Or view a butcher with horn-handled knife
Slaughter a tender lamb as dead as mutton,
Indeed, indeed, I’m very, very sick!
[Exit hastily.
James Smith.
The Rejected Addresses. 1812.
This imitation of Coleridge cannot be considered one of the best of the Rejected Addresses. Lord Jeffrey remarked that, although it was unquestionably “Lakish,” he was unable to recognise in it any of the peculiar traits of the powerful genius whose name it bore. Smith probably had in his mind the following lines written by Coleridge in 1794:—
To a Young Ass.
Its mother being tethered near it.
Poor little Foal of an oppressed Race!