"
[Illustration: JOHN TRUMBULL]
His masterpiece was a satire on British sympathizers. He called this poem
_M'Fingal_, after a Scotch Tory. The first part was published in 1775 and
it gave a powerful impetus to the Continental cause. It has been said that
the poem "is to be considered as one of the forces of the Revolution,
because as a satire on the Tories it penetrated into every farmhouse, and
sent the rustic volunteers laughing into the ranks of Washington and
Greene."
One cannot help thinking of Butler's _Hudibras_ (1663), when reading
_M'Fingal_. Of course the satiric aim is different in the two poems. Butler
ridiculed the Puritans and upheld the Royalists, while Trumbull discharged
his venomed shafts at the adherents of the king. In _M'Fingal_, a Tory bent
on destroying a liberty pole drew his sword on a Whig, who had no arms
except a spade. The Whig, however, employed his weapon with such good
effect on the Tory that:--
"His bent knee fail'd, and void of strength,
Stretch'd on the ground his manly length.
Like ancient oak, o'erturn'd, he lay,
Or tower to tempests fall'n a prey,
Or mountain sunk with all his pines,
Or flow'r the plough to dust consigns,
And more things else--but all men know 'em,
If slightly versed in epic poem.
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