To Dr. SHERIDAN.

EAR Sheridan! a gentle Pair

Dof

;

Of Gallftown Lads (for fuch they are)
Befides a Brace of grave Divines
Adore the Smoothness of thy Lines
Smooth as our Bafon's Silver Flood,
E'er George had robb'd it of its Mud ¿
Smoother than Pegasus' old Shoe,
E'er Vulcan comes to make it new.
The Board on which we fet our A-s
Is not fo fmooth as are thy Verfes,
Compar'd with which (and that's enuff)
A Smoothing-Ï'rn itself is ruff.

Nor praise I lefs that Circumcifion,
By modern Poets call'd Elifion,
Which in its proper Station plac't,

Makes thy Verse smooth, and makes them last.
Thus, a wife Taylor is not pinching,
But turns at ev'ry Seam an Inch in;

Or elfe, be fure, your Broad-cloth Breeches
Will ne'er be smooth, nor hold the Stitches.
Thy Verfe, like Bricks, defies the Weather,
When smooth'd by rubbing them together;
Thy Words so closely wedg'd and short
Like Walls, more lafting without Mortar;

S 2

are,

By

By leaving out the needless Vowels

You fave the Charge of Lime and Trowels.
One Letter still another locks,

Each groov'd, and dove-tail'd like a Box.
Thy Mufe is tuckt up and fuccinct,
In Chains the Syllables are linkt.

Thy Words together ty'd in small Hanks
Clofe as the Macedonian Phalanx ;
Or like the Umbo of the Romans,
Which fiercest Foes could break by no Means.
The Critick to his Grief will find
How firmly those Indentures bind :
So, in the kindred Painter's Art
The short'ning is the niceft Part.

Philologers of future Ages,

How will they pore upon thy Pages!
Nor will they dare to break the Joints,
But help thee to be read with Points :
Or elfe, to fhew their Labour, you
May backward be perus'd like Hebrew,
Wherein they need not lose a Bit,
Or, of thy Harmony or Wit,

To make a Work compleatly fine,

Number and Weight and Measure join;

Then all must grant your Lines are weighty, Where thirty weigh as much as eighty.

All

All must allow

your

Numbers more,

Where twenty Lines exceed fourfcore;
Nor can we think your Measure short
Where less than forty fill the Quart;
With Alexandrine in the Clofe,

Long, long, long, long, like Dan's long Nose.

A REBUS, written by a* LADY, on the Reverend Dr. SWIFT.

NUT the Name of the MAN Jo-Sepb. who his MISTRESS deny'd,

CU

And let the first of it be only

apply'd

To join with the PROPHET who Nathan. DAVID did chide.

Then say what a Horse is that runs very faft, And that which deferves to be first put the

laft;

Spell all then, and put them together to find The Name and the Virtue of Him I defign'd. Like the Patriarch in Egypt, he's vers❜d in the State,

Like the Prophet in Jeury, he's free with the

Great,

Mrs. Vanhomrigh.

Like

Like a Racer he flies to fuccour with Speed, When his Friends want his Aid, or Defert is in Need,

THE

His ANSWER.

HE NYMPH who wrote this in an
amorous Fit,

I cannot but envy the Pride of her Wit,
Which thus she will venture profufely to throw,
On fo mean a Defign, and a Subject fo low.
For mean's her Defign, and her Subject as mean,
The first but a Rebus, the last but a Deans
A Dean's but a Parfon; and what is a Rebus?
A Thing never known to the Muses or Phœbus :
The Corruption of Verse, for when all is done,
It is but a Paraphrase made on a Punn ;
But a Genius like her's no Subject can stifle,
It fhews and discovers itself through a Trifle.
By reading this Trifle, I quickly began

To find her a Wit, but the Dean a fmall Man.
Rich Ladies will furnish their Garrets with
Stuff,

Which others for Mantuas wou'd think fine enuff: ;

So the Wit that is lavishly thrown away here, Might furnish a fecond Rate Poet a Year:

Thus

Thus much for the Verfe, we proceed to the

next,

Where the Nymph hath entirely forsaken her Text:

Her fine Panegyricks are quite out of Season, And what She describes to be Merit is Treafon : The Changes which Faction hath made in the State,

Have put the Dean's Politicks quite out of

Date:

Now no one regards what he utters with Freedom,

And shou'd he write Pamphlets, no Great Man wou'd read 'em ;

And fhou'd Want or Defert ftand in need of his Aid,

This Racer wou'd prove but a dull founder'd Fade.