Or East, or West, howe'er the region lies, Then take the warmest wishes of my mindAs your own favours, great and unconfined, May peace and smiling pleasure, hand in hand, Walk the wide limits of your plenteous land! May Gallia curse the day of William's might, And Chesterfield return to bless your sight! [226 GEORGE ALEXANDER STEVENS. 1784. A professional wit, who has often set the town and the table in a roar. His songs are well known, and many of them have wit to recommend them, more than falls to the share of songs in general; but their author has taken great liberties both with language and decency, in most of them. SONG. THE WORMS. Tune, When Strephon to Chloe made love his pretence." KEEP your distance, quoth King, who in lead coffin lay, As beside him they lower'd, a shroudless old Clay, The mendicant carcase replied with a sneer; "Mister Monarch, be still, we are all equal here.. "Life's miseries long I was forced to abide, By the Seasons sore pelted, sore pelted by pride : "And tho' clad in ermine, yet you've been dis trest, "Both our cares now are over, so let us both rest." A committee of worms, manor lords of the grave, Overheard 'em, and wonder'd to hear the dead rave. Quoth the Chairman, "Dare mortals presume thus to prate, "When even we maggots don't think ourselves great? "Insane ostentations, who brag of their births, "Yet are but machines, mix'd of aggregate earths. "They distinctions demand-with distinctions meet, "When we throw by the rich folks, as not fit to eat. They are scurvy compounds of debauch and disease, Putrefactions of sloth, or vice run to the lees, By luxury's pestilence health is laid waste; "And all they can boast is -They're poison'd in taste. "'Tis true, cries Crawlina, the Queen of the 66 worms, They make upon earth immense noise with their forms, "Pon onner, with beauties, tho' so much I deal, "On not one in ten can I make a good meal. "When we chose to regale, on the dainties of charms, "We formerly fed on necks, faces, and arms; "Now varnish envenoms their tainted com plexions, "A fine woman's features spread fatal infections. "Not a worm of good taste, and bon ton, I dare vouch, "A morsel of fashion-made beauties will touch. "A Quality toast we imported last week,— "Two maggots, my servants, dy'd eating her cheek." Very odd, quoth a Critick, worms hold such dis course. Very odd, quoth the Author, that men show'd talk worse. Like Reptiles, we crawl upon earth for a term, Take wing for a-while,-then descend to a worm, Dan Pope declares all human race to be worms; Maids, misers, wives, widows, all maggotty forms, But of worms, and worm-feeding, no more we'll repeat, Here's a glass to the dainty that's made for man's meat. THE WINE VAULT. Tune- The Hounds are all out!' CONTENTED 1 am, and contented I'll be, And a cellar as sociably stored, My brave boys. |