VII. TO WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, ON HIS WILFUL MISREPRESENTATION OF CERTAIN GREAT POETS. I. Ir to the punishment for lies Each conscious slanderer, when he dies, Must go without exemption, I fear, though of a loftier sort, With S-E, and other rogues in short, JI. THOU 'rt aged, WILLIAM. O repent! To soothe, when dead, the Omniscient. VIII. TO MESSRS. SOUTHEY AND WORDSWORTH, ON THEIR DEFAMATION OF CERTAIN GREAT NAMES IN POETRY. WHEN ZOÏLUS the mighty bard revil'd Whose fame he hated, he was ston'd or burn'd ; But that was all; the sheets his spleen defil'd You, Zoïluses both, a harder fate Must undergo; for, printed on your page, Your envy will survive its proper date, And crucify (1) you in a future age. IX. PHILANTHROPY. PRETTY SALLY 's wondrous fair, To all mankind a charming creature ; (1) Some say that the unfortunate grammarian was nailed to a cross, by order of PTOLEMY. X. THE DEMAGOGUE. CLEON magnanimously fights To help across the sovereign rabble. And damns the people up and down. Lord CLEON 's right he ranks above them. XI. THE PANEGYRIST. SOFT VAPPA sings of birds and bees, And KA proclaims him greater even Than HOMER and the Bard of Heaven. Wouldst know the reason? Seek it here : KA publishes, himself, next year. XII. TO A FLIRT. WEAK, silly creature! worthless jade! XIII. TO A COQUETTE. THINK'ST thou, because one fool admires, I would not for the world deny it. Why then I 'm damnably mistaken. I would to God thou 'dst only try it! XIV. (1) TO A MANNIKIN. THOU four-foot fool! short thing of lath! XV. TO JS W-N W-BB. FOOL! that durst let thy hireling cross my path ! (2) Was 't not enough I spar'd thee on my page ? (1) This epigram, written many years since, was printed in the additions to the Vision of Rubeta. It is here republished because of an absurd mistake which was there committed; the substitution of swiftly for safely in the second line of the copy. (2) One of the publishers of the Vision, Mr. JN, who claims to be a cousin of Mr. W-BB's, informed my agent that the editor of the Courier was not in town when that miserable specimen of mendacity and ignorance (see the last page of this volume) was suffered to make its appearance in his paper. But he allowed it to remain uncontradicted; and thus endorsed the falsehood. To me the injury this has done can be but transient; the exposition I have made of the iniquity will be eternal. I do such men too much honor, I am well aware, to notice them in any way; but it must |