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The Poems of Charles Sackville

Sixth Earl of Dorset: Edited by Brice Harris

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 I. 
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 IV. 
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My Opinion
  
  
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55

My Opinion


56

After thinking this fortnight of Whig and of Tory,
This to me is the long and the short of the story:
They are all fools and knaves, and they keep up this pother
On both sides, designing to cheat one another.
Poor Rowley, whose maxims of state are a riddle,
Has plac'd himself much like the pin in the middle;
Let which corner soever be tumbl'd down first,
'Tis ten thousand to one but he comes by the worst.
'Twixt brother and bastard, those Dukes of renown,
He'll make a wise shift to get rid of his crown;
Had he half common sense, were it ne'er so uncivil,
He'd have had 'em long since tipp'd down to the Devil.
The first is a Prince well fashion'd, well featur'd,
No bigot to speak of, not false nor ill-natur'd;
The other for government can't be unfit,
He's so little a fop and so plaguy a wit.
Had I this soft son and this dangerous brother,
I'd hang up the one and I'd piss on the other;
I'd make this the long and the short of the story:
The fools might be Whigs, none but knaves should be Tories.