Once got fifty guineas (according to tradition) for singing a single
song to queen Anne in ridicule of “the princess Sophia, electress and
duchess dowager of Hanover,” (as she is called in the oath of
allegiance,) naturally no great favourite with the then reigning
monarch. The only lines of this satirical production that have come down
to us are the following; and, until now, only the two first of the
stanza have been preserved by Durfey’s biographers:--
“The crown’s far too weighty
For shoulders of eighty;
She could not sustain such a trophy;
Her hand, too, already
Has grown so unsteady
She can’t hold a sceptre;
So Providence kept her
Away.--Poor old Dowager Sophy.”
“Merry Tom” had sung before the king in the former reign, and Charles
II., as is well known, was very fond of his company.