ES; thank my ftars! as early as I knew
This Town, I had the sense to hate it too:
Yet here, as ev'n in Hell, there must be ftill
One Giant-Vice, fo excellently ill,
That all befide, one pities, not abhors;
As who knows Sappho, fmiles at other whores.
I grant that Poetry's a crying fin;
It brought (no doubt) th' Excise and Army in :
Catch'd like the Plague, or Love, the Lord knows how,
But that the cure is starving, all allow.
Yet like the Papift's, is the Poet's state,
Poor and difarm'd, and hardly worth your hate!
SIR; though (I thank God for it) I do hate
Perfectly all this town: yet there's one state
In all ill things, fo excellently beft,
That hate towards them, breeds pity towards the rest.
Though Poetry, indeed, be such a fin,
As I think, that brings dearth and Spaniards in:
Though like the peftilence and old-fashion'd love,
Ridlingly it catch men, and doth remove
Never, till it be ftarv'd out; yet their state
Is poor, difarm'd, like Papists, not worth hate.
Here a lean Bard, whose wit could never give
Himfelf a dinner, makes an Actor live:
The Thief condemn'd, in law already dead,
So prompts, and faves a rogue who cannot read.
Thus as the pipes of fome carv'd Organ move,
The gilded puppets dance and mount above.
Heav'd by the breath th' inspiring bellows blow:
Th' inspiring bellows lie and pant below.
One fings the Fair: but fongs no longer move; No rat is rhym'd to death, nor maid to love : In love's, in nature's fpite, the fiege they hold, And fcorn the flesh, the devil, and all but gold. These write to Lords, fome mean reward to get, 25 As needy beggars fing at doors for meat.
One (like a wretch, which at barre judg'd as dead, Yet prompts him which stands next, and cannot read, And faves his life) gives Idiot Actors means (Starving himself) to live by's labour'd scenes. As in fome Organs Puppits dance above,
And bellows pant below, which them do move.
One would move love by rhymes; but witchcraft's
Bring not now their old fears, nor their old harms;
Rams and flings now are filly battery,
Pistolets are the best artillery.
And they who write to Lords, rewards to get,.
Are they not like fingers at doors for meat?
And they who write, because all write, have ftill
That 'fcufe for writing, and for writing ill.
Those write because all write, and so have still
Excufe for writing, and for writing ill.
Wretched indeed! but far more wretched yet
Is he who makes his meal on others wit:
'Tis chang'd, no doubt, from what it was before;
His rank digestion makes it wit no more:
Senfe, paft through him, no longer is the fame;
For food digefted takes another name.
I pafs o'er all those Confeffors and Martyrs,
Who live like S-tt-n, or who die like Chartres,
Outcant old Efdras, or outdrink his heir,
Outufure Jews, or Irishmen outswear;
Wicked as Pages, who in early years
A&t fins which Prifca's Confeffor fcarce hears.
Ev'n those I pardon, for whose finful fake
Schoolmen new tenements in hell must make;
But he is worst, who beggarly doth chaw
Others wits fruits, and in his ravenous maw
Rankly digested, doth thofe things outspue,
As his own things; and they're his own, 'tis true,
For if one eat my meat, though it be known
The meat was mine, the excrement's his own.
But thefe do me no harm, nor they which use,
to outufure Jews,
To outdrink the fea, t' outswear the Letanie,
Who with fins all kinds as familiar be
As Confeffors, and for whofe finful fake
Schoolmen new tenements in hell must make;
Of whofe ftrange crimes no Canonift can tell
In what Commandment's large contents they dwell.
One, one man only breeds my just offence;
Whom crimes gave wealth, and wealth gave Impudence:
Time, that at laft matures a clap to pox,
Whofe gentle progress makes a calf an ox,
And brings all natural events to pass,
Hath made him an Attorney of an Afs.
No young divine, new-benefic'd, can be
More pert, more proud, more pofitive, than he.
What further could I wish the fop to do,
But turn a wit, and fcribble verses too?
Pierce the foft labyrinth of a Lady's ear
With rhymes of this per cent. and that per year?
Or court a Wife, spread out his wily parts,
Like nets or lime-twigs, for rich Widows hearts;
Call himself Barrister to every wench,
And wooe in language of the Pleas and Bench ?
Whose strange fins Canonifts could hardly tell
In which Commandment's large receit they dwell.
But these punish themselves. The infolence
Of Cofcus, only, breeds my just offence,
Whom time (which rots all, and makes botches pox,
And plodding on, must make a calf an ox)
Hath made a Lawyer; which (alas) of late;
But scarce a Poet: jollier of this fate,
Than are new-benefic'd Minifters, he throws
Like nets or lime-twigs wherefoe'er he goes
Language, which Boreas might to Aufter hold
More rough than forty Germans when they scold.
Curs'd be the wretch, fo venal and so vain:
Paltry and proud, as drabs in Drury-lane.
'Tis fuch a bounty as was never known,
If PETER deigns to help you to your own :
What thanks, what praise, if Peter but supplies!
And what a folemn face, if he denies !
Grave, as when prisoners shake the head and swear
'Twas only Suretiship that brought them there.
His Office keeps your Parchment fates entire,
He farves with cold to fave them from the fire;
For you
he walks the streets through rain or dust,
For not in Chariots Peter puts his trust ;
His title of Barrister on every wench,
And wooes in language of the Pleas and Bench. ** Words, words which would tear
The tender labyrinth of a Maid's soft ear:
More, more than ten Sclavonians fcolding, more
Than when winds in our ruin'd Abbeys roar.
Then fick with Poetry, and poffeft with Muse
Thou waft, and mad I hop'd; but men which chufe
Law practice for meer gain: bold foul repute
Worse than imbrothel'd ftrumpets prostitute.
Now like an owl-like watchman he must walk,
His hand ftill at a bill; now he must talk
Idly, like prifoners, which whole months will fwear,
That only furetifhip hath brought them there,
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