ses
May live to change our strain;
And turn, with merry hearts, our tune,
Upon some happy tenth of June,
To "the king enjoys his own again."
[Footnote 1: Dr. Pratt's speech, which is here parodied, was made when
the Duke of Ormond, Swift's valued friend, was attainted, and superseded
in the office of chancellor of Trinity College, which he had held from
1688-9, by the Prince of Wales, afterwards George II.
There is great reason to suppose that the satire is the work of Swift,
whose attachment to Ormond was uniformly ardent. Of this it may be
worth while to mention a trifling instance. The duke had presented to
the cathedral of St. Patrick's a superb organ, surmounted by his own
armorial bearings. It was placed facing the nave of the church. But after
Ormond's attainder, Swift, as Dean of St. Patrick's, received orders from
government to remove the scutcheon from the church. He obeyed, but
he placed the shield in the great aisle, where he himself and Stella lie
buried, and where the arms still remain. The verses have suffered much
by the inaccuracy of the noble transcriber, Lord Newtoun Butler.
The original speech will be found in the London Gazette of Tuesday,
April 17, 1716, and Scott's edition of Swift, vol. xii, p. 352. The
Provost, it appears, was attended by the Rev. Dr. Howard, and Mr. George
Berkeley, (afterwards Bishop of Cloyne,) both of them fellows of Trinity
College, Dublin. The speech was praised by Addison, in the Freeholder,
No. 33.--_W. E. B._]
[Footnote 2: The Rev. Dr. Pratt had been formerly of the Tory party; to
which circumstance the phrase, "from this day well-affected,"
alludes.--_Scott._]
[Footnote 3: The statutes of the university enjoin celibacy.--_Scott_.]
[Footnote 4: The provost was a most constant attendant at the levees at
St. James's palace.--_Scott_.]
[Footnote 5: The see of Killaloe was then vacant, and to this bishopric
the Reverend Dr. George Carr, chaplain to the Irish House of Commons,
was nominated, by letters-patent.--_Scott_.]
[Footnote 6: Alluding to the sullen silence of Oxford upon the
accession.--_Scott_.]
[Footnote 7: This is spelled Chloe, but evidently should be Clio; indeed,
many errors appear in the transcription, which probably were mistakes of
the transcriber.--_Scott._]
AN EXCELLENT NEW SONG[1]
ON A SEDITIOUS PAMPHLET. 1720-21
To the tune of "Packington's Pound."
Brocades, and damasks, and tabbies, and gauzes,
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