"THE RAKE'S DECISION.
"Fare well to lovely virtue, farewell to all that's good,
Since vice, they say, don't hurt you, and shall not if it would,
I'll be henceforth in fashion, I'll gratify myself—
The baser lusts of passion, I'll feed by means of pelf.
I will, in fact, be vicious, I'll practise all that's bad—
Drink, swear, and be ambitious, just like a jolly lad.
With harlots I will revel, but sleep at home at night,
I'll be in short a devil, dressed in a garb of white.
The 'Scottish' and the 'Eagle,' my patronage shall share,
My office makes it legal, to go and visit there;
I'll frolic with the lasses, and feast my carnal sight,
On the shameless work that passes, in a bawdy house at night.
I'll go the round of folly, while youth and vigour last,
'Tis time for melancholy, when both of these have past;
I'll be a jovial fellow, with this world ne'er be vex'd—
And when I'm getting mellow, I'll think about the next.
So now dear Pat, 'my honey,' your virtue may be best
But since I have your money — the dogs may have the rest;
If vice in future flourish, don't you presume to check it;
Virtue be yours to nourish, and vice leave to A'B———tt."
Calliope was next invoked for a change from Lyric to Heroic, ex gra. the following extract of an Argus epic on the 28th, headed "Vice versus Virtue," which constituted the Third libel:—
"Thus having prefaced, let me now point out
The wrongs we suffer, which I spoke about,
And nature dictates that our greatest wrong
Be first the subject of my feeble song.
This then, it is, and be it understood,
That men are punished here for doing good;
Virtue is blighted—vice of every sort,
Is all but pamper'd by the Church and Court,
Let men be rich, they must of course be good;
Let them be poor, they're trampled in the mud;
They may be upright, sober, chaste, and clean,
Industrious too, but, without money, mean;
This is the doctrine, this the truth I fear,
That's sought so much to be established here.
That these alone entitle men to sin—
'A face of brass,' and pockets lined with 'tin.'
'Tis wealth alone that can a license grant,
To sing at brothels, and at church to chaunt;
To pray for peace, and to encourage strife,
To keep a harlot, and to own a wife:
A man may be a rake, tussel a wench,
And yet a Justice, and adorn the Bench;
May be immoral, and yet be a Mayor
Without disgracing, too, the Civic chair.
Is this the issue of the famous trial?
Then down with virtue—banish self-denial."
