LIBERTY'S LAST SQUEAK; CONTAINING AN ELEGIAC BALLAD; AN ODE TO AN INFORMER; AN ODE TO JURYMEN; AND CRUMBS OF COMFORT FOR THE GRAND INFORMER. Now farewell to fair Buckingham-House, To Windsor, and Richmond, and Kew! Mother Red-cap, and Monarchs, adieu! LIBERTY'S LAST SQUEAK; AN ELEGIAC BALLAD. FAREWELL, O my Pen and my Tongue! Voweth horrible vengeance on both. No more on a King or a Queen, Apple-dumpling, and Smuggling so sweet, Like their Stomachs your Wit shall be keen; Hogs, Hay, and fat Bullocks, and Wheat. No more upon Smugglers at Court, Mother Schwellenberg, Bulses, and Shawls; Nor at Levees and Drawing-rooms sport, Where Man (the poor sycophant) crawls. The meanness no more of high folk In the Rope of your Satire shall swing; For, behold, there is death in the joke That squinteth at Queen or at King! VOL. III. 2 E Thus untax'd by your satire, my friends, Yes, Folly will prattle and grin, With her scourges Oppression will rise, Since Satire's a damnable Sin, And a sin to be virtuous and wise. But wherefore not laugh at a King, A laugh is a laudable thing, When people are silly and mean. When we paid Civil List without strife, When we paid the old Quack for his cure, When we pray'd at Peg Nicholson's Knife, The King laugh'd at us, to be sure. Even the Minions of Courts will escape; Yes, Satire gets into a scrape, If she takes the four Rogues by the nose. No more must ye laugh at an Ass; No more run on Topers a rig; Since Pitt gets as drunk as Dundas, And Dundas gets as drunk as a Pig. A laugh at a delegate hurts : Yes, 'twere dangerous to hazard your sneers; Now farewell to fair Buckingham House, Mother Red-cap, and Monarchs, adieu! Like Ferrets, since all must be muzzled, |