  In days of old did law and rime A common pathway follow, For Themis in the mythic time Was sister of Apollo. The Hindu statutes tripped in feet As daintily as Dryads, And law in Wales to be complete Was versified in triads. The wise Alfonso of Castile Composed his code in metre Thereby to make its flavour feel A little bit the sweeter. But law and rime were found to be A trifle inconsistent, And now in statutes poetry Is wholly non-existent. Still here and there some advocate Before his fellows know it Has had bestowed on him by fate The laurel of the poet. Let him who has been honoured so, In truth a rara avis, Find precedents in Cicero And our Chief Justice Davis; And more than all in Cino; he, So plaintive a narrator Of fair Selvaggia's cruelty, Won fame as a glossator. Let him remember Thomas More And Scott and Alciatus, And Grotius with an ample store Of most divine afflatus. But let him, if his bread and cheese Depend on his profession, Bethink him that the art of these Was not their sole possession. The stream that flows from Helicon Is scarcely a Pactolus, A richer prize is theirs who con Dull treatises on dolus. 'Tis well that some bold spirits dare To cut themselves asunder From bonds of law like old MoliÈre, While lawyers gaze in wonder. The world had been a poorer place Had Goethe lived by pleading Or Tasso won a hopeless case With Ariosto leading. |
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