One came from Greece, and one from Rome; 517
The other two grew nearer home.
For some in ancient books delight;
Others prefer what moderns write;
Now I should be extremely loth,
Not to be thought expert in both.
But shall we take the muse abroad,
To drop her idly on the road,
And leave our subject in the middle,
As Butler did his bear and fiddle?
Yet he, consummate master, knew
When to recede, and where pursue;
His noble negligences teach
What others' toils despair to reach.
He, perfect dancer, climbs the rope,
And balances your fear and hope;
If, after some distinguished leap,
He drops his pole, and seems to slip,
Straight gathering all his active strength,
He rises higher half his length.
With wonder you approve his sleight;
And owe your pleasure to your fright.
But like poor Andrew I advance,
False mimic of my master's dance;
Around the cord awhile I sprawl,
And thence, though low, in earnest fall.
My preface tells you I digressed:
He's half absolved who has confessed.
I like, quoth Dick, your simile,
And, in return, take two from me.
As masters in the clair obscure
With various light your eyes allure;
A flaming yellow here they spread;
Draw off in blue, or charge in red;
Yet, from these colours oddly mixed,
Your sight upon the whole is fixed:
Or as, again, your courtly dames
(Whose clothes returning birth-day claims)
By arts improve, the stuffs they vary;
And things are best as most contrary;
The gown with stiff embroidery shining,
Looks charming with a slighter lining;
The out, if Indian figure stain,
The in-side must be rich and plain:
So you great authors have thought fit
To make digression temper wit.
When arguments too fiercely glare,
You calm them with a milder air;
To break their points, you turn their force,
And furbelow the plain discourse.
Richard, quoth Mat, these words of thine
Speak something sly, and something fine;
But I shall e'en resume my theme,
However thou mayst praise or blame.
As people marry now, and settle,
Fierce love abates his usual mettle;
Worldly desires, and household cares,
Disturb the godhead's soft affairs;
So now, as health or temper changes,
In larger compass Alma ranges,
This day below, the next above,
As light or solid whimsies move.
So merchant has his house in town,
And country-seat near Banstead down;
From one he dates his foreign letters,
Sends out his goods, and duns his debtors;
In t'other, at his hours of leisure,
He smokes his pipe, and takes his pleasure.
And now your matrimonial Cupid,
Lashed on by time, grows tired and stupid.
For story and experience tell us,
That man grows old, and woman jealous;
Both would their little ends secure;
He sighs for freedom, she for
power;
His wishes tend abroad to roam,
And hers, to domineer at home.
Thus passion flags by slow degrees,
And, ruffled more, delighted less,
The busy mind does seldom go
To those once-charming seats below;
But, in the breast incamped, prepares
For well-bred feints and future wars.
The man suspects his lady's crying,
When he last autumn lay a-dying,
Was but to gain him to appoint her
By codicil a larger jointure.
The woman finds it all a trick,
That he could swoon when she was sick;
And knows, that in that grief he reckoned
On black-eyed Susan for his second.
Thus, having strove some tedious years
With feigned desires, and real fears,
And, tired with answers and replies
Of John affirms, and Martha lies,
Leaving this endless altercation,
The mind affects a higher station.
Poltis, that generous king of Thrace,
I think, was in this very case.
All Asia now was by the ears,
And gods beat up for volunteers
To Greece and Troy; while Poltis sat
In quiet governing his state.
And whence, said the pacific king,
Does all this noise and discord spring?
Why, Paris took Atrides' wife-
With ease I could compose this strife:
The injured hero should not lose,
Nor the young lover want a spouse.
But Helen changed her first condition,
Without her husband's just permission.
What from the dame can Paris hope;
She may as well from him elope.
Again, how can her old good-man
With honour take her back again;
From hence I logically gather,
The woman cannot live with either.
Now, I have two right honest wives,
For whose possession no man strives;
One to Atrides I will send,
And t'other to my Trojan friend.
Each prince shall thus with honour have
What both so warmly seem to crave;
The wrath of gods and man shall cease,
And Poltis live and die in peace.
Dick, if this story pleaseth thee,
Pray thank Dan Pope, who told it me.
Howe'er swift Alma's flight may vary,
(Take this by way of corollary),
Some limbs she finds the very same,
In place, in dignity, in name:
These dwell at such convenient distance,
That each may give his friend assistance.
Thus he who runs or dances begs
The equal vigour of two legs;
So much to both does Alma trust,
She ne'er regards which goes the first.
Teague could make neither of them stay,
When with himself he ran away.
The man who struggles in the fight
Fatigues left arm as well as right;
For, whilst one hand exalts the blow,
And on the earth extends the foe,
T'other would take it wondrous ill,
If in your pocket it lay still.
And, when you shoot, and shut one
You cannot think he would deny
To lend the other friendly aid,
Or wink as coward and afraid.
No, sir; whilst he withdraws his flame,
His comrade takes the surer aim.
One moment if his beams recede;
As soon as ere the bird is dead,
Opening again, he lays his claim.
To half the profit, half the fame,
And helps to pocket up the game.
"Tis thus one tradesman slips away,
To give his partner fairer play.
Some limbs again, in bulk or stature
Unlike, and not akin by Nature,
In concert act, like modern friends;
Because one serves the other's ends.
The arm thus waits upon the heart,
So quick to take the bully's part,
That one, though warm, decides more slow
Than the other executes the blow.
A stander-by may chance to have it,
Ere Hack himself perceives he gave it.
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