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RICHARD III. SURNAMED CROOKBACK.

"1 know that deformed-he is a thief."

"A cut-purse of the empire and the rule,
"Who from a shelf a precious diadem stole,
"And put it in his pocket."

"The Cat, the Rat, and Lovell the Dog,

"Rule all England under the Hog."

SHAKESPEARE.

DOGGERELS OF THE DAY.*

THE VICTIMS,

A PARODY.

WHEN GLO'STER, hump-back'd Prince, was

young,

While yet on fostering breast he hung,
His mind being, like his body, made ill,
The VICES throng'd around his cradle ;
Exulting, sneering, grinning, fighting,
They set his early teeth a biting;

For the composition of which W. Collingbourne, Esq. who had been Sheriff of Wiltshire and Devonshire, was executed.

By

By turns they taught the embrio King
To roar and cry for every thing;

Once, while he slept and all were fired,
Fill'd with fury, rapt, inspir'd

From scenes of the succeeding age,
Each fiend prophetic snatch'd a page;
And, as they oft had shewn apart,
Dark lessons of their forceful art,
Each borrow'd from the future hour,

Some victim of the tyrant's power;
And mutually agreed to pry

Into their darlings destiny.

First CLARENCE came, his taste to try,
(Near him a Malmsey butt they laid),
Who back recoil'd, he knew not why,
Even at the choice himself had made.*

Next HENRY'S SON,† his eye on fire,
With just reproof the tyrant stings,
One savage blow speaks RICHARD's ire,
And the youth soars on seraph wings,

* George, Duke of Clarence, it is said, having been offered a choice as to the mode of his death, was by such melancholy election drowned in a butt of malmsey wine.

*The gallant Prince Edward, murdered in cold blood after the battle of Tewkesbury.

In woeful guise of sad despair,

King HENRY mourns his hopes beguil'd, 'Till GLO'STER's dagger ends his care,

And sends the father to his child.

But thou, O Hope! with eyes so fair,

What was thy delusive measure?

Still it whisper'd royal pleasure

TO EDWARD's son, and promis'd thrones and pow'r.

Still did her voice the cheat prolong,
While their fell uncle in the Tower,
Thought fit to echo the deceitful song,
And where of loyalty the theme she chose,
His hypocritic voice was heard at ev'ry close;

And YORK and EDWARD fell into the snare.

And longer had she sung, but with a frown
The Duke impatient rose,

He threw his artful mask in fury down,
And with a withering look,

Of HASTINGS, RIVERS, VAUGHAN, and GREY* he took

* Hastings, beheaded in the Tower for his attachment to the rights of the royal children; and the other three, their near relations, put to death at Pomfret,

The

The lives and bid his hellish agents do

A deed so horrible and dread-

Ne'er were half-stifled shrieks so full of woe,
As when the fell assassins press'd
Against each struggling infant's breast;
And tho' some time each dreary pause between,
Dejected pity at their side,

Her soul subduing voice applied:

Still on the couch of innocence they lean, Till each strain'd ball of sight announce the victims dead!

Unsteady BUCKINGHAM, whose friendship fixed The crown on RICHARD, mourns his fallen

state;

His cup of death ungrateful GLOSTER mix'd, And one he cherish'd sells him to his fate.*

With eyes upraised, as one inspired,
The Wife of RICHARD† sat retired;

* The Duke of Buckingham having levied a force against Richard, for evading certain promises made before he obtained the crown, was deserted by his army, and delivered to his enemy by the treachery of Banister, a confidential servant, who had been greatly obliged by the Duke.

* Ann, the Widow of Edward, Son of Henry VI. who unaccountably married her husband's murderer, by whom, it is supposed, her own death was hastened.

And,

And, from her wretched regal seat,

In notes by sorrow render'd sweet,

Pour'd to Prince EDWARD's shade her plaintive soul;

And deeply grieves that e'er she found,

Like EVE, the soft beguiling sound

Of the keen serpent's voice, which gently stole
Within her heart, her duty to betray;
When after once or twice refusing,

Oh, woman's weakness! past excusing,
She on the Crook-back threw herself away!

But oh! how alter'd was the mournful tone,

When HARRY RICHMOND, arm'd with title

true,

His Baldrick 'cross his shoulder ftung,

And, with enliv'ning trumpet, blew

A call to arms that thro' the island rung !
His claim announcing to the English throne.

ELIZABETH, late EDWARD'S Queen,
With age so gay, and youth so green,
To join his standard soon were seen ;

VOL. II.

C

And

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