The Humourous Poetry of the English Language

89
ECONOMY.
PETER PINDAR.
Economy's a very useful broom;
Yet should not ceaseless hunt about the room
To catch each straggling pin to make a plumb:
Too oft Economy's an iron vice,
That squeezes even the little guts of mice,
That peep with fearful eyes, and ask a crumb.
Proper Economy's a comely thing--
Good in a subject--better in a king;
Yet pushed too far, it dulls each finer feeling--
Most easily inclined to make folks mean;
Inclines them too, to villainy to lean,
To over-reaching, perjury, and stealing.
Even when the heart should only think of grief
It creeps into the bosom like a thief,
And swallows up th' affections all so mild--Witness the Jewess, and her
only child:--
THE JEWESS AND HER SON
Poor Mistress Levi had a luckless son,
Who, rushing to obtain the foremost seat,
In imitation of th' ambitious great,
High from the gallery, ere the play begun,
He fell all plump into the pit,
Dead in a minute as a nit:
In short, he broke his pretty Hebrew neck;
Indeed and very dreadful was the wreck!
The mother was distracted, raving, wild--
Shrieked, tore her hair, embraced and kissed her child--
Afflicted every heart with grief around:
Soon as the shower of tears was somewhat past,