SATIRE II. IR; though (I thank God for it) I do hate SIR; Perfectly all this town; yet there's one state In all ill things, fo excellently beft, That hate towards them, breeds pity towards the reft, Though Poetry, indeed, be fuch a fin, As I think, that brings dearth and Spaniards in: Though like the peftilence, and old-fashion'd love, Ridingly it catch men and doth remove Never, till it be ftarv'd out; yet their state Is poor, difarm'd, like Papifts, not worth hate. One (like a wretch, which at barre juďgd as dead, Yet prompts him which ftands next, and cannot read, And faves his life) gives Idiot Actors means, (Starving himself) to live by's labour'd scenes. As in foine Organs, Puppits dance above And bellows pant below, which them do move. SA A TIR A II. YES; thank my ftars! as early as I knew This Town, I had the fenfe to hate it too: Yet here, as ev'n in Hell, there must be ftill One Giant - Vice, fo excellently ill, That all befide, one pities, not abhors; As who knows Sappho, fmiles at other whores. I grant that Poetry's a crying fin; 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. Yet like the Papift's, is the Poet's ftate, Poor and difarm'd, and hardly worth your hate! 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 who cannot read. Thus as the pipes of fome carv'd Organ move, The gilded puppers dance and mount above. Heav'd by the 'breath th' infpiring bellows blow: Th' infpiring bellows lie and pant below. 20 One would move love by rythmes; but witchcraft's charms Bring not now their old fears, nor their old harms; Rams, and flings now are filly battery, Pistolets are the best artillery. And they who write to Lords, rewards to get, Are they not like fingers at doors for meat? And they who write, because all write, have ftill That fcufe for writing, and for writing ill. But he is worst, who beggarly doth chaw Others wits fruits, and in his ravenous maw Rankly digested, doth thofe things out-fpue, As his own things; and they're his own, 'tis true, For if one eat my meat, though it be known The meat was mine, the excrement's his own. But thefe do me no harm, nor they which use, to out-ufure Jews, Toutdrink the fea, t'out-fwear the Letanie, As Confeffors, and for whose finful fake Schoolmen, new tenements in hell muft make; NOTES. VER. 38. Irishmen outswear), The Original fays, improved by the Imitator to a just stroke of Satire. Dr. Donne's is a low allufion to a licentious quibble used, at that time, by the Enemies of the English Liturgy, who dif liking the frequent One Sings the Fair; but songs 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 fcorn the flesh, the dev'l, and all but gold. These write to Lords, fome mean reward to get, 25° As needy beggars fing at doors for meat. Thofe write becaufe all write, and fo 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: 'Tis chang'd, no doubt, from what it was before, I pafs o'er all those Confeffors and Martyrs, Who live like S-tt-n, or who die like Chartres, Out-cant old Efdras, or out-drink his heir, At fins which Prifca's Confeffor fcarce hears. Schoolmen new tenements in hell muft make; 30 35 40 invocations in the Letanie, called them the taking God's Name in wain, which is the Scripture periphrafis for fwearing.. Whose strange fins Canonifts could hardly tell In which Commandment's large receit they dwell. Hath made a Lawyer; which (alas) of late; Than are new-benefic'd Minifters, he throws And wooes in Language of the Pleas and Bench. Words, words which would tear The tender labyrinth of a Maid's foft 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 which Commandment's large receit they dwell. As if the Ten Commandments were fo wide, as to ftand ready to receive every thing within them, that either the Law of Na |