As Nero Laughing saw the flames consume

First Line As Nero Laughing saw the flames consume
Author [Anonymous]
Description

Essay [Public affairs; Historical subjects].

Transcribed from "Nero the Second, Monstrum Horrendum," English Jacobite Ballads, Songs & Satires, etc. From the MSS. at Towneley Hall, Lancashire. ed. by Alexander B. Grosart, 1877, Lancashire, pp. 6–8. Hathi Trust, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/coo1.ark:/13960/t7hq4gz7v.

Transcription

As Nero Laughing saw the flames consume,

The worlds Metropolis Imperial Rome;

So George unpitying greived[sic] & Senseless sneered,

When England's Capital in flames appeared;

Nor is the paralell[sic] to them confined,

If we compare their guilt of every kind;

Nero possessed Britannicus's Crown,

George has usurped our royal James's throne;

Nero with thundering Edicts first began,

To try the terrors of his brutal reign;

George by his furious proclamations shews,

A Spirit prone to rage, averse to Laws;

Nero in masks & revels spent the night,

George for the business of the throne unfit,

In Plays & Balls and Junkets does delight:

Nero with Horror of his crimes grew mad,

Scar'd by the Ghosts of those whose Blood he shed:

George conscious of his murders, gloomy sits,

Worn out with spleen & Hippocondriac fits;

Not all his feasts can drown his inward care,

For murdered Loyalists are present there;

Such is our George & such we find his court,

Where royal Ideots[sic] with their train resort;

Where William struts with patriot Blood besmear'd,

Where Bullies swarm, & ruffians are preferred;

Where Atheists, Turks, and Bawds the Throne surround;

And a strange monster (Ministry) compound;

Oh free Born Britons, since a Tyrant reigns,

Assert your Liberty, shake off your Chains;

Let us in justice rival antient Rome,

Let Nero's'[sic] vices meet with Nero's doom,

And then call James your King from Exile home.