"With a conquest like this, how bright we shall shine!
"That Rodney has taken six ships of the line,
"Will be in your paper a brilliant affair;
"How the Tories will laugh, and the rebels will swear.
"But farther, dear Jemmy, make Rodney to say,
"If the sun two hours longer had held out the day,
"The rest were so beaten, so baisted, so tore,
"He had taken them all, and he knew not but more."
So the partners broke up, as good friends as they met,
And soon it was all in the Royal Gazette;
The Tories rejoiced at the very good news,
And said, There's no fear we shall die in our shoes.
Now let us give credit to Jemmy, forsooth,
Since once in a way he has hit on the truth:
If again he returns to his practice of lies,
He hardly reflects where he'll go when he dies.
But still, when he dies, let it never be said
That he rests in his grave with no verse at his head;
But furnish, ye poets, some short epitaph,
And something like this, that readers may laugh:
Here lies a King's Printer, we needn't say who:
There is reason to think that he tells what is true:
But if he lies here, 'tis not over-strange,
His present position is but a small change,
So, reader, pass on—'tis a folly to sigh,
For all his life long he did little but lie.
[153] The first trace that I can find of this poem is in the 1786 edition, where it is signed, "Written April, 1782."
[154] "For that was enough."—Ed. 1786.