No More Learning

5.

Let the Priest, who beguiled
His own Sovereign's child
To his own dirty views of promotion,
Wear his Sheep's cloathing still
Among flocks to his will,
And dishonour the Cause of devotion.

6.

The Altar and Throne
Are in danger alone
From such as himself, who would render
The Altar itself
But a step up to Pelf,
And pray God to pay his defender.

7.

But, Doctor, one word
Which perhaps you have heard
"He should never throw stones who has windows
Of Glass to be broken,
And by this same token
As a sinner, you can't care what Sin does.

8.

But perhaps you do well:
Your own windows, they tell,
Have long ago suffered censure;
Not a fragment remains
Of your character's panes,
Since the Regent refused you a glazier.

9.

Though your visions of lawn
Have all been withdrawn,
And you missed your bold stroke for a mitre;
In a very snug way
You may still preach and pray,
And from bishop sink into backbiter! "

[First published, _Works_ (Galignani), 1831, p. 116. ]

FOOTNOTES:

[127] [George Frederick Nott (1767-1841), critic and divine, was Rector
of Harrietsham and Woodchurch, a Prebendary of Winchester and of
Salisbury. He was Bampton Lecturer in 1802, and, soon afterwards, was
appointed sub-preceptor to the Princess Charlotte of Wales. He was a
connoisseur of architecture and painting, and passed much of his time in
Italy and at Rome.
When he was at Pisa he preached in a private room in
the basement story of the house in Pisa where Shelley was living, and
fell under Byron's displeasure for attacking the Satanic school, and
denouncing _Cain_ as a blasphemous production. "The parsons," he told
Moore (letter, February 20, 1820), "preached at it [_Cain_] from Kentish
Town to Pisa. " Hence the apostrophe to Dr. Nott. (See _Records of
Shelley, Byron, and the Author_, by E. T. Trelawny, 1887, pp. 302, 303. )]

[128] [According to Lady Anne Hamilton (_Secret History of the Court of
England_, 1832, i. 198-207), the Princess Charlotte incurred the
suspicion and displeasure of her uncles and her grandmother, the Queen,
by displaying an ardent and undue interest in her sub-preceptor. On
being reproved by the Queen for "condescending to favour persons in low
life with confidence or particular respect, persons likely to take
advantage of your simplicity and innocence," and having learnt that
"persons" meant Mr. Nott, she replied by threatening to sign a will in
favour of her sub-preceptor, and by actually making over to him by a
deed her library, jewels, and all other private property. Lady Anne
Hamilton is not an accurate or trustworthy authority, but her extremely
circumstantial narrative was, no doubt, an expansion of the contemporary
scandal to which Byron's lampoon gave currency. ]


LUCIETTA. A FRAGMENT.

LUCIETTA, my deary,
That fairest of faces!