The Four Georges
The well known epigram on the Four Georges, the new Georgic, as Thackeray facetiously called it, commonly commenced with the lines:
“George the First was reckoned vile,
Viler George the Second,” etc.
But, as originally written by Walter Savage Landor, after hearing Thackeray’s lectures on the Georges, the epigram was in the following form:
I sing the Georges Four,
For Providence could stand no more.
Some say that far the worst
Of all the Four was George the First.
But yet by some ’tis reckoned
That worser still was George the Second.
And what mortal ever heard
Any good of George the Third?
When George the Fourth from earth descended,
Thank God the line of Georges ended.