To Thomas Moore [OH you, who in all names can tickle the town]

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Title:     To Thomas Moore [OH you, who in all names can tickle the town]
Author: Lord Byron [More Titles by Byron]

[To Thomas Moore. Written the Evening before his Visit to Mr. Leigh 16 Hunt in Horsemonger Lane Gaol, May 19, 1813]

OH you, who in all names can tickle the town,
Anacreon, Tom Little, Tom Moore, or Tom Brown,--[1]
For hang me if I know of which you may most brag,
Your Quarto two-pounds, or your Two-penny Post Bag;

* * * * *

But now to my letter--to _yours_ 'tis an answer--
To-morrow be with me, as soon as you can, sir,
All ready and dressed for proceeding to spunge on
(According to compact) the wit in the dungeon--[2]
Pray Phoebus at length our political malice
May not get us lodgings within the same palace!
I suppose that to-night you're engaged with some codgers,
And for Sotheby's Blues[3] have deserted Sam Rogers;
And I, though with cold I have nearly my death got,
Must put on my breeches, and wait on the Heathcote;[4]
But to-morrow, at four, we will both play the _Scurra_,
And you'll be Catullus, the Regent Mamurra.[5]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] [Moore's "_Intercepted Letters; or, The Twopenny Post-Bag_, By Thomas Brown, the Younger," was published in 1813.]

[2] [James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) was imprisoned February, 1813, to February, 1815, for a libel on the Prince Regent, published in the _Examiner_, March 12, 1812.--_Letters_, 1898, ii. 205-208, _note_ 1.]

[3] [For "Sotheby's Blues," see Introduction to _The Blues, Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 570, _et ibid_., 579, 580.]

[4] [Katherine Sophia Manners was married in 1793 to Sir Gilbert Heathcote. See _Letters_, 1898, ii. 402, 406.]

[5] [See _Catullus_, xxix. 1-4--

"Quis hoc potest videre? quis potest pati,
Nisi impudicus et vorax et aleo,
Mamurram habere, quod Comata Gallia
Habebat uncti et ultima Britannia?" etc.]

[The end]
Lord Byron's poem: To Thomas Moore

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