Courtenay, John

LETTER VII. Naples
(excerpt)

1. Naples, April 16th, 1793.
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3. HOW I love Naples, so frolic, and gay,
4. Its skies are so bright, so delightful its bay…
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6. Here tribes of wise Lawyers in robes most decorus,
7. Snap, wrange, and scold, and bawl in full chorus ;
8. The client is beggar’d, the knave his cash gathers,
9. So the fox eats the goose, leaves the farmer the feathers.
10. ‘Tis said how a Pope, mov’d by pity divine,
11. In a famine at Rome, sent to Naples for swine ;
12. Thirty thousand at least, Marquis Carpio in hope
13. To save such a herd, yet not anger the Pope,
14. Devoutly reply’d—-Blessed Father I swear,
15. In Lawyers I’ll pay you, the pigs I can’t spare.