It will be seen that the poet condescended to imitate the style of the street ballads.

“Of Nero tyrant, petty king,
Who heretofore did reign
In famed Hibernia, I will sing,
And in a ditty plain.

“The articles recorded stand
Against this peerless peer;
Search but the archives of the land,
You’ll find them written there.”

The story of Gaffney is then related.  Coningsby’s speculations are described thus: 

“Vast quantities of stores did he
Embezzle and purloin
Of the King’s stores he kept a key,
Converting them to coin.

“The forfeited estates also,
Both real and personal,
Did with the stores together go. 
Fierce Cerberas swallow’d all.”

The last charge is the favour shown the Roman Catholics: 

“Nero, without the least disguise,
The Papists at all times
Still favour’d, and their robberies
Look’d on as trivial crimes.

“The Protestants whom they did rob
During his government,
Were forced with patience, like good Job,
To rest themselves content.

“For he did basely them refuse
All legal remedy;
The Romans still he well did use,
Still screen’d their roguery.”

FN 402 An Account of the Sessions of Parliament in Ireland, 1692,
London, 1693.

FN 403 The Poynings Act is 10 H. 7. c. 4.  It was explained by another Act, 3&4P.and M.c.4.

FN 404 The history of this session I have taken from the journals of the Irish Lords and Commons, from the narratives laid in writing before the English Lords and Commons by members of the Parliament of Ireland and from a pamphlet entitled a Short Account of the Sessions of Parliament in Ireland, 1692, London, 1693.  Burnet seems to me to have taken a correct view of the dispute, ii. 118.  “The English in Ireland thought the government favoured the Irish too much; some said this was the effect of bribery, whereas others thought it was necessary to keep them safe from the prosecutions of the English, who hated them, and were much sharpened against them . . . .  There were also great complaints of an ill administration, chiefly in the revenue, in the pay of the army, and in the embezzling of stores.”

FN 405 As to Swift’s extraction and early life, see the Anecdotes written by himself.

FN 406 Journal to Stella, Letter liii.

FN 407 See Swift’s Letter to Temple of Oct. 6. 1694.

FN 408 Journal to Stella, Letter xix.;

FN 409 Swift’s Anecdotes.

FN 410 London Gazette, March 27. 1693.

FN 411 Burnet, ii. 108, and Speaker Onslow’s Note; Sprat’s True
Account of the Horrid Conspiracy; Letter to Trenchard, 1694.

FN 412 Burnett, ii. 107.

FN 413 These rumours are more than once mentioned in Narcissus
Luttrell’s Diary.

FN 414 London Gazette, March 27. 1693; Narcissus Luttrell’s
Diary: