Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin / Comprising the Celebrated Political and Satirical Poems, of the Rt. Hons. G. Canning, John Hookham Frere, W. Pitt, the Marquis Wellesley, G. Ellis, W. Gifford, the Earl of Carlisle, and Others.

by Unknown

Trou. Pshaw! women will be inquiring. Melancholy! not I. I will sing thee a song, and the subject of it shall be the question—“What have I got under my cloak?” It is a riddle, Margaret—I learnt it of an almanac-maker at Gotha—if thou guessest it after the first stanza, thou shalt have never a drop for thy pains. Hear me—and, d’ye mark! twirl thy thingumbob while I sing.

Fem. Min. ’Tis a pretty tune, and hums dolefully.

[Plays on her balalaika.

Trou.

I bear a secret comfort here,[^[278]]

[Putting his hand on the bundle.

A joy I’ll ne’er impart;

It is not wine, it is not beer,

But it consoles my heart.

Fem. Min. [Interrupting him.] I’ll be hang’d if you don’t mean the bottle of cherry-brandy that you stole out of the vaults in the abbey cellar.