"Still to be serious, Pitt, before we part: / Let Mercy melt the mill-stone of thy heart."
— Wolcot, John, pseud. Peter Pindar, (1738-1819)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for J. Walker, [etc.]
Date
1795
Metaphor
"Still to be serious, Pitt, before we part: / Let Mercy melt the mill-stone of thy heart."
Metaphor in Context
Still to be serious, Pitt, before we part:
Let Mercy melt the mill-stone of thy heart[1].
How nobler far, for honest fame to toil,
And change a kingdom's curses for a smile!
Yet, if resolv'd to worry wigs and hair,
And, Herod-like, not little children spare,
Say (for methinks the land has much to dread)
How long in safety may we wear the head?
Enough our necks have bow'd beneath the yoke;
Enough our sides have felt the goad and stroke;
Then cease to make, by further irritation,
Our patience the sole rock of thy salvation.
Notes
1. I principally allude in this place to the political character of this statesman, which is rather marked with severity. As for the domestic, it possesses some traits belonging to the Jolly God. Even Parliament last year saw him enter the walls of St. Stephen, arm in arm with his dear colleague and constant companion honest Harry Dundas; both fortunately conducted to the Treasury Bench without a fall, by the boozing reeling deity, where 'Palinurus nodded at the helm.'
Let Mercy melt the mill-stone of thy heart[1].
How nobler far, for honest fame to toil,
And change a kingdom's curses for a smile!
Yet, if resolv'd to worry wigs and hair,
And, Herod-like, not little children spare,
Say (for methinks the land has much to dread)
How long in safety may we wear the head?
Enough our necks have bow'd beneath the yoke;
Enough our sides have felt the goad and stroke;
Then cease to make, by further irritation,
Our patience the sole rock of thy salvation.
Notes
1. I principally allude in this place to the political character of this statesman, which is rather marked with severity. As for the domestic, it possesses some traits belonging to the Jolly God. Even Parliament last year saw him enter the walls of St. Stephen, arm in arm with his dear colleague and constant companion honest Harry Dundas; both fortunately conducted to the Treasury Bench without a fall, by the boozing reeling deity, where 'Palinurus nodded at the helm.'
Categories
Provenance
Searching "mill" and "heart" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
8 entries in ESTC (1795).
Hair Powder; a Plaintive Epistle to Mr. Pitt, by Peter Pindar, Esq. To Which Is Added (With Considerable Augmentation), Frogmore Fête, an Ode for Music, for the First of April, Vulgarly Called All Fools Day. A New Edition. (London: Printed for J. Walker, Paternoster-Row; J. Bell, Oxford-Street; J. Ladley, Mount-Street, Berkeley-Square; and E. Jeffrey, Pall-Mall, 1795). <Link to ESTC>
Text from The Works of Peter Pindar, 4 vols. (London: Printed for Walker and Edwards, 1816).
Hair Powder; a Plaintive Epistle to Mr. Pitt, by Peter Pindar, Esq. To Which Is Added (With Considerable Augmentation), Frogmore Fête, an Ode for Music, for the First of April, Vulgarly Called All Fools Day. A New Edition. (London: Printed for J. Walker, Paternoster-Row; J. Bell, Oxford-Street; J. Ladley, Mount-Street, Berkeley-Square; and E. Jeffrey, Pall-Mall, 1795). <Link to ESTC>
Text from The Works of Peter Pindar, 4 vols. (London: Printed for Walker and Edwards, 1816).
Date of Entry
12/12/2006
