55
Each Bond-street buck conceits, unhappy elf!
He shews his clothes! Alas! he shews himself.
O that they knew, these overdrest self-lovers,
What hides the body oft the mind discovers.
First published in Morning Post, Oct. 11, 1802.
56
FROM AN OLD GERMAN POET
That France has put us oft to rout
With powder, which ourselves found out;
And laughs at us for fools in print,
Of which our genius was the Mint;
All this I easily admit,
For we have genius, France has wit.
But 'tis too bad, that blind and mad
To Frenchmen's wives each travelling German goes,
Expands his manly vigour by their sides,
Becomes the father of his country's foes
And turns their warriors oft to parricides.
First published in Morning Post, Oct. 11, 1802. Adapted from Wernicke's Epigrams (Bk. VIII, No. 4), Auf die Buhlerey der Deutschen in Frankreich.
'Dass Frankreich uns pflegt zu verwunden
Durch Pulver, welches wir erfunden.'