Cocks’n Whore Jazz, 1763*

Tart swish tail and fey fig,
trayf gink and mugg firk,
all are for naught.

Burke and birk the cry,
bawd sards and schites,
two bit tits for wonk.
Rook me rube as nit japes
and cod swives, jazz zig
and jizz zag.

Hawk and gawk lewd leech,
and frog’s snake meat eat,
all for one red dog.

* While "Cocks'n Whore Jazz, 1763*" was written for the "Old and short word" thread, there's a story behind these short, archaic words besides simply talking dirty.

John Wilkes was convicted, and later imprisoned for twenty-two months, for his parody of Pope’s “Essay on Man” that was read by the Earl of Sandwich to the House of Earls on November 15, 1763. It was an attempt to embarrass Wilkes in retaliation for something that transpired with a baboon at a Black Mass being celebrated by his Lordship the earl at a meeting of the Hell Fire Club.

Oddly enough, the piece was actually written by Wilkes’s friend, Thomas Potter, who was the son of an archbishop of Canterbury. The offending lines from “An Essay on Woman” were:

“…life can little more supply
Than just a few good fucks and then we die”

While in prison for printing "a most scandalous, obscene and impious libel", Wilkes was elected to the Parliament four times by the radical Middlesex voters, and four times was denied for his seat due to his conduct. This political test of wills gave rise to the famous rallying cry of “Wilkes and Liberty” that was even heard in the American Colonies. In 1774, Wilkes was finally elected to Parliament, though he was an alderman and sheriff in London in the interim!

There is often more to censorship than meets the eye.