"I am joined with ... nobility and tranquillity,
burgomasters and great oneyers such as ... pray
continually to their saint the commonwealth."—
I Henry IV, ii. 1.
SO ringed about with sparrow-hawks and owls,
Bloodhounds and weasels, triplicated jowls,
Complaisant dewlaps and uneasy eyes,
He sits—this President of Destinies—
Fingers his papers, strokes his creasy chin,
Bellows beneath his borrowed baldaquin.
Cocytus still sobs past him, on its brink
He lays nice odds which souls emerge or sink,
Paddles his bovine hoofs in the spilt bliss