| Fox. | Wray. | Hood. |
THE CASE IS ALTERED. BY T. ROWLANDSON.
[Page 281.
Although every concession was made to the empire of Beauty, many of the verses were slyly sarcastic, while some of the caricatures were strongly coloured by the uncompromising coarseness of the age:—
“ODE TO THE DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE.
“Hail, Duchess! first of womankind,
Far, far you leave your sex behind,
With you none can compare;
For who but you, from street to street,
Would run about a vote to get,
Thrice, thrice bewitching fair!
Each day you visit every shop,
Into each house your head you pop,
Nor do you act the prude;
For ev’ry man salutes your Grace,
Some kiss your hand, and some your face,
And some are rather rude.”
“THE PARADOX OF THE TIMES.
“See modest Duchesses, no longer nice
In Virtue’s honour, haunt the sinks of Vice;
In Freedom’s cause, the guilty bribe convey,
And perjur’d wretches piously betray:
Seduced by Devon, and the Paphian crew,
What cannot Venus and the Graces do?—
Devon, not Fox, obtains the glorious prize,
Not public merit, but resistless eyes.”
As an antidote to the bitterness there was, however, a surfeit of “sweets:”—