Lollius

Why gird at Lollius if he care     To purchase in the citys sight,     With nard and roses for his hair,     The name of Knight?     Son of unmitigated sires     Enriched by trade in Afric corn,     His wealth allows, his wife requires,     Him to be born.     Him slaves shall serve with zeal renewed     At lesser wage for longer whiles,     And school- and station-masters rude     Receive with smiles.     His bowels shall be sought in charge     By learned doctors; all his sons     And nubile daughters shall enlarge     Their horizons.     For fierce she-Britons, apt to smite     Their upward-climbing sisters down,     Shall smooth their plumes and oft invite     The brood to town.     For these delights will he disgorge     The State enormous benefice,     But, by the head of either George,     He pays not twice!     Whom neither lust for public pelf,     Nor itch to make orations, vex,     Content to honour his own self     With his own cheques,     That man is clean. At least, his house     Springs cleanly from untainted gold,     Not from a conscience or a spouse     Sold and resold.     Time was, you say, before men knew     Such arts, and rose by Virtue guided?     The tables rock with laughter, you     Not least derided.