Lollius

by Rudyard Kipling

　　

---

Why gird at Lollius if he care To purchase in the city’s sight, With nard and roses for his hair, The name of Knight? Son of unmitigated sires Enriched by trade in Afric corn, His wealth allows, his wife requires, Him to be born. Him slaves shall serve with zeal renewed At lesser wage for longer whiles, And school- and station-masters rude Receive with smiles. His bowels shall be sought in charge By learned doctors; all his sons And nubile daughters shall enlarge Their horizons. For fierce she-Britons, apt to smite Their upward-climbing sisters down, Shall smooth their plumes and oft invite The brood to town. For these delights will he disgorge The State enormous benefice, But, by the head of either George, He pays not twice! Whom neither lust for public pelf, Nor itch to make orations, vex, Content to honour his own self With his own cheques, That man is clean. At least, his house Springs cleanly from untainted gold, Not from a conscience or a spouse Sold and resold. Time was, you say, before men knew Such arts, and rose by Virtue guided? The tables rock with laughter, you Not least derided.

---

---