From Dukes' they past to regal phizzes,
Compared them proudly with their own,
And cried. "How _could_ such monstrous quizzes
"In Beauty's name usurp the throne!"--
They then wrote essays, pamphlets, books,
Upon Cosmetical Oeconomy,
Which made the King try various looks,
But none improved his physiognomy.
And satires at the Court were levelled,
And small lampoons, so full of slynesses,
That soon, in short, they quite bedeviled
Their Majesties and Royal Highnesses.
At length--but here I drop the veil,
To spare some royal folks' sensations;--
Besides, what followed is the tale
Of all such late-enlightened nations;
Of all to whom old Time discloses
A truth they should have sooner known--
That kings have neither rights nor noses
A whit diviner than their own.
[1] The Goths had a law to choose always a short, thick man for their
King.--Munster, "_Cosmog." lib_. iii. p. 164.
[2] "In a Prince a jolter-head is invaluable."--_Oriental Field Sports_.
FABLE III.
THE TORCH OF LIBERTY.
I saw it all in Fancy's glass--
Herself, the fair, the wild magician,
Who bade this splendid day-dream pass,
And named each gliding apparition.
'Twas like a torch-race--such as they
Of Greece performed, in ages gone,
When the fleet youths, in long array,
Past the bright torch triumphant on.
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