The Works of Lord Byron Volume VII Part 15

EPIGRAM.

IN digging up your bones, Tom Paine, Will. Cobbett[112] has done well: You visit him on Earth again, He'll visit you in h.e.l.l.

or--

You come to him on Earth again He'll go with you to h.e.l.l!

_January_ 2, 1820.

[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 295.]

FOOTNOTES:

[112] [Cobbett, by way of atonement for youthful vituperation (he called him "a ragam.u.f.fin deist") of Tom Paine, exhumed his bones from their first resting-place at New Roch.e.l.le, and brought them to Liverpool on his return to England in 1819. They were preserved by Cobbett at Normanby, Farnham, till his death in 1835, but were sold in consequence of his son's bankruptcy in 1836, and pa.s.sed into the keeping of a Mr.

Tilly, who was known to be their fortunate possessor as late as 1844.

(See _Notes and Queries_, 1868, Series IV. vol. i. pp. 201-203.)]

EPITAPH.

POSTERITY will ne'er survey A n.o.bler grave than this; Here lie the bones of Castlereagh: Stop traveller, * *

_January_ 2, 1820.

[First published, _Lord Byron's Works_, 1833, xvii. 246.]

EPIGRAM.

The world is a bundle of hay, Mankind are the a.s.ses who pull; Each tugs it a different way,-- And the greatest of all is John Bull!

[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 494.]

MY BOY HOBBIE O.[113]

New Song to the tune of

"_Whare hae ye been a' day, My boy Tammy O.!

Courting o' a young thing Just come frae her Mammie O._"

1.

HOW came you in Hob's pound to cool, My boy Hobbie O?

Because I bade the people pull The House into the Lobby O.

2.

What did the House upon this call, My boy Hobbie O?

They voted me to Newgate all, Which is an awkward Jobby O.

3.

Who are now the people's men, My boy Hobbie O?

There's I and Burdett--Gentlemen And blackguard Hunt and Cobby O.

4.

You hate the house--_why_ canva.s.s, then?

My boy Hobbie O?

Because I would reform the den As member for the Mobby O.

5.

Wherefore do you hate the Whigs, My boy Hobbie O?

Because they want to run their rigs, As under Walpole Bobby O.

6.

But when we at Cambridge were My boy Hobbie O, If my memory don't err You founded a Whig Clubbie O.

7.

When to the mob you make a speech, My boy Hobbie O, How do you keep without their reach The watch within your fobby O?

8.

But never mind such petty things, My boy Hobbie O; G.o.d save the people--d.a.m.n all Kings, So let us Crown the Mobby O!

Yours truly,

(Signed) _INFIDUS SCURRA_.

_March 23d_, 1820.

[First published _Murray's Magazine_, March, 1887, vol. i. pp. 292, 293.]

FOOTNOTES:

[113] [John Cam Hobhouse (1786-1869) (see _Letters_, 1898, i. 163, _note_ 1) was committed to Newgate in December, 1819, for certain pa.s.sages in a pamphlet ent.i.tled, _A Trifling Mistake in Thomas Lord Erskine's recent Preface_, which were voted (December 10) a breach of privilege. He remained in prison till the dissolution on the king's death, February 20, 1820, when he stood and was returned for Westminster. Byron's Liberalism was intermittent, and he felt, or, as Hobhouse thought, pretended to feel, as a Whig and an aristocrat with regard to the free lances of the Radical party. The sole charge in this "filthy ballad," which annoyed Hobhouse, was that he had founded a Whig Club when he was an undergraduate at Cambridge. He a.s.sured Murray (see his letter, November, 1820, _Letters_, vol. iv. Appendix XI. pp.

498-500) that he was not the founder of the club, and that Byron himself was a member. "As for his Lords.h.i.+p's vulgar notions about the _mob_" he adds, "they are very fit for the Poet of the _Morning Post_, and for n.o.body else." There is no reason to suppose that Byron was in any way responsible for the version as sent to the _Morning Post_.]

"MY BOY HOBBY O.

[ANOTHER VERSION.]

To the Editor of the _Morning Post_.

Sir,--A copy of verses, to the tune of '_My boy Tammy_,' are repeated in literary circles, and said to be written by a n.o.ble Lord of the highest poetical fame, upon his quondam friend and annotator. My memory does not enable me to repeat more than the first two verses quite accurately, but the humourous spirit of the Song may be gathered from these:--