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New Hospital For Sick Literati.

By Thomas Moore

Topics: classic

With all humility we beg     To inform the public, that Tom Tegg--     Known for his spunky speculations     In buying up dead reputations,     And by a mode of galvanizing     Which, all must own, is quite surprising,     Making dead authors move again,     As tho' they still were living men;--     All this too managed, in a trice,     By those two magic words, "Half Price,"     Which brings the charm so quick about,     That worn-out poets, left without     A second foot whereon to stand,     Are made to go at second hand;--     'Twill please the public, we repeat,     To learn that Tegg who works this feat,     And therefore knows what care it needs     To keep alive Fame's invalids,     Has oped an Hospital in town,     For cases of knockt-up renown--     Falls, fractures, dangerous Epic fits     (By some called Cantoes), stabs from wits;     And of all wounds for which they're nurst,     Dead cuts from publishers, the worst;--     All these, and other such fatalities,     That happen to frail immortalities,     By Tegg are so expertly treated,     That oft-times, when the cure's completed,     The patient's made robust enough     To stand a few more rounds of puff,     Till like the ghosts of Dante's lay     He's puft into thin air away!     As titled poets (being phenomenons)     Dont like to mix with low and common 'uns,     Tegg's Hospital has separate wards,     Express for literary lords,     Where prose-peers, of immoderate length,     Are nurst, when they've outgrown their strength,     And poets, whom their friends despair of,     Are--put to bed and taken care of.     Tegg begs to contradict a story     Now current both with Whig and Tory,     That Doctor Warburton, M.P.,     Well known for his antipathy,     His deadly hate, good man, to all     The race of poets great and small--     So much, that he's been heard to own,     He would most willingly cut down     The holiest groves on Pindus' mount,     To turn the timber to account!--     The story actually goes, that he     Prescribes at Tegg's Infirmary;     And oft not only stints for spite     The patients in their copy-right,     But that, on being called in lately     To two sick poets suffering greatly,     This vaticidal Doctor sent them     So strong a dose of Jeremy Bentham,     That one of the poor bards but cried,     "Oh, Jerry, Jerry!" and then died;     While t'other, tho' less stuff was given,     Is on his road, 'tis feared, to heaven!     Of this event, howe'er unpleasant,     Tegg means to say no more at present,--     Intending shortly to prepare     A statement of the whole affair,     With full accounts, at the same time,     Of some late cases (prose and rhyme),     Subscribed with every author's name,     That's now on the Sick List of Fame.

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"With all humility we beg..."

Exploring the themes of classic, Thomas Moore delivers a powerful performance in "New Hospital For Sick Literati."... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

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Author:Thomas Moore

"With all humility we beg..." by Thomas Moore

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Thomas Moore

About Thomas Moore

Thomas Moore (1779–1852) was an Irish poet, singer, and songwriter best known for "Irish Melodies" (1808–1834), a collection of songs including "The Last Rose of Summer" and "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms." He was the most popular poet of his era in the British Isles.

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