A CHARACTER or a Portrait of the young Haberdasher

A modest citizen unknown to pride, With unstain'd character did here reside; His honest industry increas'd his worth, And cur'd the humble blemish of his birth; He liv'd belov'd, regretted when he di'd, By even those his honest cash suppli'd.— His son alas! no more is like the fire Than I to Jove array'd in wrathful ire; He shines a blockhead and forgets his breedin A fool made more impertinent by reading; A vain blank animal that brags of wit, With scarce a quality for business fit; An empty coward,—cruel too of course, Mean in his pleasures, in his passions worse: Boastful he counts his dirty low amours, His grovling spirit's pleas'd with common wh- A poor deluded female of the street To him is pleasing and to him is sweet: To finish all and make the picture known, His best associates in the back are thrown, Low pimps and blackguards that can rudely talk To harmless females as they harmless walk.