VI. Not so did behave Young Hanover brave,* In this bloody field, I assure ye: But fought it on foot like a fury. VII. Full firmly he stood, As became his high blood, VIII. What a racket was here, For by letting 'em win, We have drawn the puts in, To lose all they're worth this campaign. IX. Though Bruges and Ghent To Monsieur we lent, With interest they shall repay 'em; With her sorrowful king, Nunc dimmitis instead of Te Deum. *The Electoral Prince of Hanover, afterwards George II., behaved with great spirit in the engagement, and charged, at the head of the Hanoverian cavalry, the celebrated French household troops with great success. X. From this dream of success, At the sound of great Marlborough's drums, Of Almanza still, But 'tis Blenheim wherever he comes. XI. O Lewis perplexed, Thou hast hitherto changed in vain If no new one's found, XII. We'll let Tallard out, If he'll take t'other bout; And much he's improved, let me tell With Nottingham ale At every meal, And good beef and pudding in belly. XIII. But as losers at play, Their dice throw away, While the winners do still win on; Let who will command, Thou had'st better disband, * ye, For, old Bully, thy doctors are gone. * A cant word for false dice. THE GARDEN PLOT. 1709. WHEN Naboth's vineyard* look'd so fine, To bring the owner to a sale. A king, and weep! The ground's your own; With that she hatch'd a plot, and made Hall, of small scripture conversation, * This seems to allude to some oppressive procedure of the Earl of Wharton. There is, Dr. Barrett remarks, a story something similar in the case of Mr. Proby, surgeon-general of Ireland. Swift had a garden which he used to call Naboth's vineyard. THE VIRTUES OF SID HAMET THE MAGICIAN'S ROD. 1710. WHEN Swift came to London, in 1710, just about the time the ministry was changed, his reception from Lord-Treasurer Godolphin was, as he stated to Archbishop King, "different from what he had received from any great man in his life; altogether short, dry, and morose." To Stella, he owns, that this coldness had so enraged him that he was vowing revenge. The fruits of his resentment was the following lampoon on the treasurer's abdication. It was read at Harley's, on the 15th October, 1710; but was not then suspected to be Swift's. The success of this jeu d'esprit was prodigious. The allusion to Godolphin's family name, Sidney, and to his staff of office, are sufficiently obvious. THE rod was but a harmless wand, Would hiss, and sting, and roll, and twist, But, when he laid it down, as quick So, to her midnight feasts, the hag That, raised by magic of her breech, That, bending down its top, divines To bend where golden mines were hid : The rod of Hermes was renown'd * The virgula divina, said to be attracted by minerals.—SWIFT. + Supposed to allude to the Union.-SWIFT. |