Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

But, on second thought,
Wit is always best bought,

And Quince be thou safe among [wenches.]

For all thy ill stars,

In the house thou has peers,

Or else the dull fools would ne'er choose

Of taxes complain,

But shun the campagne,

For soldiers will always abuse thee.

Thy pretty white hand
Was never designed

To meddle with dirty cold iron;

You know you were made

For another guess trade,

When thy beauties the ladies environ.

The noblest pride

Always will ride,

In Peter, top and top-gallant,

And Cutler's coin*

Made Quince for to shine,

And scorn the

you,

poor rogues that are valiant.

Upon the Pope's giving a Cardinal's cap to a Jesuit, on the death of Cardinal de Tournon.

TOURNON, the illustrious cardinal, is dead!
Died at Macao, by the Jesuit's hands:
Was ever thing so base!

The pope, however, unconcerned stands,
Altho' of holy church the head;

And puts a Jesuit in his place.

Men wonder at it; but the pope well knows
The hangman always has the dead man's clothes.

Sir John Cutler, a noted usurer.

The Fable of the Belly, and the Members.

THE members on a time did meet,

As factious members do,

And were resolved, with hands and feet,

The Belly to o'erthrow.

The idle paunch they all decreed
An useless sluggish part,
Which never did, in time of need,
Aid or assist the heart.

So 'twas resolv'd in Parliament,

Nemine contradicente;

That trustees should be thither sent
To keep the Belly empty:

But when they found the Belly flagg'd,
For want of due nutrition;
And that each member pin'd and lagg'd
In a poor weak condition;
They thought it wiser to allow

The Belly [to] a free trade,
Lest that one member waxing low
The whole should be decay'd.

The humble Petition of gossip Joan to her Friend, a North Britain Lady, who had promised her some Snuff at her return out of Scotland.

IN forma pauperis I to you

Thus by petition humbly shew:

Our little isle being barren of mundungus,*

We praise the Lord you're come among us;

For, since by union we are the same,

We plead a right to what you claim.

"Whom he brings in among us,

And bribes with mundungus."-Lady's Lamentation

We call you brethren; the next thing
Is to inquire what goods you bring,
To enrich or please us, else go forth;
We love you just as much as you are worth.
This your commissioners have taught us,
Who sold you to us, when they sought us.
So, just as they do in your name

Our promises, I do your's claim

;

Which you may break, as we, at will,

Or, if it please, you may fulfil.

Since thus united we possess you,

When you make us sneeze, we cry, God bless you.
The snuff which you encouraged me

To hope for, will be charity;

Which to your slave when you convey,

Your poor petitioner shall pray.

B. C.

A Letter of Advice to the Reverend Dr D-la-y, humbly proposed to the Consideration of a certain great Lord.

[This curious libel upon Dr Delany takes the same tone with the rebuke administered to him by Swift, for boasting of his intimacy with Delany. See Vol, XIV. p. 400 and 424, and also p. 357 of this volume, where it is observed that there occurred some coldness between the Dean and Delany. I have a copy of verses upon Lord Carteret, supposed to be written by Dr De lany himself, in which his Lordship's taste for society is characterized by the last line :

"He chooses Delany and Tickell for friends."

This affectation of holding himself forth as the chosen favourite of the lord-lieutenant's easier hours, called down the censure of Tisdal, Smedley, and others, to one of whom we owe the following lines. They are here inserted as throwing some light on Swift's literary history.]

WHAT Doctor, if great Carteret condescends
To chat with Swift and you as private friends,
Must you so silly be to tell the town,

And boast of freedoms he may blush to own;
Is this the modest dutiful behaviour

You shew your patron, for so great a favour?
Think you these honours to your merit due?
What equal honours can reflect from you?
You may perhaps propose immortal fame,
Under the shelter of your patron's name,
If you presume too far, you miss that end,
For the like course lost Swift his Gallstown friend,
And may in time disturb your patron too,
To see the simple choice he's made of you.
But is my lord still short of his intent?
Or is your merit of that vast extent,

That nothing less than thousands can content?
There was a time when Paddy, out of hope,
Thought a West Indian jaunt his utmost scope.
The world's well mended since with Patrick, now
Nothing but vistos and canals will do.

But pray, great sir, what friend of common sense, Would labour to promote such vain expence? And must your breth'ren all in hamlets dwell, T'adorn your busts, and young St Patrick's cell? Why may not some of 'em, for ought you know, Have a desire to build and to bestow?

Retrench then, and be modest if you can, Sir,
Or raise objections stronger than your answer.
Think, Doctor, after double vicar, double rector,
A dignity in Christ-Church lecture:

And something else, which you have still forgot,
A college place. Won't all this boil the pot.
Then judge how very aukwardly it looks,
"You have not yet enough to buy your books."
Good Patrick take advice, and first read o'er
The books you have, before you call for more;
Resign some of those cures you labour hard in,
If you must spend whole summers in your garden,
Attend some one at least, and quit Glass-Nevin,
Which will destroy your credit, if you live in,

Let Barber, tho' polite, at counter wait,
Nor longer be caress'd in pomp and state,
Quickly do this, or you may some provoke
To say, you mean to fleece, not feed the flock.

APPENDIX. No. XI.

DR SWIFT'S WILL, WITH THE CODICIL
ANNEXED.

[These documents are preserved in the Prerogative Office, Henrietta Street, Dublin. The will is written upon vellum, by the Dean's own hand. The codicil, which is now published for the first time, is upon paper. It is not in the Dean's hand-writing, excepting the date and signature. The following letter to Mrs Whiteway, never before published, forms an Introduction to the Will.]

A Letter of the Dean to Mrs Whiteway, endorsed by him, " March 26, 1737. Directions to Mrs Whiteway." As soon as you are assured of my death, whether it shall happen to be in town or the country, I desire you will go immediately to the Deanery, and if I die in the country, I desire you will send down a strong coffin, to have my body brought to town, and deposited in any dry part of St Patrick's Cathedral. Then you are to take my keys, and find my will, and send for as many of my executors as are in town, and in presence of three of them have my will read; and what you see therein that relates to yourself, and is to take place after my death, you are to do in their presence, first delivering my keys to my executors, and then demanding those keys to search where my ready money lies, and take it for your own use, as my will empowers you. But upon their notes you are to lend the money to them, for the charges of

« AnteriorContinua »