Ready of wit, hardened of impudence,
Able with ease to put down either Haines,
Both the King's player,[1] and King's evidence;
Flippant of talk, and voluble of tongue,
With words at will, no lawyer better hung;
Softer than flattering court-parasite,
Or city trader, when he means to cheat,
No calling or profession comes amiss;
A needy monsieur can be what he please,[2]
Groom, page, valet, quack, operator, fencer,
Perfumer, pimp, Jack-pudding, juggler, dancer:
Give but the word, the cur will fetch and bring,
Come over to the Emperor, or King;
Or, if you please, fly o'er the pyramid,
Which Johnston and the rest in vain have tried.
’Can I have patience, and endure to see
The paltry foreign wretch take place of me,
Whom the same wind and vessel brought ashore,
That brought prohibited goods, and vices o'er?
Then, pray, what mighty privilege is there
For me, that at my birth drew English air?
And where's the benefit to have my veins
Run British blood, if there's no difference
'Twixt me and him, the statute freedom gave,
And made a subject of a true-born slave?
'But nothing shocks, and is more loathed by me,
Than the vile rascal's fulsome flattery;
By help of this false magnifying glass,
A louse or flea shall for a camel pass;
Produce an hideous wight, more ugly far
Than those ill shapes which in old hangings are,
He'll make him straight a beau garçon appear;
- ↑ Joe Haines, the actor, who went over to the church of Rome, and afterwards made his recantation in a white sheet on the stage.
- ↑ Obsequious, artful, voluble, and gay,
On Britain's fond credulity they prey. . . . . .
All sciences a fasting monsieur knows,
And bid him go to hell to hell he goes.—London.
