Peele

was next;

‘I will not spare you,’ was his favourite text;

Nor did he spare, but raised them many a pound;

E’en me he mulct for my poor rood of ground;

Yet cared he nought, but with a gibing speech,

‘What should I do,’ quoth he, ‘but what I preach?’

His piercing jokes (and he’d a plenteous store)

Were daily offer’d both to rich and poor;

His scorn, his love, in playful words he spoke;