Similar thieves to represent; An army; and a public debt. V. Which last is a scheme of paper money, "Bees,1 keep your wax-give us the honey, VI. There is great talk of revolution- Gin-suicide-and methodism. VII. Taxes too, on wine and bread, And meat, and beer, and tea, and cheese, Who gorge before they reel to bed The tenfold essence of all these. VIII. There are mincing women, mewing, * One of the attributes in Linnæus's description of the Cat. To a similar cause the caterwauling of more than one species of this genus is to be referred; except, indeed, that the poor quadruped is compelled to quarrel with its own pleasures, whilst the biped is supposed only to quarrel with those of others. [SHELLEY'S NOTE.] 1 I have followed Mr. Rossetti in placing the inverted commas before : Bees in Mrs. Shelley's editions they are before keep. Of their own virtue, and pursuing IX. Lawyers-judges-old hobnobbers Are there-bailiffs-chancellors— X. Things whose trade is, over ladies To lean, and flirt, and stare, and simper, Grows cruel, courteous, smooth, inhuman, XI. Thrusting, toiling, wailing, moiling, Each with never-ceasing labour, XII. And all these meet at levees; Dinners convivial and political;— * What would this husk and excuse for a virtue be without its kernel prostitution, or the kernel prostitution without this husk of a virtue? I wonder the women of the town do not form an association, like the Society for the Suppression of Vice, for the support of what may be called the "King, Church, and Constitution" of their order. But this subject is almost too horrible for a joke. [SHELLEY'S NOTE.] 1 I have followed Mr. Rossetti in in- note of interrogation, not in Mrs. serting, at the end of this line, the Shelley's editions. Suppers of epic poets;-teas, Breakfasts professional and critical; XIII. Lunches and snacks so aldermanic That one would furnish forth ten dinners, Lest news Russ, Dutch, or Alemannic Should make some losers, and some winners ;—1 XIV. 1 At conversazioni-balls Conventicles and drawing-rooms- XV. And this is Hell-and in this smother By none other are they damned. XVI. 'Tis a lie to say, "God damns!"? Where was Heaven's Attorney General They are mines of poisonous mineral. 1 There is no stop here in Mrs. Shelley's editions. This libel on our national oath, and this accusation of all our countrymen of being in the daily practice of solemnly asseverating the most enormous falsehood, I fear deserves the notice of a more active Attorney General than that here alluded to. [SHELLEY'S NOTE.] XVII. Statesmen damn themselves to be Cursed; and lawyers damn their souls. To the auction of a fee; Churchmen damn themselves to see God's sweet love in burning coals. XVIII. The rich are damned, beyond all cure, Stripe on stripe, with groan on groan. XIX. Sometimes the poor are damned indeed To take, not means for being blest,But Cobbett's snuff, revenge; that weed From which the worms that it doth feed Squeeze less than they before possessed. XX. And some few, like we know who, Damned-but God alone knows why To believe their minds are given To make this ugly Hell a Heaven; In which faith they live and die. XXI. Thus, as in a town, plague-stricken, Each man be he sound or no Must indifferently sicken; As when day begins to thicken, None knows a pigeon from a crow, XXII. So good and bad, sane and mad, The oppressor and the oppressed; Those who weep to see what others Smile to inflict upon their brothers; Lovers, haters, worst and best; XXIII. All are damned-they breathe an air, Each pursues what seems most fair, In throned state is ever dwelling. |