CHAPTER II.
Defoe--Irony--Ode to the Pillory--The "Comical Pilgrim"--The "Scandalous
Club"--Humorous Periodicals--Heraclitus Ridens--The London Spy--The
British Apollo.
Defoe was born in 1663, and was the son of a butcher in St. Giles'. He
first distinguished himself by writing in 1699 a poetical satire
entitled "The True Born Englishman," in honour of King William and the
Dutch, and in derision of the nobility of this country, who did not much
appreciate the foreign court. The poem abounded with rough and rude
sarcasm. After giving an uncomplimentary description of the English, he
proceeds to trace their descent--
"These are the heroes that despise the Dutch
And rail at new-come foreigners so much,
Forgetting that themselves are all derived
From the most scoundrel race that ever lived;
A horrid race of rambling thieves and drones
Who ransacked kingdoms and dispeopled towns;
The Pict and painted Briton, treacherous Scot,
By hunger, theft, and rapine hither brought;
Norwegian pirates, buccaneering Danes,
Whose red-haired offspring everywhere remains;
Who joined with Norman-French compound the breed
From whence your true-born Englishmen proceed.
Dutch, Walloons, Flemings, Irishmen, and Scots,
Vaudois, and Valtolins and Huguenots,
In good Queen Bess's charitable reign,
Supplied us with three hundred thousand men;
Religion--God we thank! sent them hither,
Priests, protestants, the devil, and all together.
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