Hold on thy course uncheck'd, heroic Wood! <br />Regardless what the player's son may prate, <br />Saint Stephens' fool, the Zany of Debate- <br />Who nothing generous ever understood. <br />London's twice Prætor! scorn the fool-born jest- <br />The stage's scum, and refuse of the players- <br />Stale topics against Magistrates and Mayors- <br />City and Country both thy worth attest. <br />Bid him leave off his shallow Eton wit, <br />More fit to sooth the superficial ear <br />Of drunken Pitt, and that pickpocket Peer, <br />When at their sottish orgies they did sit, <br />Hatching mad counsels from inflated vein, <br />Till England, and the nations, reeled with pain. <br /> <br /> <br />R. et R.<br /><br />Charles Lamb<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnet-to-mathew-wood-esq-alderman-and-m-p/
