Versos English Robert Dodsley The KINGS of EUROPE. A JEST

English poem

The KINGS of EUROPE. A JEST

by (1704–1764)

Listen in the reader

Why pray, of late, do Europe's kings No jester in their courts admit? They're grown such stately solemn things, To bear a joke they think not fit.

But tho' each court a jester lacks, To laugh at monarchs to their face; All mankind behind their backs Supply the honest jester's place.