Who to the Aars in pure good-will
Does to his best look upward still.
Weep, all you customers that ufe
His pills, his almanacks, or shoes :
And you that did your fortunes feek
Step to his grave but once a week :
This earth, which bears his body's print,
You 'll find has fo much virtue in 't,
That I durst pawn my ears 'twill tell
Whate'er concerns you full as well,
In phyfick, stolen-goods, or love,
As he himself could, when above.
EVEN and ten addyd to nine,
Of Fraunce her woe this is the sygne,
Tamys rivere twys y-frozen,
Walke fans wetyng shoes ne hozen.
Then comyth foorthe, ich understonde,
From towne of stoffe to fattyn londe,
An hardie chiftan*, woe the morne,
To Fraunce that evere he was born.
Then shall the fyshe † beweyle his bosse;
Nor shall grin berrys I make up the loffe.
Yonge Symnele | shall again miscarrye :
And Norways pryd § again shall marrey.
And from the tree where blofums feele,
Rife fruit shall come, and all is wele.
* D. of Marlborough.
‡ D. of Berry. || The young Pretender.§Q. Anne. Reaums
Reaums shall daunce honde in honde
And it shall be merye in old Inglonde,
Then old Inglonde shall be no more,
And no man fhall be forie therefore.
Geryon † shall have three hedes agayne,
Till Hapsburge ‡ makyth them but twayne.
MORNING. 1709.
NOW hardly here and there an hackney-coach
Appearing, shew'd the ruddy morn's approach.
Now Betty from her master's bed had flown,
And softly stole to discompose her own;
The flipshod 'prentice from his master's door
Had par'd the dirt, and sprinkled round the floor.
Now Moll had whirl'd her mop with dextrous airs,
Prepar'd to fcrub the entry and the stairs.
The youth with broomy stumps began to trace
The kennel's edge, where wheels had worn the place.
The small-coal-man was heard with cadence deep
Till drown'd in shriller notes of chimney-sweep :
Duns at his Lordship's gate began to meet;
And brick-dust Moll had scream'd through half the street.
The turnkey now his flock returning fees,
Duly let out a-nights to steal for fees :
The watchful bailiffs take their filent stands,
And school-boys lag with satchels in their hands.
* By the Union. † Aking of Spain slain by Hercules. ‡ The Archduke Charles was of the Hapsburg family.
CITY-SHOWER
In Imitation of Virgil's Georgics. 1710.
CAREFUL observers may foretel the hour
(By fure prognostics) when to dread a shower.
'While rain depends, the pensive cat gives o'er
Her frolicks, and pursues her tail no more.
Returning home at night, you 'll find the fink
Strike your offended sense with double stink.
If you be wife, then go not far to dine;
You 'll fpend in coach-hire more than save in wine.
A coming shower your shooting corns presage,
Old aches will throb, your hollow tooth will rage;
Sauntering in coffee-house is Dulman seen;
He damns the climate, and complains of spleen.
Meanwhile the fouth, rifing with dabbled wings,
A fable cloud athwart the welkin flings,
That swill'd more liquor than it could contain,
And, like a drunkard, gives it up again.
Brisk Sufan whips her linen from the rope,
While the first drizzling shower is borne aflope:
Such is that sprinkling which fome careless quean
Flirts on you from her mop, but not fo clean :
You fly, invoke the gods; then, turning, stop
To rail; fhe, finging, still whirls on her mop.
Not yet the dust had shunn'd th' unequal ftrife,
But, aided by the wind, fought ftill for life,
And, wafted with its foe by violent gust,
"Twas doubtful which was rain, and which was duft.
Ah! where must needy poet seek for aid,
When dust and rain at once his coat invade ?
Sole coat! where dust cemented by the rain
Erects the nap, and leaves a cloudy ftain!
Now in contiguous drops the flood comes down,
Threatening with deluge this devoted town.
To shops in crouds the daggled females fly,
Pretend to cheapen goods, but nothing buy.
The templar spruce, while every spout 's abroach,
Stays till 'tis fair, yet seems to call a coach.
The tuck'd-up semstress walks with hasty strides,
While streams run down her oil'd umbrella's fides.
Here various kinds, by various fortunes led,
Commence acquaintance underneath a shed.
Triumphant Tories and desponding Whigs
Forget their feuds, and join to save their wigs.
Box'd in a chair, the beau impatient fits,
While spouts run clattering o'er the roof by fits,
And ever and anon with frightful din
The leather founds; he trembles from within.
So when Troy chairmen bore the wooden steed,
Pregnant with Greeks impatient to be freed,
(Those bully Greeks, who, as the moderns do,
Instead of paying chairmen, ran them through),
Laocoon struck the outside with his fpear,
And each imprison'd hero quak'd for fear.
Now from all parts the swelling kennels flow,
And bear their trophies with them as they go :
Filths of all hues and odours seem to tell
What street they fail'd from by their fight and smell.
They, as each torrent drives, with rapid force,
From Smithfield or St 'Pulchre's shape their course,
And in huge confluence join'd at Snowhill ridge,
Fall from the conduit prone to Holbourn bridge.
Sweepings from butchers' stalls, dung, guts, and
blood,
Drown'd puppies, stinking sprats, all drench'd in
mud,
Dead cats, and turnip-tops, come tumbling down the flood.
ON THE LITTLE HOUSE BY THE CHURCH-YARD
OF CASTLENOCK. 1710.
WHOEVER pleaseth to enquire
Why yonder steeple wants a spire,
The grey old fellow poet * Joe
The philofophic cause will show.
Once on time a western blast
At least twelve inches overcast,
Reckoning roof, weathercock, and all,
Which came with a prodigious fall;
And tumbling topsy-turvy round
Light with its bottom on the ground.
For, by the laws of gravitation,
It fell into its proper station.
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