What's a "pelf"?

And I must say -- those verses about begging for a master, versus begging for yourself reminds me of all the modern-day children's charities, where more energy goes into producing glitzy broadcast telethons and promoting the promise of "A CURE -- Someday!" and far less going into making life better for the disenfranchised now.

The term for this, in the Disability Community, 300 years on, is: "pity porn."