THE PORTER.
If a great Minister of State
Your master be, then guard the gate
From all but such as teem with news
To suit his honour's party views:
You judging kindly and genteelly,
Those mostly such who 'tip' most freely.
About This Book
A series of comic poems gives mock instructions to household staff, each addressed to a different role — butler, cook, valet, footman, housekeeper, chambermaid and others — and offers ironic guidance on duties, saving, social manoeuvres, and everyday deceptions. Framed as a modernized, poetical update of earlier satirical directions, the verses combine practical-sounding tips with barbed humour, lampooning servants' resourcefulness and masters' pretensions while arranging role-based sketches and a closing set of general rules.