The “proclamation!” Why, ’twas fun
For you and yours, short time agone;
A mastiff’s bay against the moon,
The dish that scampered with the spoon,
With spoony grandam mounted on it,
Or the Pope’s bull against the comet;
A “brutum fulmen” which, at best,
Was meant to scare, and not divest;
And now, it has become at once
A stumbling block of great offense!