Classic Poem

1.

Ye members of Parliament all
That quarrel to settle the nation,
Prepare an address for Whitehall,
And thank God for your king's preservation.

2.

Last Sunday to chapel he went
To hear a fine nightingale sing;
God knows whether treason was meant,
But there happened a wonderful thing.

3.

To the window His Majesty came
To show his desirable face,
And a lord (whom I list not to name)
Unluckily slipped the shash.

4.

The portcullis came rottling down
And threatened the noddle anointed,
Lord! how the blue prelate would frown
To see all his hopes disappointed!

5.

Count Lansdown, that gravely stood by
A-snuffing up politic powder,
To his sovereign's assistance did fly —
A pox of the loyal intruder!

6.

The royal snail pulled in his horns
And thanked him for being so zealous;
'Twas enough to set Benting on thorns
And make the he-bedfellow jealous.

7.

For had he but let him alone
Our protector had safely been locked there,
And in pillory penance had done
Like his brother deliverer the doctor.

8.

Such an engine in Scotland is known
(And thither he's going 'tis said)
But it's feared while he snaps at the crown
The maiden may snap off his head.

9.

No longer let Overkirk boast
Of saving so puny a thing;
He preserved but a burgher at most,
But Lansdown delivered a king.