From An Old German Poet

That France has put us oft to rout With powder, which ourselves found out; And laughs at us for fools in print, Of which our genius was the Mint; All this I easily admit, For we have genius, France has wit. But 'tis too bad, that blind and mad To Frenchmen's wives each travelling German goes, Expands his manly vigour by their sides, Becomes the father of his country's foes And turns their warriors oft to parricides.

First published in Morning Post, Oct. 11, 1802. Adapted from Wernicke's Epigrams (Bk. VIII, No. 4), Auf die Buhlerey der Deutschen in Frankreich.

'Dass Frankreich uns pflegt zu verwunden Durch Pulver, welches wir erfunden.'

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ON THE CURIOUS CIRCUMSTANCE,

THAT IN THE GERMAN LANGUAGE THE SUN IS FEMININE, AND THE MOON IS MASCULINE

Our English poets, bad and good, agree To make the Sun a male, the Moon a she. He drives HIS dazzling diligence on high, In verse, as constantly as in the sky; And cheap as blackberries our sonnets shew The Moon, Heaven's huntress, with HER silver bow; By which they'd teach us, if I guess aright, Man rules the day, and woman rules the night. In Germany, they just reverse the thing; The Sun becomes a queen, the Moon a king. Now, that the Sun should represent the women, The Moon the men, to me seem'd mighty humming; And when I first read German, made me stare. Surely it is not that the wives are there As common as the Sun, to lord and loon, And all their husbands hornéd as the Moon.

First published in Morning Post, Oct. 11, 1802. Adapted from Wernicke's Epigrams (Bk. VII, No. 15), Die Sonne und der Mond.

'Die Sonn' heisst die, der Mond heisst der In unsrer Sprach', und kommt daher, Weil meist die Fraun wie die gemein, Wie der gehörnt wir Männer sein.'

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