Who to the fars in pure good-will
Does to his beft look upward ftill.
Weep, all you customers that use
His pills, his almanacks, ox fboes:
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 durft pawn my ears 'twill tell
Whate'er concerns you full as well,
In phyfick, ftolen-goods, or love,
As he himself could, when above.
MERLIN'S PROPHECY. 1709
EVEN and ten addyd to nine,
Of Fraunce her woe this is the fygne,
Tamys rivere twys y-frozen,
Walke fans wetyng fhoes 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 fyfhe + beweyle his boffe;
Nor shall grin berrys ‡ make up the loffe.
Yonge Symnele fhall again miscarrye:
And Norways pryd § again shall marrey.
And from the tree where blofums feele,
Rife fruit fhall come, and all is wele.
D. of Berry. The young Pretender. § Q. Anne.
Reaums fhall daunce honde in honde*,
And it fhall 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 Hapfburge makyth them but twayne.
MORNIN G. 1709.
NOW hardly here and there an hackney-coach
Appearing, fhew'd the ruddy morn's approach.
Now Betty from her master's bed had flown,
And foftly stole to discompofe her own;
The flipfhod '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 ftumps began to trace
The kennel's edge, where wheels had worn the place.
The fmall-coal-man was heard with cadence deep
Till drown'd in fhriller notes of chimney-sweep:
Duns at his Lordship's gate began to meet;
And brick-duft Moll had fcream'd through half the street.
The turnkey now his flock returning fees,
Duly let out a-nights to fteal for fees:
The watchful bailiffs take their filent ftands,
And school-boys lag with satchels in their hands.
* By the Union. A king of Spain flain by Hercules. The Archduke Charles was of the Hapfburg family.
A DESCRIPTION OF
A CITY-SHOWER
In Imitation of Virgil's Georgics. 1710.
CAREFUL obfervers may foretel the hour
(By fure prognoftics) when to dread a shower.
'While rain depends, the penfive cat gives o'er
Her frolicks, and pursues her tail no more.
Returning home at night, you'll find the fink
Strike your offended fenfe with double ftink.
If you be wife, then go not far to dine;
You'll fpend in coach-hire more than fave in wine.
A coming fhower your shooting corns presage,
Old aches will throb, your hollow tooth will rage;
Sauntering in coffee-houfe is Dulman feen;
He damns the climate, and complains of spleen. ·
Meanwhile the fouth, rifing with dabbled wings,
A fable cloud athwart the welkin flings,
That fwill'd more liquor than it could contain,
And, like a drunkard, gives it up again.
Brifk 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, ftill whirls on her mop.
Not yet the duft had shunn'd th' unequal ftrife,
But, aided by the wind, fought ftill for äfe,
And, wafted with its foe by violent gust,
"Twas doubtful which was rain, and which was duft. Ah! where muft needy poet feek for aid,
When duft and rain at once his coat invade ?
Sole coat! where duft 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 fpruce, while every spout 's abroach,
Stays till 'tis fair, yet feems to call a coach.
The tuck'd-up femstress walks with hafty ftrides,
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 defponding Whigs
Forget their feuds, and join to fave 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 Grecks impatient to be freed,
(Those bully Greeks, who, as the moderns do,
Inftead of paying chairmen, ran them through),
Laocoon struck the outfide with his fpear,
And each imprison'd hero quak'd for fear.
Now from all parts the fwelling kennels flow,
And bear their trophies with them as they go :
Filths of all hues and odours feem 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' ftalls, dung, guts, and
blood,
Drown'd puppies, ftinking fprats, 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 pleafeth to enquire
Why yonder steeple wants a spire,
grey old fellow poet * Joe
The philofophic caufe will show.
Once on time a western blast
At least twelve inches overcaft,
Reckoning roof, weathercock, and all,
Which came with a prodigious fall;
And tumbling topfy-turvy round
Light with its bottom on the ground.
For, by the laws of gravitation,
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