English

IV

1

Ye nymphs, the charge is royal,
Which you must convey;
Your hearts and hands employ all,
Hasten to obey;
When earth is grown disloyal,
Show there's honour in the sea.

2

Sports and pleasures shall attend you
Through all the watery plains,
Where Neptune reigns:
Venus ready to defend you,
And her nymphs to ease your pains.

II

1 Apollo .

All hail, ye royal pair!
The gods' peculiar care:
Fear not the malice of your foes,
Their dark designing
And combining
Time and truth shall once expose:
Fear not the malice of your foes.

2

My sacred oracles assure
The tempest shall not long endure,
But when the nation's crimes are purged away
Then shall you both in glory shine,
Propitious both, and both divine,
In lustre equal to the god of day.

I

1 Albion .

Then Zeal and Commonwealth infest
My land again;
The fumes of madness that possessed
The people's giddy brain,
Once more disturb the nation's rest,
And dye rebellion in a deeper stain.

2

Will they at length awake the sleeping sword,
And force revenge from their offended lord?
How long, ye gods, how long
Can royal patience bear
Th' insults and wrong
Of madmen's jealousies and causeless fear?

3

Full twenty years and more our labouring stage
Has lost on this incorrigible age:
Our poets, the John Ketches of the nation,
Have seemed to lash ye, ev'n to excoriation;
But still no sign remains, which plainly notes
You bore like heroes, or you bribed like Oates.
What can we do, when mimicking a fop,
Like beating nut trees, makes a larger crop?
Faith, we'll e'en spare our pains, and to content you
Will fairly leave you what your maker meant you.
Satire was once your physic, wit your food,

III Thames .

Old father Ocean calls my tide,
" Come away, come away";
The barks upon the billows ride,
The master will not stay;
The merry boatswain from his side
His whistle takes to check and chide
The lingering lads' delay,
And all the crew aloud has cried,
" Come away, come away".

See the god of seas attends thee,
Nymphs divine, a beauteous train,
All the calmer gales befriend thee
In thy passage o'er the main;
Every maid her locks is binding,

Ladies! (I hope there's none behind to hear)
I long to whisper something in your ear,
A secret which does much my mind perplex:
There's treason in the play against our sex.
A man that's false to love, that vows and cheats,
And kisses every living thing he meets!
A rogue in mode, I dare not speak too broad,
One that does something to the very bawd.
Out on him, traitor, for a filthy beast!
Nay, and he's like the pack of all the rest;
None of 'em stick at mark: they all deceive;
Some Jew has changed the text, I half believe,

What further befell on that magic night
When the goddess and I were together
I will tell you more fully when winter is past,
In the warm, sweet summer weather.

The smug old race of hypocrites
Is passing away, thank God! now;
The disease of lies is killing it off;
It is sinking beneath the sod now.

A new generation is growing apace,
By rouge and sin untarnished,

The goddess hastened and made me the tea,
And then with the rum she braced it;
As for herself, she drank the rum
And left the tea untasted.

She leaned on my shoulder — the mural crown
Which adorned her head so neatly
Became, in consequence, rather crushed,
And she said to me low and sweetly,

" I have often thought with misgiving sore,
What a pity that dear man tarries

The town, which was half destroyed by fire,
They are building at their leisure.
It looks like a half-shorn poodle now,
Depressing beyond measure.

And many a street has disappeared
That sadly enough one misses.
Where is the house in which I kissed
Love's first and sweetest kisses?

And where has the printing-office gone
Where I printed my Reisebilder?
The shop where I tasted oysters first?

I was roused for a while from uneasy sleep
By the chaise that jolted and lumbered;
But my lids were heavy, and, dreaming again,
I returned to the cave as I slumbered.

We walked about through the echoing halls
With interest unflagging.
The Kaiser was anxious to hear the news,
And learn how the world was wagging.

Not a rumour had reached him for many a year,
And he begged me to report all;