The Humourous Poetry of the English Language

352
Your chestnuts burn--c'est une Idee
Napoleonienne.
To clutch and keep the lion's share--
To kill or drive away
The wolves, that you upon the lambs
May, unmolested, prey--
To keep a gang of jackals fierce
To guard and stock your den,
While you lie down--c'est une Idee
Napoleonienne.
To bribe the base, to crush the good,
And bring them to their knees--
To stick at nothing, or to stick
At what or whom you please--
To stoop, to lie, to brag, to swear,
Forswear, and swear again--
To rise--Ah! voia des Idees
Napoleoniennes.
THE LAY OF THE LOVER'S FRIEND
WILLIAM AYTOUN
Air--"The days we went a-gipsying."
I would all womankind were dead,
Or banished o'er the sea;
For they have been a bitter plague
These last six weeks to me:
It is not that I'm touched myself,
For that I do not fear;
No female face hath shown me grace
For many a bygone year.
But 'tis the most infernal bore,
Of all the bores I know,
To have a friend who's lost his heart
A short time ago.