low--
Give us your hand my honest fellow.

_Tooke._ Charles, for a shuffler long I've known thee,
But come--for once I'll not disown thee,
And since with patriot zeal thou burnest,
With thee I'll live--or hang in earnest.

But the most celebrated of these poems is "The Friend of Humanity, and
The Knife-Grinder"--

_Friend of Humanity._ Needy knife-grinder! whither are you going?
Rough is the road, your wheel is out of order,
Bleak blows the blast; your hat has got a hole in't,
So have your breeches!
Weary knife-grinder! little think the proud ones,
Who in their coaches roll along the turnpike-road,
What hard work 'tis crying all day, "knives and
Scissors to grind, O!"
Tell me, knife-grinder, how you came to grind knives?
Did some rich man tyranically use you?
Was it the squire? or parson of the parish?
Or the attorney?
Was it the squire for killing of his game? or
Covetous parson for his tithes distraining?
Or roguish lawyer, made you lose your little
All in a lawsuit?
(Have you not read the "Rights of Man" by Tom Paine?)
Drops of compassion tremble on my eyelids,
Ready to fall as soon as you have told your
Pitiful story.
_Knife-grinder._ Story! God bless you! I have none to tell, Sir;
Only last night a-drinking at the 'Chequers,'
This poor old hat and breeches, as you see, were
Torn in a scuffle.
Constables came up for to take me into
Custody; they took me before the justice,
Justice Oldmixon put me in the parish-
Stocks for a vagrant.
I should be glad to drink your honour's health in
A pot of beer, if you will give me sixpence,
But for my part I never love to meddle
With politics, Sir.
_Friend of Humanity._ I give thee sixpence! I will see thee d----d first!
Wretch! whom no sense of wrong can rouse to vengeance!
Sordid! unfeeling! reprobate! degraded!
Spiritless outcast!

(_Kicks the knife-grinder, overturns his wheel, and exit in a transport
of Republican enthusiasm and universal philanthropy._)

This poem, written as a parody of "The Widow" of Southey, is said to
have annihilated English Sapphics. Various attempts were formerly made
to adapt classic metres to English; not only Gabriel Harvey but Sir
Philip Sydney tried to bring in hexameters. Beattie says the attempt was
ridiculous, but since Longfellow's "Evang