No. XIII.
Feb. 5, 1798.
ACME AND SEPTIMIUS; OR, THE HAPPY UNION
CELEBRATED AT THE CROWN AND ANCHOR TAVERN.
Fox,[[98]] with Tooke to grace his side,
Thus address’d his blooming bride—
“Sweet! should I e’er, in power or place,
Another Citizen embrace;
Should e’er my eyes delight to look
On aught alive save John Horne Tooke,
Doom me to ridicule and ruin,
In the coarse hug[[99]] of Indian Bruin!”
He spoke;[[100]] and to the left and right,
Norfolk hiccupp’d with delight.
Tooke,[[101]] his bald head gently moving,
On the sweet patriot’s drunken eyes
His wine-empurpled lips applies,
And thus returns in accents loving:
“So, my dear[[102]] Charley, may success
At length my ardent wishes bless,
And lead, through discord’s low’ring storm,
To one grand radical Reform!
As, from this hour I love thee more
Than e’er I hated thee before!”
He spoke, and to the left and right,
Norfolk hiccupp’d with delight.
With this good omen they proceed;[[103]]
Fond toasts their mutual passion feed;
In Fox’s breast Horne Tooke prevails
Before[[104]] rich Ireland and South Wales;[[105]]
And Fox (unread each other book),
Is Law and Gospel to Horne Tooke.
When were such kindred souls united?
Or wedded pair so much delighted?
[ACME AND SEPTIMIUS. FROM CATULLUS.
Septimius said, and fondly prest
The doating Acme to his breast:—
“My Acme, if I prize not thee
With love as warm as love can be,
With passion spurning any fears
Of growing faint in length of years,
Alone may I defenceless stand
To meet, on Lybia’s desert sand,
Or under India’s torrid sky,
The tawny lion’s glaring eye!”
Love, before who utter’d still
On the left-hand omens ill,
As he ceased his faith to plight
Laugh’d propitious on the right.
Then Acme gently bent her head,
Kiss’d with those lips of cherry red
The eyes of the delightful boy,
That swam with glistening floods of joy;
And whisper’d as she closely prest—
“Septimius, soul of Acme’s breast,
Let all our lives and feelings own
One lord, one sovereign, Love alone!
I yield to love, and yield to thee,
For thou and love are one to me.
Though fond thy fervent heart may beat,
My feelings glow with greater heat,
And madder flames my bosom melt
Than all that thou hast ever felt.”—Ed.]
[The following account of the celebration of Fox’s Birth-day, printed in the Anti-Jacobin, has not hitherto appeared in the editions of the Poetry. The Song by Mr. Fox refers to the Subscription raised, after a meeting at the Crown and Anchor, in the summer of 1793, for relieving him in his then present need, and purchasing an Annuity for him. A Caricature by Gillray on this meeting was published on the 12th June, 1793.