1. ۱Fee, faw, fum! bubble and squeak!
2. ۲Blessedest Thursday's the fat of the week.
3. ۳Rumble and tumble, sleek and rough,
4. ۴Stinking and savoury, smug and gruff,
5. ۵Take the church-road, for the bell's due chime
6. ۶Gives us the summons--'tis sermon-time!
7. ۷
8. ۸Boh, here's Barnabas! Job, that's you?
9. ۹Up stumps Solomon--bustling too?
10. ۱۰Shame, man! greedy beyond your years
11. ۱۱To handsel the bishop's shaving-shears?
12. ۱۲Fair play's a jewel! Leave friends in the lurch?
13. ۱۳Stand on a line ere you start for the church!
14. ۱۴
15. ۱۵Higgledy piggledy, packed we lie,
16. ۱۶Rats in a hamper, swine in a stye,
17. ۱۷Wasps in a bottle, frogs in a sieve,
18. ۱۸Worms in a carcase, fleas in a sleeve.
19. ۱۹Hist! square shoulders, settle your thumbs
20. ۲۰And buzz for the bishop--here he comes.
21. ۲۱
22. ۲۲Bow, wow, wow--a bone for the dog!
23. ۲۳I liken his Grace to an acorned hog.
24. ۲۴What, a boy at his side, with the bloom of a lass,
25. ۲۵To help and handle my lord's hour-glass!
26. ۲۶Didst ever behold so lithe a chine?
27. ۲۷His cheek hath laps like a fresh-singed swine.
28. ۲۸
29. ۲۹Aaron's asleep--shove hip to haunch,
30. ۳۰Or somebody deal him a dig in the paunch!
31. ۳۱Look at the purse with the tassel and knob
32. ۳۲And the gown with the angel and thingumbob!
33. ۳۳What's he at, quotha? reading his text!
34. ۳۴Now you've his curtsey--and what comes next?
35. ۳۵
36. ۳۶See to our converts--you doomed black dozen--
37. ۳۷No stealing away--nor cog nor cozen!
38. ۳۸You five, that were thieves, deserve it fairly;
39. ۳۹You seven, that were beggars, will live less sparely;
40. ۴۰You took your turn and dipped in the hat,
41. ۴۱Got fortune--and fortune gets you; mind that!
42. ۴۲
43. ۴۳Give your first groan--compunction's at work
44. ۴۴And soft! from a Jew you mount to a Turk.
45. ۴۵Lo, Micah,--the selfsame beard on chin
46. ۴۶He was four times already converted in!
47. ۴۷Here's a knife, clip quick--it's a sign of grace--
48. ۴۸Or he ruins us all with his hanging-face.
49. ۴۹
50. ۵۰Whom now is the bishop a-leering at?
51. ۵۱I know a point where his text falls pat.
52. ۵۲I'll tell him to-morrow, a word just now
53. ۵۳Went to my heart and made me vow
54. ۵۴I meddle no more with the worst of trades--
55. ۵۵Let somebody else pay his serenades.
56. ۵۶
57. ۵۷Groan all together now, whee-hee-hee!
58. ۵۸It's a-work, it's a-work, ah, woe is me!
59. ۵۹It began, when a herd of us, picked and placed,
60. ۶۰Were spurred through the Corso, stripped to the waist;
61. ۶۱Jew brutes, with sweat and blood well spent
62. ۶۲To usher in worthily Christian Lent.
63. ۶۳
64. ۶۴It grew, when the hangman entered our bounds,
65. ۶۵Yelled, pricked us out to his church like hounds:
66. ۶۶It got to a pitch, when the hand indeed
67. ۶۷Which gutted my purse would throttle my creed:
68. ۶۸And it overflows when, to even the odd,
69. ۶۹Men I helped to their sins help me to their God.
70. ۷۰
71. ۷۱But now, while the scapegoats leave our flock,
72. ۷۲And the rest sit silent and count the clock,
73. ۷۳Since forced to muse the appointed time
74. ۷۴On these precious facts and truths sublime,
75. ۷۵Let us fitly employ it, under our breath,
76. ۷۶In saying Ben Ezra's Song of Death.
77. ۷۷
78. ۷۸For Rabbi Ben Ezra, the night he died,
79. ۷۹Called sons and sons' sons to his side,
80. ۸۰And spoke, "This world has been harsh and strange;
81. ۸۱Something is wrong: there needeth change.
82. ۸۲But what, or where? at the last or first?
83. ۸۳In one point only we sinned, at worst.
84. ۸۴
85. ۸۵"The Lord will have mercy on Jacob yet,
86. ۸۶And again in his border see Israel set.
87. ۸۷When Judah beholds Jerusalem,
88. ۸۸The stranger-seed shall be joined to them:
89. ۸۹To Jacob's House shall the Gentiles cleave.
90. ۹۰So the Prophet saith and his sons believe.
91. ۹۱
92. ۹۲"Ay, the children of the chosen race
93. ۹۳Shall carry and bring them to their place:
94. ۹۴In the land of the Lord shall lead the same
95. ۹۵Bondsmen and handmaids. Who shall blame,
96. ۹۶When the slaves enslave, the oppressed ones o'er
97. ۹۷The oppressor triumph for evermore?
98. ۹۸
99. ۹۹"God spoke, and gave us the word to keep,
100. ۱۰۰Bade never fold the hands nor sleep
101. ۱۰۱'Mid a faithless world, at watch and ward,
102. ۱۰۲Till Christ at the end relieve our guard.
103. ۱۰۳By His servant Moses the watch was set:
104. ۱۰۴Though near upon ...-crow, we keep it yet.
105. ۱۰۵
106. ۱۰۶"Thou! if thou wast He, who at mid-watch came,
107. ۱۰۷By the starlight, naming a dubious name!
108. ۱۰۸And if, too heavy with sleep--too rash
109. ۱۰۹With fear--O Thou, if that martyr-gash
110. ۱۱۰Fell on Thee coming to take thine own,
111. ۱۱۱And we gave the Cross, when we owed the Throne--
112. ۱۱۲
113. ۱۱۳"Thou art the Judge. We are bruised thus.
114. ۱۱۴But, the Judgment over, join sides with us!
115. ۱۱۵Thine too is the cause! and not more thine
116. ۱۱۶Than ours, is the work of these dogs and swine,
117. ۱۱۷Whose life laughs through and spits at their creed!
118. ۱۱۸Who maintain Thee in word, and defy Thee in deed!
119. ۱۱۹
120. ۱۲۰"We withstood Christ then? Be mindful how
121. ۱۲۱At least we withstand Barabbas now!
122. ۱۲۲Was our outrage sore? But the worst we spared,
123. ۱۲۳To have called these--Christians, had we dared!
124. ۱۲۴Let defiance to them pay mistrust of Thee,
125. ۱۲۵And Rome make amends for Calvary!
126. ۱۲۶
127. ۱۲۷"By the torture, prolonged from age to age,
128. ۱۲۸By the infamy, Israel's heritage,
129. ۱۲۹By the Ghetto's plague, by the garb's disgrace,
130. ۱۳۰By the badge of shame, by the felon's place,
131. ۱۳۱By the branding-tool, the bloody whip,
132. ۱۳۲And the summons to Christian fellowship,--
133. ۱۳۳
134. ۱۳۴"We boast our proof that at least the Jew
135. ۱۳۵Would wrest Christ's name from the Devil's crew.
136. ۱۳۶Thy face took never so deep a shade
137. ۱۳۷But we fought them in it, God our aid!
138. ۱۳۸A trophy to bear, as we march, thy band,
139. ۱۳۹South, East, and on to the Pleasant Land!"