Works

To this much-admired Poyson¹ I administer the following Antidote.

“See, See the mad Marauders come!
    Let loose to rob and Plunder;
They hope to find our Senate dumb,
    Our Statesmen lost in Wonder.

    But let them shun this hostile Shore
        Or back again we’ll bang ’em,
    And of their Tree of Liberty
        A Gallows make to hang ’em.

Nor Crown nor half a Crown they’ll get;
    We’ll never be such Ninnies²,
To feed the fasting Mounshers fat
    With our bright English Guineas—

    Then let them shun our hostile Shore
        Or back again we’ll bang ’em;
    And of their Tree of Liberty
        A Gallows make to hang ’em.

No British Palace e’er was built
    By poor Men’s Blood or Tears Sir;
Like proud Versailles pollute with Guilt,
    Which found a Lot severe Sir:

    Then let them shun our happy Shore,
        Or back again we’ll bang ’em;
    And of their Tree of Liberty
        A Gallows make to hang ’em.

We’ll fight till Death for Church and King,
    and firmly fix’d will see ’em:
The merry Bells around shall ring,
    and grace a Grand Te Deum.

    When Frenchmen fly our happy Shore,
        Or back again we bang ’em;
    And of their Tree of Liberty
    A Gallows make to hang ’em.

Then fear at least Cælestial Fires
    For Sacrilege intended;
That Church which but to Heav’n aspires.
    Will be by Heav’n defended.

    Then let Mounseer not venture here,
        For back again we’ll bang him,
    Or of his Tree of Liberty,
        A Gallows make to hang him.

Those who to plot with France combine
    Old England shall disown them;
Our Brunswick sinks their Jacobine
    As Howe has lately shown them.³

    Then let them shun the dang’rous Shore
        Or back again we’ll bang them,
    And of their Tree of Liberty
        A Gallows make to hang them.”

I should really be glad that these Verses found Admirers too; they are certainly as witty as the wicked ones, much more pointed I think—but facit Indignatio &c.

Footnotes

1. Plant, Plant the Tree verses by her eldest daughter Queeney.↩︎
2. Slang, meaning silly.↩︎
3. Her account of the 'Glorious First of June' which took place in May 1794.↩︎