A COUNSEL in the Common Pleas, Who was esteemed a mighty wit, Upon the strength of a chance hit Amid a thousand flippancies, And his occasional bad jokes In bullying, bantering, browbeating, Ridiculing, and maltreating Women, or other timid folks, In a late cause resolved to hoax A clownish Yorkshire farmer -- one Who, by his uncouth look and gait, Appeared expressly meant by Fate For being quizzed and played upon: So having tipped the wink to those In the back rows, Who kept their laughter bottled down, Until our wag should draw the cork, He smiled jocosely on the clown, And went to work. "Well, Farmer Numscull, how go calves at York?" "Why -- not, sir, as they do wi' you, But on four legs, instead of two." "Officer!" cried the legal elf, Piqued at the laugh against himself, "Do pray keep silence down below there. Now look at me, clown, and attend; Have I not seen you somewhere, friend?" "Yees -- very like -- I often go there." "Our rustic's waggish -- quite laconic," The counsel cried, with grin sardonic; "I wish I'd known this prodigy, This genius of the clods, when I On circuit was at York residing. Now, Farmer, do for once speak true -- Mind, you're on oath, so tell me, you, Who doubtless think yourself so clever, Are there as many fools as ever In the West Riding?" "Why -- no, sir, no; we've got our share, But not so many as when @3you@1 were there!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ELEGY ON MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE by WILLIAM BASSE LINES WRITTEN IN THE ALBUM AT ELBINGERODE, IN HARTZ FOREST by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE COLUMBUS [JANUARY, 1487] by LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY ODES: BOOK 1: ODE 12. TO SIR FRANCIS HENRY DRAKE, BARONET by MARK AKENSIDE THE HANDSOME KNIGHT by MUHAMMAD AL-MU'TAMID II BLUE CANTON-WARE by SARAH A. ATHEARN |