FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146  
147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   >>   >|  
n We may place Boat in his old post again. The way is thus: and well deserves your thanks: Take the three strongest of his broken planks, Fix them on high, conspicuous to be seen, Form'd like the triple tree near Stephen's Green:[6] And, when we view it thus with thief at end on't, We'll cry; look, here's our Boat, and there's the pendant. THE EPITAPH Here lies Judge Boat within a coffin: Pray, gentlefolks, forbear your scoffing. A Boat a judge! yes; where's the blunder? A wooden judge is no such wonder. And in his robes you must agree, No boat was better deckt than he. 'Tis needless to describe him fuller; In short, he was an able sculler.[7] [Footnote 1: A street in Dublin, leading to the harbour.] [Footnote 2: A village near the sea.] [Footnote 3: It was said he died of a dropsy.] [Footnote 4: A cant word for a Jacobite.] [Footnote 5: In condemning malefactors, as a judge.] [Footnote 6: Where the Dublin gallows stands.] [Footnote 7: Query, whether the author meant scholar, and wilfully mistook?--_Dublin Edition._] VERSES OCCASIONED BY WHITSHED'S [1] MOTTO ON HIS COACH. 1724 Libertas _et natale solum:_ [2] Fine words! I wonder where you stole 'em. Could nothing but thy chief reproach Serve for a motto on thy coach? But let me now the words translate: _Natale solum_, my estate; My dear estate, how well I love it, My tenants, if you doubt, will prove it, They swear I am so kind and good, I hug them till I squeeze their blood. _Libertas_ bears a large import: First, how to swagger in a court; And, secondly, to show my fury Against an uncomplying jury; And, thirdly, 'tis a new invention, To favour Wood, and keep my pension; And, fourthly, 'tis to play an odd trick, Get the great seal and turn out Broderick;[3] And, fifthly, (you know whom I mean,) To humble that vexatious Dean: And, sixthly, for my soul to barter it For fifty times its worth to Carteret.[4] Now since your motto thus you construe, I must confess you've spoken once true. _Libertas et natale solum:_ You had good reason when you stole 'em. [Footnote 1: That noted chief-justice who twice prosecuted the Drapier, and dissolved the grand jury for not finding the bill against him.--_F._] [Footnote 2: This motto is repeatedly mentioned in the Drapier's Letters.--_Scott_.] [Footnote 3: Allan Broderick, Lord Middleton, was then lord-chancellor of Ireland. See the Drapier's Letters, "Prose Works," vi, 135.--
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146  
147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Footnote
 

Drapier

 

Dublin

 

Libertas

 

Broderick

 
Letters
 
estate
 

natale

 
thirdly
 

uncomplying


pension

 

favour

 
invention
 

squeeze

 
translate
 

Natale

 
tenants
 
swagger
 

import

 

Against


dissolved

 

prosecuted

 

finding

 

reason

 

justice

 

Ireland

 

chancellor

 

mentioned

 

repeatedly

 

Middleton


fifthly

 
humble
 

vexatious

 

sixthly

 

construe

 
confess
 

spoken

 
Carteret
 

barter

 
fourthly

pendant
 

EPITAPH

 
scoffing
 
blunder
 

wooden

 

forbear

 
gentlefolks
 

coffin

 
deserves
 

strongest