Similar thieves to represent;

An army; and a public debt.

V.

Which last is a scheme of paper money,
And means-being interpreted—

"Bees,1 keep your wax-give us the honey,
And we will plant, while skies are sunny,
Flowers, which in winter serve instead."

VI.

There is great talk of revolution-
And a great chance of despotism-
German soldiers-camps-confusion-
Tumults-lotteries-rage-delusion-

Gin-suicide-and methodism.

VII.

Taxes too, on wine and bread,

And meat, and beer, and tea, and cheese,
From which those patriots pure are fed,

Who gorge before they reel to bed

The tenfold essence of all these.

VIII.

There are mincing women, mewing,
(Like cats, who amant miserè,*)

* One of the attributes in Linnæus's description of the Cat. To a similar cause the caterwauling of more than one species of this genus is to be referred; except, indeed, that the poor quadruped is compelled to quarrel with its own pleasures, whilst the biped is supposed only to quarrel with those of others. [SHELLEY'S NOTE.]

1 I have followed Mr. Rossetti in placing the inverted commas before

:

Bees in Mrs. Shelley's editions they are before keep.

Of their own virtue, and pursuing
Their gentler sisters to that ruin,
Without which-what were chastity? *

IX.

Lawyers-judges-old hobnobbers

Are there-bailiffs-chancellors—
Bishops great and little robbers-
Rhymesters-pamphleteers-stock-jobbers—
Men of glory in the wars,-

X.

Things whose trade is, over ladies

To lean, and flirt, and stare, and simper,
Till all that is divine in woman

Grows cruel, courteous, smooth, inhuman,
Crucified 'twixt a smile and whimper.

XI.

Thrusting, toiling, wailing, moiling,
Frowning, preaching-such a riot!

Each with never-ceasing labour,
Whilst he thinks he cheats his neighbour,
Cheating his own heart of quiet.

XII.

And all these meet at levees;

Dinners convivial and political;—

* What would this husk and excuse for a virtue be without its kernel prostitution, or the kernel prostitution without this husk of a virtue? I wonder the women of the town do not form an association, like the Society for the Suppression of Vice, for the support of what may be called the "King, Church, and Constitution" of their order. But this subject is almost too horrible for a joke. [SHELLEY'S NOTE.]

1 I have followed Mr. Rossetti in in- note of interrogation, not in Mrs. serting, at the end of this line, the Shelley's editions.

Suppers of epic poets;-teas,
Where small talk dies in agonies;-

Breakfasts professional and critical;

XIII.

Lunches and snacks so aldermanic

That one would furnish forth ten dinners,
Where reigns a Cretan-tongued panic,

Lest news Russ, Dutch, or Alemannic

Should make some losers, and some winners ;—1

XIV.

1

At conversazioni-balls

Conventicles and drawing-rooms-
Courts of law-committees calls
Of a morning-clubs-book-stalls—
Churches-masquerades-and tombs.

XV.

And this is Hell-and in this smother
All are damnable and damned;
Each one damning, damns the other;
They are damned by one another,

By none other are they damned.

XVI.

'Tis a lie to say, "God damns!"?

Where was Heaven's Attorney General
When they first gave out such flams?
Let there be an end of shams,

They are mines of poisonous mineral.

1 There is no stop here in Mrs. Shelley's editions.

This libel on our national oath, and this accusation of all our countrymen of being in the daily practice of solemnly asseverating the most enormous falsehood, I fear deserves the notice of a more active Attorney General than that here alluded to. [SHELLEY'S NOTE.]

XVII.

Statesmen damn themselves to be

Cursed; and lawyers damn their souls.

To the auction of a fee;

Churchmen damn themselves to see

God's sweet love in burning coals.

XVIII.

The rich are damned, beyond all cure,
To taunt, and starve, and trample on
The weak and wretched; and the poor
Damn their broken hearts to endure

Stripe on stripe, with groan on groan.

XIX.

Sometimes the poor are damned indeed

To take, not means for being blest,But Cobbett's snuff, revenge; that weed From which the worms that it doth feed Squeeze less than they before possessed.

XX.

And some few, like we know who, Damned-but God alone knows why

To believe their minds are given

To make this ugly Hell a Heaven;

In which faith they live and die.

XXI.

Thus, as in a town, plague-stricken,

Each man be he sound or no

Must indifferently sicken;

As when day begins to thicken,

None knows a pigeon from a crow,

XXII.

So good and bad, sane and mad,

The oppressor and the oppressed; Those who weep to see what others Smile to inflict upon their brothers; Lovers, haters, worst and best;

XXIII.

All are damned-they breathe an air,
Thick, infected, joy-dispelling:

Each pursues what seems most fair,
Mining like moles, through mind, and there
Scoop palace-caverns vast, where Care

In throned state is ever dwelling.