Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Composite volume > Spirit of the nation

SS SPIRIT OF THE NATIOH",
THE LIO]^ AND THE SERPENT.
AN arms' bill fable.
In days of old the Serpent came
To the Lion's rocky hall.
And the forest king spread the sward with gamej
And they drank at the torrent's fall ;
And the Serpent saw that the woods were fair,
And she long'd to make her dwelling there.
But she saw that her host had a knack of his own.
At tearing a sinew or cracking a hone,
And had grinders unpleasantly strong ;
So she said to herself, " I'll bamboozle the king
With my plausible speech, and all that sort of thing.
That, since Eve, to my people belong :
"These claAvs and those grinders must certainly be
Inconvenient to you as they're dreadful to me —
Draw 'em out, like a love, I'm so 'frighted !
And, then, since I've long had an amorous eye on
Yourself and your property, dear Mr. Lion,
"We can be (spare my blushes) united."
So subtle the pow'r of her poisonous kisses.
So deadly to honour the falsehood she hisses.
The lion for once is an ass.
Before her, disarmed, the simpleton stands,
The Union's proclaimed, but the hymen'al bands
Are ponderous fetters of brass.
The Lion, self-conquer'd, is chained on the ground,
And the breath of his tyrant sheds poison around
The fame and the life of her slave.
How long in his torture the stricken king lay
Historians omit, but 'tis knoAvn that one day
The Serpent began to look grave ;
For when passing, as usual, her thrall with a sneer,
She derisively hiss'd some new taunt in his ear —
He shook all his chains with a roar ;