Talk:Lapsus Calami (Apr 1891)/A Political Allegory

Notes

The text is from the first edition of Lapsus Calami. It was dropped from the 3rd, 4th, and 5th editions, but reinstated in the posthumous edition issued by Herbert Stephen. That text has not yet been compared to the present text.

The original version, on pp. 18-23 of A Wreath of Songs by the Cambridge University Lotos Club (Cambridge and London, 1880), is found at Google Books and the Internet Archive.

Once there was a famous nation
With a long and glorious past:
Very splendid was its station,
And its territory vast.
It had gained^[1] the approbation,
The applause and admiration
Of the states who'd had occasion
In a time of tribulation
And of disorganisation^[2]
To observe it standing fast
Without any trepidation,^[3]
Firm and faithful to the last.

Came a time of dire distraction,
Full of terror and despair,
When a delicate transaction
Called for unexampled care;
And^[4] the people were directed,
Both the well and ill affected,^[5]
To a wholly unexpected
And surprising course of action^[6]
Based on motives new and rare
(Being governed by a faction,
As they generally were).

In a little time the nation
Had a chance of saying whether
It and its administration
Seemed inclined to pull together;
And it spoke its mind with vigour:—
"Such disgraceful conduct must
Everlastingly disfigure
Future annals, and disgust
Evermore the candid student:
You have been unwise, imprudent,
Pusillanimous, unjust,
And neglectful of the glory,^[7]
Appertaining to our name
Till this melancholy story
Put a period to our fame."

So this faction, disappointed,
Lost the national good graces,
And their rivals were anointed,^[8]
And were set in the high places.

Pretty soon arose conditions
Most embarrassing and hard,
And the party politicians
Had to be upon their guard.

Illegitimate ambitions,
Democratic rhetoricians,
Persons prone to base submissions,
Men of warlike dispositions,^[9]
And a host of wary foes
Compassed round the ruling faction:
But a certain line of action
They incontinently chose:
And with great determination^[10]
Wrought it out with acclamation,^[11]
Till the national taxation
Not unnaturally rose.

To the nation soon occurred an
Opportunity of saying
What they thought about the burden
Which the government was laying
On their shoulders; and they said it
In uncompromising terms:—
"Your behaviour would discredit
Tigers, crocodiles, or worms.^[12]
You have ruined and disgraced us,
And successfully effaced us
From the proud commanding station,^[13]
Where the zeal and penetration
Of our ancestors had placed us.
Go! we are a ruined nation,
But, before our dissolution
We pronounce your condemnation—
Sappers of our constitution,
Slayers of our reputation!"

But the nation—mark the moral,
For its value is untold—
During each successive quarrel
Grew and prospered as of old.

1. "won" in LC
2. Two lines added here in LC: "Not to mention degradation, / And profound humiliation,
3. LC adds a line: "Or a sign of vacillation,
4. "But" in LC
5. "ill-affected," in LC.
6. LC adds a comma here.
7. LC omits the comma.
8. LC omits the comma.
9. LC adds three lines here: "Wild and wicked statisticians, /
   Metaphysical magicians, / Men inclined to make conditions,".
10. LC adds a comma here along with the line "And extreme discrimination,"
11. LC adds the line "And each other's approbation,".
12. LC replaces the period with a colon.
13. LC omits the comma.