Punch (66.1874)

June 27, 1874.]

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

iii

50

QO many times they jousted in the lists,

^ Municipal and Parliamentary,

All lists that open for all tournament,

Sir Wilfrid the Permissive, known besides
As the Prohibitory, or—two names
Of counter-meaning in cross meaning joined—

As the Permissive and Prohibitory,

And he, the Wittier-warrior, stout Sir Bung
For once Sir Wilfrid, in Caerleon,

Holding high feast with his Teetotallers,

Plad sworn to lay Sir Bung low in the lists,

And after take him captive, and in bonds
Bind hand and foot, for his Teetotallers
To make their mock, and wreak tneir will of him.

And now, through all the land was blown the shock
Of hobby against hobby, steel on steel,

And trumpet answering trumpet, throats of brass,

Either defying other, and both Truth

And Sense and Logic, for what strengths are these

In the encounter of such opposites

To stand, and. not be trampled in the dust ?

High-seated, with one hunch prone-beaked before,

Clad in red samite, mystic, wonderful,

pall.

And one behind, tip-tilted, Punch, the King
Of that great joust, and all the jousts that are
Or have been, or shall be, on English ground.

The King that knows, as non^ but he hath known,
With knowledge baffling knowledge to say when,

Or where, or whence, or how he came by it,

Betwixt opposing edges, points opposed,

To fling his warder, that, so flung, compels,

In spite of melee-madness, clash of brass,

And ranks that ride a outrance against ranks,
Wrath to good-will, and good to better will,

And better will to best—a blameless King,

Knowing his knights, the length of each man’s foot,
And each man’s head, and how to handicap,
Another Rous and yet a better Rous,

Their hobbies for encounter, in the lists
At Westminster, when on the tower the light
Flares, and the Speaker, spent, nods in his chair,
Twixt stuffiness above and stuff below,

Bude-lignts and boredom, and all men, save Punch,
Wax wild for wilfulness and weariness.

Sir Wilfrid's helm was of the kettle’s form