Ajax, to fhun his general power,
In vain abfconded in a flower;
An idle fcene Tythonus acted,
When to a grafshopper contracted;
Death ftruck them in thofe fhapes again,
As once he did when they were men.
For reptiles perish, plants decay;
Flesh is but grafs, grafs turns to hay;
And hay to dung, and dung to elay.
Thus heads extremely nice difcover,
That folks may die fome ten times over ;
But oft', by too refin❜d a touch,

To prove things plain, they prove too much.
Whate'er Pythagoras may fay

(For each, you know, will have his way),
With

great fubmiffion I pronounce,
That people die no more than once:
But once is fure and death is common
To Bird and Man, including Woman;
From the Spread Eagle to the Wren,
Alas! no mortal fowl knows when;
All that wear feathers first or laft
Muft one day perch on Charon's mast;
Muft lie beneath the cyprefs fhade,
Where Strada's Nightingale was laid;
Those fowl who feem alive to fit,
Affembled by Dan Chaucer's wit,
In profe have slept three hundred years:
Exempt from worldly hopes and fears,

}

And,

And, laid in ftate upon their hearfe,
Are truly but embalm'd in verse;
As fure as Lesbia's Sparrow I,

Thou fure as Prior's Dove, * must die,
And ne'er again from Lethe's ftreams,
Return to Adige, or to Thames.

T. I therefore weep Columbo dead, My hopes bereav'd, my pleasures fled; "I therefore muft for ever moan

66

My dear Columbo dead and gone.
S. Columbo never fees your tears,
Your cries Columbo never hears;
A wall of brafs, and one of lead,
Divide the living from the dead.
Repell'd by this, the gather'd rain
Of tears beats back to earth again;
In t'other the collected found

Of groans, when once receiv'd, is drown'd. "Tis therefore vain one hour to grieve,

What Time itself can ne'er retrieve.

By nature foft, I know a Dove

Can never live without her Love;

Then quit this flame, and light another;

Dame, I advise you like a brother.

T. What, I to make a fecond choice!

In other nuptials to rejoice!

S. Why not, my bird?

T.

No, Sparrow, no!

Let me indulge my pleafing woe:

* See vol. I. p. 93.

Thus

Thus fighing, cooing, eafe my pain,
But never wish, nor love, again :
Diftrefs'd for ever, let me moan
"My dear Columbo, dead and gone."

S. Our winged friends through all the grove
Contemn thy mad excess of love :

I tell thee, Dame, the other day
I met a Parrot and a Jay,
Who mock'd thee in their mimic tone,
And " wept Columbo, dead and gone.

T. Whate'er the Jay or Parrot said,
My hopes are loft, my joys are fled;
And I for ever must deplore

"Columbo dead and gone."-S. ENCORE!

For fhame! forsake this Bion-stile,

We 'll talk an hour, and walk a mile.

Does it with fense or health agree,

To fit thus moping on a tree?
To throw away a widow's life,
When you again may be a wife?
Come on! I'll tell you my amours;
Who knows but they may influence yours;
"Example draws where precept fails,
"And fermons are lefs read than tales."
T. Sparrow, I take thee for my friend,
As fuch will hear thee: I defcend;
Hop on, and talk; but, honest bird,
Take care that no immodeft word
May venture to offend my ear.

S. Too faint-like turtle, never fear :

BX

144

By method things are best discours'd,
Begin we then with Wife the FIRST:
A handfome, fenfelefs, awkward fool,
Who would not yield, and could not rule :
Her actions did her charms difgrace,
And still her tongue talk'd of her face:
Count me the leaves on yonder tree,
So many different wills had she,

And, like the leaves, as chance inclin'd,
Those wills were chang'd with every wind:
She courted the BEAU-MONDE to-night,
L'ASSEMBLEE, her fupreme delight;
The next she fat immur'd, unseen,
And in full health enjoy'd the spleen;
She cenfur'd THAT, she alter'd THIS,
And with great care set all amiss;
She now could chide, now laugh, now cry,
Now fing, now pout, all GOD KNOWS WHY!
Short was her reign, fhe cough'd, and dy'd.
Proceed we to my SECOND bride;
Well-born fhe was, genteely bred,
And buxom both at board and bed;
Glad to oblige, and pleas'd to please,
And, as Tom Southern wifely fays,
"No other fault had fhe in life,
"But only that she was my wife *.”
O widow Turtle! every she
(So Nature's pleasure does decree)

*See "The Wife's Excufe, a comedy."

Appears

Appears a goddess till enjoy'd ;

But Birds, and Men, and Gods, are cloy'd.

Was Hercules one Woman's Man?

Or Jove for ever Leda's Swan?

Ah! madam, cease to be mistaken,
Few marry'd fowl peck Dun-mow-bacon.
Variety alone gives joy,

The sweetest meats the fooneft cloy.
What Sparrow-dame, what Dove alive,
Though Venus fhould the chariot drive,
But would accufe the harness weight,
If always coupled to ONE mate;
And often with the fetter broke?
'Tis freedom but to change the yoke.
T. Impious! to wish to wed again,
Ere death diffolv'd the former chain!

S. Spare your remark, and hear the reft;
She brought me fons; but (Jove be bleft!)
She dy'd in child-bed on the neft.

Well, reft her bones! quoth I, fhe's
But muft I therefore lie alone?
What am I to her memory ty'd?
Muft I not live, because she dy'd ?
And thus I logically faid

gone;

('Tis good to have a reasoning head !)
Is this my wife? PROBATUR, not;
For death diffolv'd the marriage-knot;
She was, CONCEDO, during life;
But, is a piece of CLAY a wife?
VOL. II.

L

}

Again,