The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-09-01 00:00:00

Listen, sirs, it followeth thus :
" The gallant Bruin march'd next him,
With visage forniidably grim,
And rugged as a Saracen,
Or Turk of Mahomet's own kin,
Clad in a mantle de la gtierre
Of lough impenetrable fur ;
And in his nose, like Indian king,
He wore for ornament a ring ;
About his neck a three-fold gurget,
As rough as trebled leathern target ;
Armed, as heralds cant, and langued,
Or, as the vulgar say, sharp-fanged.
He was by birth, some authors write,
A Russian, some a Muscovite,
And 'mong the Cossacks had been bred :
Scrimansky was his cousin german,
With whoth he served, and fed on vermin;
And when these fail'd, he'd suck his claws,
And quarter himself upon his paws.
" His tawney beard was th' equal grace
Both of his wisdom and his face ;
In cut and dye so like a tile,
A sudden view it would beguile;
The upper part whereof was whey,
The nether orange mix'd with grey.
His thread of life the fatal sisters
Did twist together with his whiskers,
And twine so close that time should never,
In life or death, their fortunes sever,
But with his rusty sickle mow
Both down together at a blow.
" His back, or rather burthen, show'd
As if it stoop'd with its own load,
For as iEneas bore his sire •
Upon his shoulders through the fire,
Our knight did bear no less a pack
Of his own buttocks on his back.
To poise this equally he bore
A paunch of the same bulk before,
Which still lie had a special care
To keep well cramm'd with thrifty fare.
" His doublet was of sturdy buff,
And though not sword, yet cudgel proof,
Whereby 'twas fitter for his use,
Who fear'd no blows but such as bruise.
" His breeches were of rugged woollen,
And had been at the siege of Bullen,
To old King Harry so well known,
Some writers held they were his own.
" His puissant sword unto-his side,
Near his undaunted heart was ty'd,
With basket hilt, that would hold broth,
And serve for fight find dinner both.
It was a serviceable dudgeon,
Either for lighting, or for drudging;
When it had stabb'd or broke a head,
It would scrape trenchers or chip bread,
Toast cheese or bacon, though it were
To bait a mouse trap, 'twould not care."

Power—the laughter-making, fun-creating Power—in the
course of his very clever personation of Tim Moore, the tra-
velling tailor, and the -unauthorised representative of Mr.
Thomas Moore, the spinner of rhymes, in the well-written
farce of the " Irish Lion," says, " Misther Wadd, Misther
Wadd, I'm a writin' me thravels, Misther Wadd, an' me
observations, an' I shall divide me book into chapthers,
Misther Wadd, and clap a piece ov poethry ov me own coin-
posin' on the top ov 'em, to make the prose slip down swate."
My readers cannot fail to have observed that. I have, in
humble imitation of Sir Walter Scott, and of the most re-
spectable authority just quoted, " clapped a piece ov poe-
thry," though not of " me own composin'," at the head of
nearly every one of my most imperfect sketches of " Poli-
tical Characters" ; and I have done so, I frankly confess,
" to make the prose slip down swate."—(N.B. The reason
why I don't quote my own poetry is, that a friend of mine,
the editor of the " Literary Tomahawk," once told me that
it was not more than five hundred times better than Sir Lyt-
ton Bulwer's.)—The " poethry" this week is of rather. un-
usual length, but that is on account of the individual to
whom it refers. When children have to take only a tea-
spoonful of physic, a lump of sugar will be sufficient to coax
it down ; but when the bitter draught fills a teacup; a trifle
less than a quarter of a pound of the sugary mixture will be
absolutely required. And as with children taking physic, so
with the readers of the sketches of " Political Characters."
Not more than two or three lines of " poethry" are needed
to make a sketch, however imperfect it may be, of such an
excellent and distinguished man as the Earl of Aberdeen
meet with attention ; but it is absolutely necessary that a
yard and a half of rhyme, good measure too, be prefixed to
a sketch of a Brummagem M.P., especially such an one as
he whose name appears at the head of this column, if one
would have it read at all. And now, my dear Mr. Reader,
after this explanation, which I perceive, by the amiable ex-
pression of your phi; is perfectly satisfactory, we will pro-
eeed to business.