Their tale to Minos would they glibly tell;
Minos the Mansfield, or Chief Judge, of Hell.[12]
Nor need my Nyky fear a London jury
Will e'er be influenced with a female fury.
Can they who let a prov'd assassin 'scape
Hang up poor Nyky for a friendly rape?
If in the dark to stab, be thought no crime,
What may'nt be hop'd from jurymen in time?
Soon Southern modes, no doubt, they'll reconcile
With the plain manners of our Northern isle;
And e'en new-married citizens be brought
To reckon S——y a venial fault:
When if George Bellas,[13] cruel and unkind,
Blast not their loves, with rude tempestuous wind,
In common-council Corydon may burn,
And Corydons for Corydon in turn,
Till every alderman about the chair
Find his Alexis in a new lord-mayor.
IMITATIONS.
Ex illo Corydon, Corydon est tempore nobis.
NOTES.

[12] Minos is reported by the poets to have been raised to this high office for his impartiality in the administration of Justice here on earth: what a pity that office is not soon to become vacant; as it might be most luckily filled by as worthy a successor.

[13] A boisterous mock-patriot, supposed to be descended from Eolus and Amphitrite, being famous for his mackarel expeditions, his musical knowledge of the fundamental base and public performances on the bassoon.

Sing then, O Muse, a more pathetic strain,
To lure my gentle Nyky back again.
For, sure as Thames resembles Tyber's tide,
Shall Macaronis soon possess Cheapside;
As petty-jury-men in judgment sit,
And ev'ry Corydon, with Nyk, acquit.
Yes by this knife, this useful[14] knife, I swear,
Which for my lov'd B——tti's sake I wear;
This knife, whose haft, at Stratford Jubilee,
For ever left its parent mulberry tree;
For thence it grew, tho', tipt with steel so fine,
It now will serve to stab with, or to dine;
That tree, which late on Avon's border grew;
By Shakespeare planted; Warwick lads say true;
IMITATIONS.
Ducite ab urbe domum mea carmina ducite Daphnim.
Α'λλ' ἑκ τοι ἑῥεω, και ἑπἱ μἑγαν ὁρκον ὁμουμαι,
Ναἱ μἁ τὁδε ςκηπρον, τὁ μἑν ουποττε φυλλα και ὁζους
Φυσει, ἑπειδἡ πρωτα τομἡν ἑν ὁρεσσι λελοιπεν,
Οὑδ' ἁναθηλἡσειΟὑδ' ἁναθηλἡσει.
Hom.
Ut sceptrum hoc (sceptrum dextrâ nam fortè gerebat)
Nunquam fronde levi fundet virgulta nec umbras;
Cùm semel in sylvis imo de stirpe recisum,
Matre caret posuitque comas et brachia ferro
Olim arbos, nunc artificis manus ære decoro.
Inclusit patribusque dedit gestare Latinis.
Virg.
NOTES.

[14] See the utility of this knife in a late Sessions-paper.