[Footnote 3: "'Hoarse Fitzgerald'.--"Right enough; but why notice such
a mountebank?"--B., 1816.
Mr. Fitzgerald, facetiously termed by Cobbett the "Small Beer Poet,"
inflicts his annual tribute of verse on the Literary Fund: not content
with writing, he spouts in person, after the company have imbibed a
reasonable quantity of bad port, to enable them to sustain the
operation.
[William Thomas Fitzgerald (circ. 1759-1829) played the part of
unofficial poet laureate. His loyal recitations were reported by the
newspapers. He published, 'inter alia', 'Nelson's Triumph' (1798),
'Tears of Hibernia, dispelled by the Union' (1802), and 'Nelson's Tomb'
(1806). He owes his fame to the first line of 'English Bards', and the
famous parody in 'Rejected Addresses'. The following 'jeux désprits'
were transcribed by R. C. Dallas on a blank leaf of a copy of the Fifth
Edition:--
"Written on a copy of 'English Bards' at the 'Alfred' by W. T.
Fitzgerald, Esq.--
I find Lord Byron scorns my Muse,
Our Fates are ill agreed;
The Verse is safe, I can't abuse
Those lines, I never read.