The Lion's Masquerade

 
And two little Lap-dogs as Pages of Honour:
While twelve Orang-Outangs were station’d without,
To usher the company in, and about.
At the hour which his King had thought proper to name,
The Horse, as the Hounyhm of Gulliver came;
Unaccustomed to “utter the thing that is not,”¹
He reach’d, at the moment he promis’d, the spot.
The Fox then appear’d on a different scent,
On foul depredation, and villainy bent;
And the dress of a country attorney he chose,
To his purpose best suited, as all the world knows!
With looks as impatient, and teeming with sin,
The Wolf in Sheep’s-clothing was next usher’d in.
The guests now came thronging in numbers untold,
The furious, the gentle, the young and the old.
In dominos some, but in characters most,
And now a brave warrior, and then a fair toast.
The Baboon, as a Counsellor; Alderman, Glutton;
A Lamb, Miss in her teens, with her aunt, an old mutton.
It was easy to see, as this couple past by,
The Wolf, very knowingly, cast a Sheep’s eye.
And now at the door was a terrible clatter,
The beasts all about wonder’d what was the matter.
A poor Cat in pattens came running so fast,
Her ticket was almost forgot as the past;
But there was, it appear’d, quite enough to alarm her,
For close at her heels came a great Hog in armour.
Then follow’d his friend in a very large wig
As a deep read professor– the fam’d learned Pig—
A Bear came as Caliban, loaded with wood,
His bones full of aches from Prospero’s rod.
The Greyhound as Vanity holding a glass,
The Stag, as Actæon; King Midas, the Ass.