In response...

I trust that Mercy Otis Warren is using this piece as a form of propaganda since this passage seeks to anger the audience and take explicit control over their viewpoint. The character Meagre is unwavering and bold in his comments and readers would have little difficulty understanding the message between the lines. Meagre is explicitly noting the root evil behind the work of the British and those who support their rule, i.e. the Tories. “I curse the senate which defeats our bribes,

Who Halzerod impeached for the same crime. I hate the people, who, no longer gulled, See through the schemes of our aspiring clan…” This passage forces the reader to question why he should hate those no longer gulled. What games are the British and loyal supporters playing on those ‘gulled’ enough to blindly accept their schemes? Further down in the passage, Meagre speaks directly against the streak of goodness which runs through the world, “that warms the heart, and feeds the manly glow.” The idea that people inherently can love one another and strive for equal liberty, a basic capacity and need of our shared humanity, is crucial for a ruling body to support and practice. Without such understanding, the ruling overhead would crush down on those beneath them and fail to acknowledge the goodness inherently in man. In Meagre’s speech, it seems that he too was once possessed the ‘manly glow’ which has since lost its luster. He comments on how he “hated Brutus for his noble stand,” which seems innately contradictory to the rest of this passage in that Brutus murdered his close friend and once ally Caesar. Perhaps Meagre (figuratively) stabbed the back of a friend in pushing an agenda that plays on the support of fools and has since regretted his actions. But then, a second look at the cause of Brutus’ actions supports the idea he stood up against a ruling force, therefore playing the part of rebel. As Roman senators began to fear the rise of power of Caesar, following his appointment as dictator for life, Brutus joined the conspiracy against him (Wikipedia).

“Could we erase these notions from their minds,

Then (paramount to these ideal whims,

Utopian dreams, of patriotic virtue,

Which long has danced in their distempered brains).”

This again supports the notion that it is inherent in mankind to love one another and strive for equal liberty. To trick the supporters of British rule is the only way to overcome the innate goodness that runs through each of us. Meagre, once susceptible to his desire for equality in the world, has “plunged in darkness, slavery and vice” and therefore lost the ability to love and support the right cause. Yet, he mocks, somewhat jealously, those that stand up against the oppressors of a noble cause.