Perhaps you wonder whence this Friendship fprings
Between the Weavers and us Play-House Kings!
But Wit and Weaving had the fame Beginning;
Pallas first taught us Poetry and Spinning:
And next observe how this Alliance fits,
For Weavers now are just as poor as Wit's:
Their Brother Quill-Men, Workers for the Stage;
For forry Stuff can get a Crown a Page;
But Weavers will be kinder to the Players,,
And fell for Twenty Pence a Yard of theirs.
Ánd, to your Knowledge, there is often lefs in
The Poet's Wit, than in the Player's Dreffing.
Houfe of George Rochfort, Efq;
Written in the YEAR 1723.
HALIA, tell in fober Lays,
How George, Nim, Dan, Dean, pass their
BEGIN, my Mufe. Firft, from our Bow'rs We fally forth at diff'rent Hours;
At Seven, the Dean in Night-gown dreft,
Goes round the House to wake the reft:
At Nine, grave Nim and George facetious,
Go to the Dean to read Lucretius:
At Ten, my Lady comes and hectors,
And kiffes George, and ends our Lectures;
And when she has him by the Neck faft,
Hauls him, and scolds us, down to Breakfast:
We squander there an Hour or more;
And then all Hands, Boys, to the Oar;
All, heteroclite Dan except,
Who never Time, nor Order kept,
But by peculiar Whimfies drawn,
Peeps in the Ponds to look for Spawn;
O'erfees the Work, or* Dragon rows,
Or mars a Text, or mends his Hofe;
Or-but proceed we in our Journal-
At Two, or after, we return all.
From the four Elements affembling,
Warn'd by the Bell, all Folks come trembling;
From airy Garrets fome descend,
Some from the Lake's remoteft End:
* My Lord Chief Baron's fmaller Boat,
My Lord and Dean the Fire forfake;
Dan leaves the earthly Spade and Rake:
The Loit'rers quake, no Corner hides them,
And Lady Betty foundly chides them,
Now Water's brought, and Dinner's done;
With Church and King the Lady's gone:
(Not reck'ning half an Hour we pass
In talking o'er a moderate Glass.)
Dan, growing drowsy, like a Thief,
Steals off to dofe away his Beef;
And this must pass for reading Hammond.
While George and Dean go to Back-Gammon.
George, Nim, and Dean set out at Four,
And then again, Boys, to the Oar.
But when the Sun goes to the Deep,
(Not to disturb him in his Sleep,
Or make a Rumbling o'er his Head,
His Candle out, and He a-bed)
We watch his Motions to a Minute,
And leave the Flood, when he
goes Now ftinted in the short'ning Day, We
go to Pray'rs, and then to Play : Till Supper comes, and after that, We fit an Hour to drink and chat:
"Tis late-the old and younger
By * Adam lighted, walk up Stairs.
The weary
Dean goes to his Chamber,
And Nim and Dan to Garret clamber,
So when this Circle we have run,
The Curtain falls, and all is done.
I MIGHT have mention'd fev'ral Facts,
Like Episodes between the Acts;
And tell who lofes, and who wins,
Who gets a Cold, who breaks his Shins;
How Dan caught nothing in his Net,
And how the Boat was overfet.
For Brevity I have retrench'd
How in the Lake the Dean was drench'd.
It would be an Exploit to brag on,
How valiant George rode o'er the Dragon;
How steady in the Storm he fat,
And fav'd his Oar, but loft his Hat.
How Nim (no Hunter e'er could match him,)
Still brings us Hares, when he cail catch 'em:
How skilfully Dan mends his Nets;
How Fortune fails him, when he sets.
Or how the Dean delights to vex
The Ladies, and lampoon the Sex.
Or how our Neighbour lifts his Nose,
To tell what ev'ry School-Boy knows,
And, with his Finger on his Thumb
Explaining, ftrikes Oppofers dumb:
Or how his Wife, that Female Pedant,
(But now there need no more be said on't;)
Shews all her Secrets of House-keeping;
For Candles how the trucks her Dripping 3
Was forc'd to fend three Miles for Yeft
To brew her Ale, and raise her Pafte;
Tells ev'ry Thing that you can think of:
How the cur'd Tommy of the Chin-cough;
What gave her Brats and Pigs the Meazles,
And how her Doves were kill'd by Weezles;
How Fowler howl'd, and what a Fright
She had with Dreams the other Night.
But now, fince I have gone fo far on,
A Word or two of † Lord Chief Baron;
And tell how little Weight he fets
On all Whig Papers, and Gazetts;
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