by Coleridge · Cluster: Essay · Critique of Progress · Common Man
Abstract
A mock-syllogistic satire (‘Jack Snipe eats tripe’) ridiculing the Constitutional Association that prosecuted publisher Richard Carlile for blasphemy; political satire and defence of free expression.
Connections
Archetypes: Satanic Figure Themes & Concepts: Satire of Society, Justice Right and Wrong, Reform, Social Injustice Forms & Genres: Satire
Testo integrale / Full text
Jack Snipe
Eats Tripe:
It is therefore credible
That tripe is edible.
And therefore, perforce,
It follows, of course,
That the Devil will gripe
All who do not eat Tripe.
And as Nic is too slow
To fetch ‘em below:
And Gifford, the attorney,
Won’t quicken their journey;
The Bridge-Street Committee
That colleague without pity,
To imprison and hang
Carlile and his gang,
Is the pride of the City,
And ‘tis Association
That, alone, saves the Nation
From Death and Damnation.
First published in Letters and Conversations, &c., 1836, i. 90, 91.
These lines, which were inscribed in one of Coleridge’s notebooks, refer
to a ‘Constitutional association’ which promoted the prosecution of
Richard Carlile, the publisher of Paine’s Age of Reason, for
blasphemy. See Diary of H. C. Robinson, 1869, ii. 134, 135. First
collected P. W., 1885, ii. 405.