SATIRE II. ES; thank my ftars! as early as I knew YE This Town, I had the fenfe to hate it too: Yet here, as ev'n in Hell, there must be still That all befide, one pities, not abhors; As who knows Sapho, fmiles at other whores. 5 It brought (no doubt) th' Excife and Army in: Catch'd like the Plague, or Love, the Lord knows how, But that the cure is ftarving, all allow. Poor and difarm'd, and hardly worth your hate! who cannot read. Here a lean Bard, whofe wit could never give Himself a dinner, makes an Actor live: The Thief condemn'd, in law already dead, So prompts, and faves a rogue Thus as the pipes of fome carv'd Organ move, The gilded puppets dance and mount above. Heav'd by the breath th' inspiring bellows blow: Th' infpiring bellows lie and pant below. 15 20 One would move love by rythmes; but witchcraft's charms Bring not now their old fears, nor their old harms; And they who write to Lords, rewards to get, But he is worst, who beggarly doth chaw T'out-drink the fea, t'out-fwear the Letanie, NOTES. VER. 38. Irishmen outfwear] The Original says, improved by the Imitator to a juft ftroke of Satire. Dr. Donne's is a low allufion to a licentious quibble used, at that time, by the One fings the Fair; but fongs no longer move; No rat is rhym'd to death, nor maid to love: In love's, in nature's fpite, the fiege they hold, And scorn the flesh, the dev'l, and all but gold. These write to Lords, fome mean reward to get, As needy beggars fing at doors for meat. 26 Those write because all write, and so have still Excufe for writing, and for writing ill. Wretched indeed! but far more wretched yet Is he who makes his meal on others wit: 30 'Tis chang'd, no doubt, from what it was before, His rank digestion makes it wit no more : I pass o'er all thofe Confeffors and Martyrs, 35 Wicked as Pages, who in early years A&t fins which Prifca's Confeffor fcarce hears. 40 Ev'n those I pardon, for whofe finful fake Schoolmen new tenements in hell muft make NOTES. Enemies of the English Liturgy, who difliking the frequent invocations in the Letanie, called them the taking God's Name in vain, which is the Scripture periphrafis for fwearing. S Whose strange fins Canonifts could hardly tell But these punish themselves. The infolence Than are new-benefic'd Ministers, he throws Like nets or lime-twigs wherefoe'er he His title of Barrister on ev'ry wench, goes And wooes in language of the Pleas and Bench,** Words, words which would tear The tender labyrinth of a Maid's soft ear: More, more than ten Sclavonians fcolding, more Than when winds in our ruin'd Abbyes roar. NOTES. VER. 44. In what Commandment's large contents they dwell.] The Original is more humourous, In what Commandments large receit they dwell. As if the Ten Commandments were fo wide, as to ftand ready to Of whose strange crimes no Canonift can tell One, one man only breeds my juft offence; 45 Whom crimes gave wealth, and wealth gave Impudence: Time, that at last matures a clap to pox, Hath made him an Attorney of an Ass. 50 55 But turn a wit, and fcribble verses too; And wooe in language of the Pleas and Bench? 60 NOTES. receive every thing within them, that either the Law of Nature or the Gospel commands. A juft ridicule on thofe practical Commentators, as they are called, who include all moral and religious Duties within them. Whereas their true original fenfe |