Sleep, Mr. Speaker, sleep while you may.
Winthrop Mackworth Praed.
This parody is often referred to as being very clever, partly, no doubt, on account of its having been written by Praed. It is certainly a very fair parody, and the original Lullaby, in the drama of Guy Mannering, is neither so very pathetic, nor so very beautiful, that a humorous imitation of it can give offence. The parody has, however, one defect, it is scarcely close enough in its imitation of the original:—
O, hush thee, my babie!—the time will soon come,
When thy sleep shall be broken by trumpet and drum!
Then hush thee, my darling, take rest while you may,
For strife comes with manhood, and waking with day.
THE BEGGAR’S PETITION.
Thomas Moss, a minister of Brierly Hill, Staffordshire, who died in 1808, published anonymously in 1769, a volume of miscellaneous poems, one of which, “The Beggar’s Petition,” became immediately popular.