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Jonathan Swift - The Fagot
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Observe the dying father speak:
Try, lads, can you this bundle break?
Then bids the youngest of the six
Take up a well-bound heap of sticks.
They thought it was an old man`s maggot;
And strove, by turns, to break the fagot:
In vain: the complicated wands
Were much too strong for all their hands.
See, said the sire, how soon `tis done:
Then took and broke them one by one.
So strong you`ll be, in friendship ty`d;
So quickly broke, if you divide.
Keep close then, boys, and never quarrel:
Here ends the fable, and the moral.
  This tale may be applied in few words,
To treasurers, comptrollers, stewards;
And others, who, in solemn sort,
Appear with slender wands at court;
Not firmly join`d to keep their ground,
But lashing one another round:
While wise men think they ought to fight
With quarterstaffs instead of white;
Or constable, with staff of peace,
Should come and make the clatt`ring cease;
Which now disturbs the queen and court,
And gives the Whigs and rabble sport.
  In history we never found
The consul`s fasces were unbound:
Those Romans were too wise to think on`t,
Except to lash some grand delinquent,
How would they blush to hear it said,
The praetor broke the consul`s head!
Or consul in his purple gown,
Came up and knock`d the praetor down!
  Come, courtiers: every man his stick!
Lord treasurer, for once be quick:
And that they may the closer cling,
Take your blue ribbon for a string.
Come, trimming Harcourt, bring your mace;
And squeeze it in, or quit your place:
Dispatch, or else that rascal Northey
Will undertake to do it for thee:
And be assured, the court will find him
Prepared to leap o`er sticks, or bind them.
  To make the bundle strong and safe,
Great Ormond, lend thy general`s staff:
And, if the crosier could be cramm`d in
A fig for Lechmere, King, and Hambden!
You`ll then defy the strongest Whig
With both his hands to bend a twig;
Though with united strength they all pull,
From Somers, down to Craggs and Walpole.
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