ANNALS
ON TYBURN
Oh Tyburn! coud’st thou Reason and Dispute;
Coud’st thou but Judge as well as Execute;
How often would’st thou change the Felon’s Doom,
And truss some stern Chief-Justice in his room?
Then should thy sturdy Posts support the Laws,
No Promise, Frown, nor popular Applause,
Shou’d sway the Bench to favour a bad Cause.
Nor Scarlet Gown, swell’d with Poetick Fury,
Scare a false Verdict from a trembling Jury.
Justice, with steady Hand and even Scales,
Should stand upright, as if sustain’d by Hales.
Yet still, in Matters doubtful to decide,
A little bearing tow’rds the milder side.
Dryden, Miscellany Poems, 5th ed., 1727, v. 126.