The bluft'ring bully in our neighb'ring streets
Scorns to attack the female that he meets :
Fearless the petticoat contemns his frowns:
The hoop fecures whatever it furrounds.
The many-colour'd gentry there above,
By turns are rul'd by tumult, and by love:
And while their sweet-hearts their attention fix,
Sufpend the din of their damn'd clatt'ring fticks.
Now, Sirs

To you our author makes her foft request,
Who speak the kindest, and who write the best.
Your fympathetic hearts fhe hopes to move,
From tender friendship, and endearing love.
If Petrarch's mufe did Laura's wit rehearse;
And Cowley flatter'd dear Orinda's verse;

She hopes from you—pox take her hopes and fears;
I plead her fex's claim: what matters her's?
By our full pow'r of beauty we think fit,

To damn this Salique law impos'd on wit:
We'll try the empire you fo long have boasted;
And if we are not prais'd, we'll not be toasted.
Approve what one of us presents to night;
Or ev'ry mortal woman here shall write :
Rural, pathetic, narrative, fublime,

We'll write to you, and make you write in rhime;
Female remarks fhall take up all your time.

Your time, poor fouls! we'll take your very money;
Female third days fhall come fo thick upon ye.
As long as we have eyes, or hands, or breath,
We'll look, or write, or talk you all to death.
Unless ye yield for better and for worse:
Then the fhe-Pegafus fhall gain the course;
And the grey mare will prove the better horse.

The THIEF and the CORDELIER, a BALLAD.

но

To the tune of King JOHN, and the ABBOT of

CANTERBURY.

WHO has e'er been at Paris,muft needs know the Greve,

The fatal retreat of th' unfortunate brave:

Where honour and justice most odly contribute,
To cafe hero's pains by a halter and gibbet.
Derry down, down, bey derry down.

There death breaks the shackles, which force had put on;
And the hangman compleats, what the judge but begun:
There the 'fquire of the pad, and the knight of the post,
Find their pains no more balk'd, and their hopes no more
Derry down, &c.

[croft.

Great claims are there made,and great fecrets are known;
And the king, and the law, and the thief has his own;
But my hearers cry out; what a duce dost thou ayl
Cut off thy reflections; and give us thy tale.

Derry down, &c.

'Twas there then, in civil respect to harsh laws,
And for want of false witness, to back a bad cause,
A Norman, tho' late, was oblig'd to appear:
And who to affift, but a grave Cordelier?

Derry down, &c.

The 'fquire, whose good grace was to open the scene, Seem'd not in great hafte, that the show shou'd begin:

Now fitted the halter, now travers'd the cart;

And often took leave; but was loth to depart.
Derry down, &c.

What frightens you thus, my good fon? says the priest: You murder'd, are forry, and have been confeft.

O father! my forrow will fearce fave my bacon:
For 'twas not that I murder'd, but that I was taken.
Derry down, &c.

Pough! pr'ythee ne'er trouble thy head with such fancies:
Rely on the aid you shall have from Saint Francis:
If the money you promis'd be brought to the chest;
You have only to die: let the church do the rest.
Derry down, &c.

And what will folks fay, if they fee you afraid: It reflects upon me; as I knew not my trade: Courage, friend; to-day is your period of forrow? And things will go better, believe me to-morrow. Derry down, &c.

To-morrow? our hero reply'd in a fright:

He that's hang'd before noon, ought to think of to-night. Tell your beads, quoth the priest, and be fairly truss'd up, For you furely to-night shall in Paradise sup.

Derry down, &c.

Alas! quoth the 'fquire, howe'er fumptuous the treat,
Parblew, I shall have little stomach to eat:

I should therefore esteem it great favour and grace;
Would you be fo kind, as to go in my place.

Derry down, &c.

That I would, quoth the father, and thank you to boot;
But our actions, you know, with our duty muft fuit.
The feaft, I propos'd to you, I cannot tafte:
For this night, by our order, is mark'd for a fast.
Derry down, &c.

Then turning about to the hangman, he said;
Dispatch me, I pr'ythee, this troublesome blade:
For thy cord, and my cord both equally tie;
And we live by the gold for which other men die.
Derry down, &c.

ΑΝ ΕΡΙΤΑΡΗ.

Stet quicunque volet potens
Aulae culmine lubrico, &c.

INTER'D beneath this marble stone,
Lie faunt'ring Jack, and idle Joan.
While rolling threefcore years and one
Did round this globe their courses run;
If human things went ill or well;
If changing empires rose or fell;
The morning past, the evening came,
And found this couple ftill the fame.
They walk'd and eat, good folks: what then?
Why then they walk'd and eat again:
They foundly flept the night away:
They just did nothing all the day:
And having bury'd children four,
Would not take pains to try for more:
Nor fifter either had, nor brother;
They feem'd just tally'd for each other.

D

Senec.

Their moral and oeconomy
Moft perfectly they made agree:
Each virtue kept its proper bound,
Nor trefpafs'd on the other's ground.
Nor fame, nor cenfure they regarded:
They neither punish'd, nor rewarded.
He car'd not what the footmen did:
Her maids fhe neither prais'd, nor chid:
So ev'ry servant took his courfe:
And bad at first, they all grew worse.
Slothful diforder fill'd his ftable;
And sluttish plenty deck'd her table.

Their beer was ftrong; their wine was Port;
Their meal was large; their grace was short.
They gave the poor the remnant meat,
Juft when it grew not fit to eat.

They paid the church and parish rate;
And took, but read not the receit:
For which they claim their Sunday's due,
Of flumbring in an upper pew.

No man's defects fought they to know;
So never made themfelves a foe.

No man's good deeds did they commend;
So never rais'd themselves a friend.
Nor cherish'd they relations poor:
That might decrease their present flore:
Nor barn nor houfe did they repair:
That might oblige their future heir.
They neither added, nor confounded:
They neither wanted, nor abounded.
Each Christmas they accounts did clear;
And wound their bottom round the year.
Nor tear, nor fmile did they imploy
At news of publick grief, or joy.