"The House-of-Commons Damocles of words-- Above him, hanging by a single hair, On each harangue depend some hostile Swords; And deems he that we _always_ will forbear? Although Defiance oft declined affords A blotted shield no Shire's true knight would wear: Thersites of the House. Parolles[*B] of Law, The double Bobadill[*C] takes Scorn for Awe. V. "How noble is his language--never pert-- How grand his sentiments which ne'er run riot! As when he swore 'by God he'd sell his shirt To head the poll!' I wonder who would buy it The skin has passed through such a deal of dirt In grovelling on to power--such stains now dye it-- So black the long-worn Lion's hide in hue, You'd swear his very heart had sweated through. VI. "Panting for power--as harts for cooling streams-- Yet half afraid to venture for the draught; A go-between, yet blundering in extremes, And tossed along the vessel fore and aft; Now shrinking back, now midst the first he seems, Patriot by force, and courtisan[*D] by craft; Quick without wit, and violent without strength-- A disappointed Lawyer, at full length. VII. "A strange example of the force of Law, And hasty temper on a kindling mind-- Are these the dreams his young Ambition saw? Poor fellow! he had better far been blind! I'm sorry thus to probe a wound so raw-- But, then, as Bard my duty to Mankind, For warning to the rest, compels these raps-- As Geographers lay down a Shoal in Maps." [[*A] For Brougham's Fabian tactics with regard to duelling, _vide post_, Canto XIII. stanza lxxxiv. line 1, p. 506, note 1.] [[*B] _Vide post_, Canto XIII. stanza lxxxiv. line 1, p. 506, note 1.] [[*C] For "Captain Bobadill, a Paul's man," see Ben Jonson's _Every Man in his Humour_, act iv. sc. 5, _et passim_.] [[*D] The _N. Eng. Dict._, quotes a passage in _Phil. Trans._, iv. 286 (1669), as the latest instance of "courtisan" for "courtier."] NOTE TO THE ANNEXED STANZAS ON BROUGHAM.