Thus for a week the farce went on; When all her country-favings gone, She fell into her former scene, Small beer, a herring, and the dean, Thus far in jeft; though now I fear, You think my jefting too fevere; But poets, when a hint is new, Regard not whether falfe or true: Yet raillery gives no offence, Where truth has not the leaft pretence; Nor can be more fecurely plac'd Than on a nymph of Stella's tafte. I must confefs, your vine and vittle I was too hard upon a little: Your table neat, your linen fine; And, though in miniature, you fhine: Yet when you figh to leave Wood-park, The scene, the welcome, and the spark, To languish in this odious town, And pull your haughty ftomach down; We think you quite mistake the case, The virtue lies not in the place: For though my raillery were true, A cottage is Wood-park with you,

A quib

A quibbling ELEGY on the worshipful Judge BOAT.

Written in the Year 1723.

O mournful ditties, Clio, change thy

T°

note,

Since cruel fate hath funk our justice Boat. Why fhould he fink, where nothing feem'd to press?

His lading little, and his ballaft lefs.

Toft in the waves of this tempefluous world,
At length, his anchor fixt and canvas furl'd,
To* Lazy-bill retiring from his court,
At his * Ring's-end he founders in the port.
With twater fill'd he could no longer float,
The common death of many a ftronger boat.
A post so fill'd on nature's laws entren-

ches: Benches on boats are plac'd, not boats on benches.

And yet our Boat, how fhall I reconcile it? Was both a Boat, and in one fense a pilot.

*Two villages near the fea, where boatmen and feamen live. It was faid he died of a dropfy.

With ev'ry wind he fail'd, and well could tack:

Had many pendents, but abhorr'd a* Jack. He's gone, although his friends began to hope,

That he might yet be lifted by a rope.

Behold the awful bench, on which he fat; He was as hard and pond'rous wood as that: Yet, when his fand was out, we find at laft, That death has overfet him with a blast. Our Boat is now fail'd to the Stygian ferry, There to fupply old Charon's leaky wherry: Charon in him will ferry fouls to hell; A trade our + Boat hath practis'd here fo well:

And Cerberus hath ready in his paws Both pitch and brimstone to fill up his flaws. Yet fpite of death and fate, I here maintain We may place Boat in his old poft again. The way is thus; and well deferves your thanks:

Take the three ftrongeftof his brokenplanks, Fix them on high, confpicuous to be feen, Form'd like the triple-tree near + Stephen's green;

* A cant word for a Facobite. + In hanging people as a judge. Where the Dublin gallows ftands. And,

And, when we view it thus with thief at end on't,

We'll cry; look, here's our Boat, and there's the pendant.

The EPITAPH.

HERE lies judge Boat within a coffin ;
Pray, gentle-folks, forbear your fcoffing.
A Boat a judge? yes; where's the blunder?
A wooden judge is no fuch wonder.
And in his robes, you must agree,
No Boat was better deckt than be.
'Tis needless to defcribe him fuller,
In fhorts he was an able * fculler.

A Receipt to restore STELLA's Youth,

T

Written in the Year 1724-5.

HE Scottish hinds, too poor to house In frosty nights their starving cows, While not a blade of grafs or hay Appears from Michaelmas to May, Muft let their cattle range in vain For food along the barren plain.

*

Query, Whether the author meant scholar, and wilfully

mistook.

Meagre

Meagre and lank with fafting grown,
And nothing left but skin and bone;
Expos'd to want, and wind, and weather,
They just keep life and foul together,
'Till fummer fhow'rs and evening's dew
Again the verdant glebe renew;
And as the vegetables rise,

The famish'd cow her want fupplies:
Without an ounce of laft year's flesh:
Whate'er fhe gains is young and fresh;
Grows plump and round, and full of mettle,
As rifing from Medea's kettle,
With youth and beauty to enchant
Europa's counterfeit gallant *.

Why, Stella, fhould you knit your brow,
If I compare you to the cow?
'Tis juft the cafe; for you have fasted
So long, till all your flesh is wasted,
And must against the warmer days
Be fent to + Quilca down to graze!
Where mirth, and exercife, and air,
Will foon your appetite repair :
The nutriment will from within
Round all your body plump your skin;

*Jupiter is fabled to have ftolen Europa in the fhape of a

bull.

+ Dr. Sheridan's houfe, feven or eight miles from Dublin.