The Bon Gaultier Ballads
     England hath need of thee,” &c.

   And his “Great men have been among us,” &c., was perverted into

     “Great men have been among us,—Names that lend

     A lustre to our calling; better none;

     Maclaine, Duval, Dick Turpin, Barrington,

     Blueskin and others, who called Sheppard friend.

     . . . .

     . . . Now, ’tis strange,

     We never see such souls as we had then;

     Perpetual larcenies and such small change!

     No single cracksman paramount, no code,

     No master spirit, that will take the road,

     But equal dearth of pluck and highwaymen!”

   Nor did even Shelley’s magnificent sonnet “Ozymandias” escape the profane hand of the burglar poet. He wrote,—

     “I met a cracksman coming down the Strand,

     Who said, ‘A huge Cathedral, piled of stone,

     Stands in a churchyard, near St Martin’s Le Grand,

     Where keeps Saint Paul his sacerdotal throne.

     A street runs by it to the northward. There

     For cab and bus is writ ‘No Thoroughfare,’


 Prev. P 6/235 next 
Back Top
Privacy Statement Terms of Service Contact