D'impôt. D'ailleurs il ne levait de ban Oh! oh! oh! oh! ah! ah! ah' Il n'agrandit point ses états, Prit le plaisir pour code. Oh! oh! oh! oh! ah! ah! ah' ah! &c. On conserve encor le portrait De ce digne et bon prince; C'est l'enseigne d'un cabaret Fameux dans la province. Les jours de fête, bien souvent, La foule s'écrie en buvant Oh Devant : oh oh oh! ah! ah! ah! ah! &c. THE KING OF YVETOT. THERE was a king of Yvetot, Of whom renown hath little said, Oh oh oh oh! ah! ah! ah! Who let all thoughts of glory go, ah! &c. Aux filles de bonnes maisons Comme il avait su plaire, Ses sujets avaient cent raisons De le nommer leur père : And dawdled half his days abed; And every night, as night came round, By Jenny, with a nightcap crowned, Slept very sound: Sing ho, ho, ho! and he, he, he! Que ma saison dernière Vous pauvres pleins d'envie, Eh gai! prenez pour maître JOLLY JACK. WHEN fierce political debate Throughout the isle was storming, And Rads attacked the throne and state, And Tories the reforming, To calm the furious rage of each, And right the land demented, Heaven sent us Jolly Jack, to teach The way to be contented. Jack's bed was straw, 'twas warm and soft, His chair, a three-legged stool; His broken jug was emptied oft, Yet, somehow, always full. His mistress' portrait decked the wall, His mirror had a crack; Yet, gay and glad, though this was all His wealth, lived Jolly Jack. To give advice to avarice, Teach pride its mean condition, And preach good sense to dull pretence, Was honest Jack's high mission. Our simple statesman found his rule Of moral in the flagon, And held his philosophic school Beneath the "George and Dragon." When village Solons cursed the Lords, But smiled and drank his skinful. And wore his threadbare breeches. "I enter not the church," he said, "But I'll not seek to rob it; So worthy Jack Joe Miller read, While others studied Cobbett. His talk it was of feast and fun; His guide the Almanack; From youth to age thus gayly run The life of Jolly Jack. And when Jack prayed, as oft he would, He humbly thanked his Maker; "I am," said he, "O Father good! Nor Catholic nor Quaker: Give each his creed, let each proclaim I trust in Thee, and not in them, "Forgive me if, midst all Thy works, And hope for e'en the Brahmin. Harmless my mind is, and my mirth, And kindly is my laughter: I cannot see the smiling earth, Jack died; he left no legacy, Save that his story teaches: Ye scornful great, ye envious small, Would copy JOLLY JACK. |