The Careless Good Fellow Analysis

1A pox of this fooling, and plotting of late,
2What a pother, and stir has it kept in the state?
3Let the rabble run mad with suspicions, and fears,
4Let them scuffle, and jar, till they go by the ears:
5Their grievances never shall trouble my pate,
6So I can enjoy my dear bottle at quiet.

7What coxcombs were those, who would barter their ease
8And their necks for a toy, a thin wafer and mass?
9At old Tyburn they never had needed to swing,
10Had they been but true subjects to drink, and their king;
11A friend, and a bottle is all my design;
12He has no room for treason, that's top-full of wine.

13I mind not the members and makers of laws,
14Let them sit or prorogue, as his majesty please:
15Let them damn us to woollen, I'll never repine
16At my lodging, when dead, so alive I have wine:
17Yet oft in my drink I can hardly forbear
18To curse them for making my claret so dear.

19I mind not grave asses, who idly debate
20About right and succession, the trifles of state;
21We've a good king already: and he deserves laughter
22That will trouble his head with who shall come after:
23Come, here's to his health, and I wish he may be
24As free from all care, and all trouble, as we.

25What care I how leagues with the Hollander go?
26Or intrigues betwixt Sidney, and Monsieur D'Avaux?
27What concerns it my drinking, if Cassel be sold,
28If the conqueror take it by storming, or gold?
29Good Bordeaux alone is the place that I mind,
30And when the fleet's coming, I pray for a wind.

31The bully of France, that aspires to renown
32By dull cutting of throats, and vent'ring his own;
33Let him fight and be damn'd, and make matches and treat,
34To afford the news-mongers, and coffee-house chat:
35He's but a brave wretch, while I am more free,
36More safe, and a thousand times happier than he.

37Come he, or the Pope, or the Devil to boot,
38Or come faggot, and stake; I care not a groat;
39Never think that in Smithfield I porters will heat:
40No, I swear, Mr. Fox, pray excuse me for that.
41I'll drink in defiance of gibbet, and halter,
42This is the profession, that never will alter.

There have been no submitted criqiques, be the first to add one below.