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But Harry of Monmouth some guests had brought in,
Who drank so much liquor, and made such a din,†
(While Arthur full loudly his mirth did disclose
At Falstaff's fat belly and Bardolph's red nose)
That he turned them all out with monarchical pride,
And laid the plumed cap of his revels aside,
And put on the helmet, and breastplate, and shield,
That did such great service on Agincourt's field.§

And now rang the tent with unusual alarms,
For the white and red roses were calling to arms;||
Confusion and tumult established their reign,
And Arthur stood up, and called silence in vain.

Poor Harry the Sixth, hustled, beaten, and prest,
Had his nosegay of lilies** soon torn from his breast;
And, though Margaret, to shield him, had clasped him
around,++

From her arms he was shaken, and hurled to the ground;‡‡
While Edward of York§§ flourished over his head
The rose's pale blossoms, and trampled the red;
Though Warwick strove vainly the ill to repair,
And set fallen Henry again on his chair.

The children of Edward stood up in the fray,
But, touched by cruel Richard, they vanished away;

* Henry V. of Monmouth.

Led a very dissolute life while Prince of Wales, and kept a set of drunken companions, to whom Shakspeare has given the names of Falstaff, Bardolph, &c.

Discarded them when he came to be king.

§ And gained great victories in France, particularly the battle of Agincourt.

The civil wars of York and Lancaster, of which respective parties the white and red roses were the emblems.

Henry VI. of Windsor.

** Lost the kingdom of France.

+ Supported by his queen, Margaret.

++ Overcome by the York party, and made a prisoner in the Tower. §§ Edward IV. raised to the throne by the aid of the Earl of Warwick; who afterwards quarrelled with Edward, and endeavoured to restore Henry, but without success.

Edward V. and his brother, the Duke of York, died while children, supposed to have been murdered in the Tower by order of their uncle Richard.

¶¶ Richard III., a cruel and sanguinary tyrant.

Who, knowing none loved him, resolved all should fear him,.
And therefore knocked every one down who was near him,
Till him in his turn Harry Richmond* assailed,
And at once, on his downfall, good order prevailed;
And Richmond uplifted, to prove the strife ended,

A wreath where the white and red roses were blended.t

With his Jane, and his Annes, and his Catherines beside,. Sat Henry the Eighth, in true Ottoman pride,

And quaffed off with Wolsey the goblet's red tide;
But over the head of each lady so fair

An axe was impending, that hung by a hair.§

Bold Arthur, whose fancy this king had not won, Look'd with hope and delight on young Edward his son; But had scarcely commended his learning and grace, Ere he found his attention called off to the place Where the infamous Mary** polluted the feast, Who sat drinking blood from the skull of a priest.††

But he struggled his horror and rage to repress, And sought consolation from worthy Queen Bess,‡‡ Who had brought Drake and Raleigh her state to sustain,§§ With American spoils and the trophies of Spain;

* Conquered in the battle of Bosworth by Henry of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII.

+ Being himself of the house of Lancaster, married Elizabeth, sister of Edward V., who was of the house of York: thus uniting the two houses, and ending the civil wars.

+ Henry VIII.

§ Had six wives-one Jane, two Annes, and three Catherines, in the following order:

1. Catherine of Arragon, whom he divorced.

2. Ann Boleyn, whom he beheaded.

3. Jane Seymour, who died in giving birth to Edward VI.

4. Ann of Cleves, whom he sent back to her parents.

5. Catherine Howard, whom he beheaded.

6. Catherine Parr, who outlived him.

Edward VI., a very promising young prince.

¶ Died in his sixteenth year.

**

Mary. Cruel Queen Mary. Daughter of Henry the Eighth. Burned three hundred persons for not being of her opinion in religion.

Elizabeth. A wise and fortunate queen.

88 Her admirals, among whom were Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh, sailed round the world, settled colonies in North America, defeated the Spanish Armada, &c.

While Shakspeare and Spenser,* with song and with fable, Enchanted King Arthur and all round his table.

Now the First of the James'st complained of the heat, And seemed ill at ease on his rickety seat;

It proved, when examined (which made them all stare),
A gunpowder barrel instead of a chair.‡

The First of the Charles's§ was clearing the dishes,
Taking more than his share of the loaves and the fishes,||
Not minding at all what the company said,

When up started Cromwell, and sliced off his head. T

Charles the Second,** enraged at the villanous deed, Tried to turn out Old Cromwell, but could not succeed; But he mastered young Dick, and then cooled his own wrath In syllabub, trifle, and filigree broth.††

James the Second,‡‡ with looks full of anger and gloom, Pronounced nothing good but the cookery of Rome ;§§ So begged of King Arthur, his dear royal crony, To make all the company eat macaroni ;||||

But Arthur bade Mary an orange present,¶¶

At which James grew queasy, and fled from the tent.
So she placed on his seat honest William,*** her spouse,
And with laurel and olive encircled his brows ;ttt

* In her reign lived many eminent authors, particularly Shakspeare and Spenser.

James the First.

The gunpowder plot, 5th November, 1605.

§ Charles I.

|| Overstrained his prerogative; encroached on the liberties of the people, and on the privileges of parliament. The consequence was a civil war and the loss of his head.

The commonwealth succeeded, at the head of which was Oliver Cromwell. He was succeeded by his son Richard, who was displaced by the restoration of Charles II.

**Charles II.

A frivolous and dissolute king.
James II.

§§ A bigoted Roman Catholic.

Used violent measures to establish that religion in England. 1 Was obliged to fly the country; and the crown devolved to his daughter Mary, and her husband, William, Prince of Orange. *** William III.

+ His reign was distinguished by foreign victories and domestic prosperity.

Wreath of glory and peace, by young

Freedom entwined,*

And gave him a key to the lock* of the mind.

Now as Arthur continued the party to scan,

He did not well know what to make of Queen Anne ;†
But Marlborough,‡ he saw, did her credit uplift,

And he heartily laughed at the jokes of Dean Swift.§
Then shook hands with two Georges, who near him were
seated,

Who closed in his left, and the circle completed;
He liked them both well, but he frankly averred,
He expected to prove better pleased with the Third.

PAPER MONEY LYRICS.

[Written in 1825. A few of the Lyrics were published in the Guide newspaper in 1837, and the whole published privately in that year.]

Falstaff.-Master Shallow, I owe you a thousand pound.

Shallow.-Ay, marry, Sir John, which I beseech you to let me have home with me.-SHAKSPEARE.

Perez.-Who's that is cheated? Speak again, thou vision. Cacafogo.-I'll let thee know I am cheated, cheated damnably. BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.

PREFACE.

THESE "Lyrics" were written in the winter of 1825-26, during the prevalence of an influenza to which the beautiful fabric of papercredit is periodically subject; which is called commercial panic by citizens, financial crisis by politicians, and day of reckoning by the profane; and which affected all promisers to pay in town and country with one of its most violent epidemic visitations in December, 1825. The "Lyrics" shadow out, in their order, the symptoms of the

*

By being the origin of the present form of the English constitution, in the glorious revolution of 1688; and by the life and writings of the philosopher Locke.

+ Anne.

Her general, the Duke of Marlborough, gained several great victories in France.

§ Many eminent literary characters flourished in her time, particularly Swift and Pope.

The House of Hanover: George I., George II., George III.

epidemic in its several stages; the infallible nostrums, remedial and preventive, proposed by every variety of that arch class of quacks, who call themselves political economists; the orders, counter-orders, and disorders, at the head of affairs, with respect to joint-stock banks, and the extinction of one-pound notes, inclusive of Scotland, and exclusive of Scotland; till the final patching up of the uncured malady by a series of false palliatives, which only nourished for another eruption the seeds of the original disease. The tabes tacitis concepta medullis has again blazed forth in new varieties of its primitive types-broken promises and bursting bubbles. Persons and things are changed, but the substance is the same; and these little ballads are as applicable now as they were twelve years ago. They will be applicable to every time and place, in which public credulity shall have given temporary support to the safe and economical currency, which consists of a series of paper promises, made with the deliberate purpose, that the promise shall always be a payment, and the payment shall always be a promise.

20 July, 1837.

PAN IN TOWN.*

(Metrum Ithyphallicum cum anacrusi.)

Falstaff.-If any man will caper with me for a thousand marks, let him lend me the money, and have at him.

PAN AND CHORUS OF CITIZENS.

TH

PAN.

HE Country banks are breaking:
The London banks are shaking:
Suspicion is awaking :

E'en quakers now are quaking:
Experience seems to settle,
That paper is not metal,

And promises of payment

Are neither food nor raiment ;

Then, since that, one and all, you

Are fellows of no value

.

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"The

Pan, it may be necessary to tell the citizens, is the author of "Panic Terrors." The Cockney poet, who entitled a poem Universal Pan," which began with "Not in the town am I;" a most original demonstration of his universality; has had a good opportunity, since he wrote that poem, of seeing that Pan can be in town sometimes. Perhaps, according to his Mythology, the Pan in town was the Sylvan Pan; a fashionable arrival for the season.

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