THE
DEVIL & PARSON CHURCH;
OR,
Birds of a Feather.
Old Lucifer came on earth one day,
When he was in merry plight,
To look for a meal of dainty prey,
To pamper his appetite!
He stalk’d thro’ the courts of law, but grinn’d
To find stale picking was there;
For his maw both BENCH and BAR had thinn’d,
And all look’d devilish bare.
He walk’d up the Park, and down the MELL,
To catch some rare rich sinner,
Whom he might drag on his horns to hell,
And pick his bones for dinner.
But nought was there but a bawd or two,
Scatter’d along the benches.
Whose visages look’d most BLEACH’D and BLUE,
For none would buy their wenches.
He went to the mansions round about,
And just by way of frolic,
He pinch’d this courtier’s toe with the gout,
And gave to that the cholic.
Yet thro’ the circle he found not one,
But still his chops kept licking;
No morsel of meat—no tempting bone
That could deserve his picking.
Then over Westminster bridge he trudged,
Clad in his murky jacket,
And swore that before he homeward budg’d,
He’d still kick up a racket
He came to a place by wits y’clep’d
Fields, though no grass was growing,
Where flocks of Cyprians alone are kept,
Seeds of disaster sowing.
And into a chapel here he popp’d
That head of his so prying,
And anxious to hear what pass’d there, stopp’d
Attracted by the sighing.