Yet always withing to retreat :
Oh, could I fee my Country Seat!
There leaning near a gentle Brook,
Sleep, or perufe fome antient Book;

And there, in fweet Oblivion, drown

Those Cares that haunt a Court and Town.

108. O Rus, quando ego te afpiciam, quandoque licebit, Nunc veterum libris, nunc fomno, & inertibus horis, Ducere follicita jucunda oblivia vita?

110

AN

ELEGY

On the fuppofed Death of PARTRIGE the Almanack-maker.

WEL

Written in the YEAR 1708.

ELL; 'tis as Bickerstaff has guest,
Tho' we all took it for a Jeft:

Partrige is dead; nay more, he died

E'er he could prove the good 'Squire ly'd.

Strange,

Strange, an Aftrologer should die,
Without one Wonder in the Sky!
Not one of all his Crony Stars
To pay their Duty at his Herfe?
No Meteor, no Eclipse appear'd?
No Comet with a flaming Beard?
The Sun has rofe, and
gone to Bed,
Juft as if Partrige were not dead:
Nor hid himself behind the Moon,
To make a dreadful Night at Noon.
He at fit Periods walks through Aries,
Howe'er our earthly Motion varies;
And twice a Year he'll cut th' Equator,
As if there had been no fuch Matter.

SOME Wits have wonder'd what Analogy
There is 'twixt * Cobbling and Aftrology:
How Partrige made his Opticks rife,
From a Shoe-Sole to reach the Skies.

A LIST the Goblers Temples ties, To keep the Hair out of their Eyes; From whence 'tis plain, the Diadem

'

That Princes wear, derives from them:

I 2

Partrige was a Cobler.

And

And therefore Crowns are now a-days
Adorn'd with golden Stars and Rays:
Which clearly fhews the near Alliance,
'Twixt Cobbling and the Planets Sciente.

BESIDES; that flow-pac'd Sign Bootes,
As 'tis mifcall'd, we know not who 'tis?
But Partrige ended all Disputes;
He knew his Trade, and call'd it † Boots.

THE borned Moon, which heretofore
Upon their Shoes the Romans wore,
Whose Widenefs kept their Toes from Corns,

And whence we claim our Shooing-Horns;
Shews how the Art of Cobbling bears

A near Refemblance to the Spheres.

A SCRAP of Parchment hung by Geometry,

(A great Refinement in Barometry)

Can like the Stars foretel the Weather;

And what is Parchment elfe but Leather?

Which an Aftrologer might ufe,

Either for Almanacks or Shoes.

† See bis Almanack.

THUS

THUS Partrige, by his Wit and Parts,
At once did practise both these Arts:
And as the boading Owl (or rather
The Bat, because her Wings are Leather)
Steals from her private Cell by Night,
And flies about the Candle-Light;

So learned Partrige could as well
Creep in the Dark from Leathern Cell,
And in his Fancy fly as far,

BESIDES, he could confound the Spheres, And fet the Planets by the Ears:

To fhew his Skill, he Mars could join

To Venus in Afpect Mali'n;

Then call in Mercury for Aid,

And cure the Wounds that Venus made.

GREAT Scholars have in Lucian read,
When Philip King of Greece was dead,
His Soul and Spirit did divide,

And each Part took a different Side:
One rofe a Star; the other fell

Beneath, and mended Shoes in Hell

THUS

THUS Partrige ftill fhines in each Art,

The Cobbling and Star-gazing Part;

And is inftall'd as good a Star

As any of the Cafars are.

TRIUMPHANT Star! fome Pity fhew
On Coblers militant below,

Whom roguish Boys in ftormy Nights
Torment, by piffing out their Lights;
Or thro' a Chink convey their Smoke,
Inclos'd Artificers to choke.

THOU, high-exalted in thy Sphere,
May'ft follow still thy Calling there.
To thee the Bull will lend his Hide,
By Phabus newly tann'd and dry'd.
For thee they Argo's Hulk will tax,
And fcrape her pitchy Sides for Wax.
Then, Ariadna kindly lends

Her braided Hair to make thee Ends.
The Point of Sagitarius' Dart
Turns to an Awl, by heavenly Art:
And Vulcan, wheedled by his Wife,
Will forge for thee a Paring Knife.

For