Where yet fake virtue is now worn as fame

As plastic crown on some bare, naked pate;

And of dark sanctimony which bears false name,

Reveals a sham frank words must never state;

‘I speak no evil—this coronet my charm

To ward off spirits that past principles decay,

And so do grant myself all pious norms

With power to punish those who turn away.’

So now here self-proclaimed, a moral god

Crowned, ever in proud pompous air to rule

O’er serfs deserving but to be down trod—

Where every word they utter proves them fools.

This darkling vaudeville of hypocrisy—

So much the prelude to rank tyranny.