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Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745

"The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume 2"

, were posted. It was invariably called the
Touls'el by the lower class.]
[Footnote 3: It would appear that the chorus here introduced, was
intended to chime with the howl, the _ululatus_, or funeral cry, of the
Irish.]
[Footnote 4: Swift, it is said, caused a muffled peal to be rung from the
steeple of St. Patrick's, on the day of the proclamation, and a black
flag to be displayed from its battlements.--_Scott_.]
[Footnote 5: The big man of straw, means the Duke of Dorset,
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland; he had only the name of authority, the
essential power being vested in the primate.]
[Footnote 6: Jug-Joulter means Primate _Boulter_, whose name is played
upon in the succeeding line. In consequence of the public dissatisfaction
expressed at the lowering the gold coin, the primate became very
unpopular.]
[Footnote 7: "Footmen" alludes to a supporter of the measure, said to
have been the son or grandson of a servant.]
[Footnote 8: Means _"my hundred thousand hearty curses_ on the feeders of
swine."]


A WICKED TREASONABLE LIBEL[1]
While the king and his ministers keep such a pother,
And all about changing one whore for another,
Think I to myself, what need all this strife,
His majesty first had a whore of a wife,
And surely the difference mounts to no more
Than, now he has gotten a wife of a whore.


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