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William Hogarth

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James Gillray

A soldier maim'd, and in the beggar's list,
Didthus address a well-fed pluralist:

SOLDIER.

A

T Gaudaloupe my leg and thigh I lost,
   No pension have I, the' its right I boast;

Your rev'rence please some charity bestow,
Heaven will pay you double — when you're there — you know.

PLURALIST.

   "Heaven pay me double ! vagrant, know that I
" Ne'er give to strollers; they're so apt to lie :
" Your parish and some work would you become ;
" So haste away; — or constable's your doom.

SOL.

   May't please your rev'rence, hear my case, and then
You'll say I'm poorer than the most of men.
When Marlbro' sieged Lisle I first drew breath,
And there my father met untimely death ;
My mother follow 'd of a broken heart,
So I've no friend or parish for my part.

PLU.

   " I say begone " — With that he loudly knocks,
And Timbertoe began to smell the stocks :
Away he stumps: — but in a rood or two,
He clear'd his weasand and his thoughts broke thro.'

COL.

   Thus 'tis to beg of those who sometimes preach
Calm charity, and all the virtues teach ;
But their disguise to common sense is thin,
A pocket button'd ; — hypocrite within!
Send me, kind heaven, the well-tan'd captain's face,
Who gives me twelve-pence, and a curse, with grace :
But let me not in house, or lane, or street,
Those treble pension'd parsons ever meet :
And when I die, may I still number'd be
With the rough soldier to eternity.