Page:Two Mock Epics (Hanuman and Tantum Religio), Lyrics, Post Meridian Verse, The Turret Captain's Toast and other Verses.pdf/111

 As the being duped by others’ lying.

But halt! that last word’s out of place:

In dealing with such ticklish matter

As revelation is and grace,

Bards should be careful how they chatter,

If they must risk it, taste bids hedge and

For certain words put “myth” or “legend.”

The bagmen, then, of Rome’s bottega

Who tooted the Hibernian shanty,

Finding a clientèla eager

To swallow bait, however scanty,

Formed it a myth, the wily dupers;—

In fact, they “legended” like troopers

Of how their holy father lay

A prisoner in the Vatican,

And scarcely saw the light of day

Within his dungeon’s narrow span;

Of how he slept upon a pallet

Of mouldy straw, and had no valet.

And how, in spite of this, he prayed

For those vile tyrants who afflicted him,

When, for their wickedness, instead,

He might have banned and interdicted ’em;

A course which would have had for certain

Such dire results I drop the curtain.

Now if some reader with a temper

Not formed for treating questions moral

Protest, I merely note, “Sic semper

Erat, sic est, sic erit,”—quarrel

With fact: ’tis vain; religion’s cradle

Has always been a legend-ladle.

Why were these modern “legend” spinners