The Humourous Poetry of the English Language

292
Suppose he goes to France--can he
Sit down at any table d' hote,
With any sort of decency,
Unless he's got a long-tail'd coat?
Why Louis Philippe, Royal Cit,
There soon may be a sans culotte,
And Nugent's self may then admit
The advantage of a long-tail'd coat.
Things are not now as when, of yore,
In tower encircled by a moat,
The lion-hearted chieftain wore
A corselet for a long-tail'd coat;
Then ample mail his form embraced,
Not like a weasel or a stoat,
"Cribb'd and confined" about the waist,
And pinch'd in like Dick's long-tail'd coat
With beamy spear or biting ax,
To right and left he thrust and smote--
Ah! what a change! no sinewy thwacks
Fall from a modern long-tail'd coati
More changes still! now, well-a-day!
A few cant phrases learned by rote,
Each beardless booby spouts away,
A Solon, in a long-tail'd coat!
Prates of the "March of Intellect"--
"The Schoolmaster." A PATRIOTE
So noble, who could e'er suspect
Had just put on a long-tail'd coat?
Alack! alack! that every thick-
Skull'd lad must find an antidote
For England's woes, because, like Dick,
He has put on a long-tail'd coat!