Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 8.djvu/210

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200
SWIFT’S POEMS

Just Heaven! to see the dunghill bastard brood
Survive in thee, and make the proverb good[1]?
Then vote a worthy citizen[2] to jail,
In spite of justice, and refuse his bail!"






ON A PRINTER'S[3] BEING SENT TO NEWGATE.


BETTER we all were in our graves,
Than live in slavery to slaves;
Worse than the anarchy at sea,
Where fishes on each other prey;
Where every trout can make as high rants
O'er his inferiours, as our tyrants;
And swagger while the coast is clear:
But, should a lordly pike appear,
Away you see the varlet scud,
Or hide his coward snout in mud.
Thus, if a gudgeon meet a roach,
He dare not venture to approach;
Yet still has impudence to rise,
And, like Domitian, leap at flies.

    a certain party then prevailing, and since known by the title of parsonhunters, petitioned the house against him; out of which he was turned upon pretence of bribery, which the paying of his lawful debts was then voted to be.

  1. "Save a thief from the gallows, and he will cut your throat."
  2. Mr. George Faulkner. See the following verses. — Mr. Serjeant Bettesworth, a member of the Irish parliament, having made a complaint to the house of commons against the "Satire on Quadrille," they voted Faulkner the printer into custody (who was confined closely in prison three days, when he was in a very bad state of health, and his life in much danger) for not discovering the author.
  3. Mr. Faulkner.

THE