Let others fcrew their hypocritic face, She fhews her grief in a fincerer place : 10 EPIGRAM, in a maid of honour's Prayer-book. WHEN Ifrael's daughters mourn'd their past of fences, They dealt in fackcloth, and turn'd cinder-winches: A EPIGRAM.. Written in the year 1712. S Thomas was cudgell'd one day by his wife, Tom's three dearest friends came by in the squabble, And fav'd him at once from the shrew and the rabble; But Tom is a person of honour so nice, 5 Too wife to take counfel, too proud to take warning, The BALANCE of EUROPE. TOW Europe's balanc'd, neither fide prevails; VOL. VI. M * A PANEGYRICAL EPISTLE to Mr. THOMAS SNOW, goldfmith, near Temple-bar; occafioned by his buying and felling the third South-fea fubfcriptions, taken in by the directors at a thousand per cent. t. D1 ISDAIN not, Snow, my humble verse to hear; Stick thy black pen a while behind thy ear. Whether thy compter fhine with fums untold, And thy wide grafping hand grows black with gold: Whether thy mien erect, and fable locks, In crouds of brokers overawe the flocks; Sufpend the worldly bus'nefs of the day, And, to enrich thy mind, attend my lay. O thou, whofe penetrative wifdom found The South-fea rocks and fhelves, where thousands drown'd! When credit funk, and commerce gafping lay, 10 15 In the year 1720, the South-fea company, under pretence of paying the public debt, obtained an act of parliament for enlar ging their capital, by taking into it all the debts of the nation incurred before the year 1716, amounting to 31,664,5511. Part of this sum was subscribed into their capital at three fubscriptions; the first at 300 1. per cent. the fecond at 400 l. and a third at 1000l. Such was the infatuation of the time, that thefe fubfcriptions were bought and fold at exorbitant premiums; fo that 100 1. South-fea ftock fubfcribed at 1000l. was fold for 1200). in Exchange aliey. Hawkef. Names of eminent goldsmiths. WHY did 'Change alley wafte thy precious hours. No wonder they were caught by South-sea schemes, 20 25 No wonder that their fancies wild can frame I know thou fcorn'ft his mean, his fordid mind; They fell the treasures which their flumbers get, THRO' fam'd Moorfields extends a fpacious feat, Where wrapp'd in contemplation, and in straw, 30 35 41 Who all the joys and pangs of riches felt : 45 And his proud fancy held a vast estate. As on a time he pafs'd the vacant hours In raifing piles of straw and twisted bow'rs, A poet enter'd of the neighbouring cell, And with fix'd eye obferv'd the ftructure well: 50 A sharpen'd skewer 'crofs his bare fhoulders bound 55 The banker's brain was cool'd; the mist grew clear; The vifionary fcene was loft in air. He now the vanish'd profpect understood, 61 65 And fear'd the fancy'd bargain was not good: The SOUTH-SE A, 1721. E wife philofophers! explain YE rife, What magic makes our money Put in your money fairly told; Prefto be gone 'Tis here agen; Ladies and gentlemen, behold, Here's ev'ry piece as big as ten. 70 པ * Charles II. having borrowed a confiderable sum, gave tallies as a fecurity for the re-payment; but foon after, fhutting up the exchequer, thefe tallies were as much reduced from their original value, as the South-fea had exceeded it. Hawkef. Thus in a bason drop a fhilling, Then fill the veffel to the brim; It rifes both in bulk and height; In stock three hundred thousand pound; Thus the deluded bankrupt raves, So, by a calenture misled, The mariner with rapture fees And in he leaps, and down he finks. Two hundred chariots, just bespoke, Are funk in these devouring waves, The horses drown'd, the harness broke; And here the owners find their graves. Like Pharaoh, by directors led, They with their poils went fafe before; His chariots, tumbling out the dead, 40 |