ABSTRACT
The identity of C.K., the author of this apocalyptic poem, is unknown. The poem begins with a dreadful warning: ‘O Wretched man, how long wilt thou refuse/ Thy maker’s favour, and his mercy great? Once the procession itself begins, the poem descends to crude and intemperate abuse. First to appear is the liberal Whig statesman Charles James Fox, who presumably owes his position at the head of the procession to his opposition to Pitt’s pro-war policies. Third in line are Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin on their ‘braying ass’. The old slurs against them, which would have been familiar to readers of the Anti-Jacobin, are revived again, beginning with the tired joke about their anti-marriage views. The poet is wrong in implying that the quotation comes from Rights of Woman.
