

230

V

But mark, in Conclusion,
The Serjeant's Confusion,
When, 'stead of the delicate Fowls,
Out broke from the Shell
(As true as I tell)
A Brood of most ominous Owls.