THE FIRST OF MAY A NEW VERSION OF A CELEBRATED MODERN BALLAD BY ANNA HARRIET DRURY AUTHORESS OF FRIENDS AND FORTUNE, ETC. Sixth Edition [Illustration: colophon] LONDON WILLIAM PICKERING 1851 [Illustration] THE FIRST OF MAY. Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg By the Cinque Ports he swore, He’d make an Exhibition That was never seen before. By the Cinque Ports he swore it, And named an opening day: And letters wrote to left and right, To bid the universe unite Upon the First of May. Left and right the letters went, To city, realm, and coast; And answers came most civilly, By the return of post. Shame on the lazy Nation, That will not join her share, With Albert and Britannia, To swell the World’s great Fair! The parcels and the packages Come bundling in amain, By many a creaking waggon; By many a flying train; By many a van of Pickford’s, That filled with ponderous care, Makes every passer by exclaim, “Good gracious, just look there!” From autocratic Russia, Where growls the unctuous Bear, Who covers native Poles with grief, And British polls with hair; From France, the land of elegance, And witty elocution, Whose clever hands make all things well Except a constitution; From the far-off Republic, On Transatlantic waves, Who blazons stars of liberty Upon the stripes of slaves; From where the Alpine snows surround The workshops of the free; From where in fettered sadness burns The muse of Italy! * * * * * The Prince and the Commission A weary life they led: No time had they for dining, And rather less for bed. They couldn’t choose a building, They couldn’t find a site: And our good Queen Victoria Grew tired--as well she might. For good advice in pamphlets, And prophecies in calf, And groans to make him shudder, And sneers to make him laugh, And hints and threats and warnings, Plan, diagram, and view, Choked up the Prince’s davenport, And filled his pockets too. “To eastward and to westward,” ’Twas said, “alarm is spreading; “The foreigners will eat us “Out of house and home and bedding; “Taxation will be trebled, “And sadder far to tell, “Thanks to the horrid papers, “_The tickets will not sell!_”