THE SONG OF THE CITY REMEMBRANCER.
"Sweet Remembrancer!
Now, good digestion wait on appetite,
And health on both."—Successful Tragedy.
The City Remembrancer's post I hold.
An office that's sacred, because 'tis old;
I repel, I deny the assertion base
That there isn't no use in that 'ere place!
So you want to know what I've got to do?
And, Imperance, what odds is that to you?
But inquiry we court, as we've always done,
And I scorn all concealment, myself, for one.
I am only an image, you think, like Gog,
Whereas I the Lord Mayor's memory jog,
And the Aldermen also, in banquet met,
I remind of the duties which some forget.
His Lordship, for instance, perhaps I see
Is getting on slow with his callipee;
And a slight squeeze of lemon I then suggest,
With a dash of cayenne to impart a zest.
"My Lord-eh, my Lord!" says I, "why, look there!
You're a spilling your dinner, I do declare!
'Tis of haunch that you're eating; and don't you know
Currant jelly should always with venison go?
"Mr. Alderman, bless me! you faint and droop,
As if you could hardly get through your soup.
Glass of punch, Sir, of course, with the work you've got,
You have surely been absent, Sir, have you not?
"Dear me, Mr. Deputy—look, Sir, look!
Excuse me; but you I must call to book:
Allow me to push you the boat across,
You are eating that bird, Sir, without bread-sauce!
"Here's capon, mind, gentlemen; here's black cock;
This wine, recollect, is peculiar hock:—
This is peacock—that's cygnet, yon gent before,
If you think you could manage a little more.
"Not feel quite the thing, don't your Lordship, eh?
Hallo! bring the brandy, you Sir, this way.
Now, my Lord, a small glass—just a toothful. No?
Well then, come, try the least drop of Curaçoa."
But I've other duties, which I discharge
In warily steering the Civic Barge
Through St. Stephen's storms, whirlpools, rocks, and shoals,
Safe and sound, with a cargo—we'll say—of coals.
That Major Benlow—what—ow—owski, he
Not half a Remembrancer ain't, to me;
And I gets a small pittance for all this here,
Which is under a couple of thousand a year.