And the wise justice starting from his chair

Cry, By your priesthood tell me what you are?

Such was the wight: The apparel on his back,

Though coarse, was reverend, and though bare, was black:
The suit, if by the fashion one might guess,
Was velvet in the youth of good Queen Bess,
But mere tuff-taffety what now remain'd;

40

So time, that changes all things, had ordain'd!
Our sons shall see it leisurely decay,
First turn plain rash, then vanish quite away.

This thing has travell'd, speaks each language too,
And knows what's fit for every state to do;
Of whose best phrase and courtly accent join'd,
He forms one tongue, exotic and refined.
Talkers I've learn'd to bear; Motteux I knew,
Henley himself I've heard, and Budgell too.
The Doctor's wormwood style, the hash of tongues
A pedant makes, the storm of Gonson's lungs,
The whole artillery of the terms of war,
And (all those plagues in one) the bawling Bar;
These I could bear; but not a rogue so civil,
Whose tongue will compliment you to the devil.
A tongue that can cheat widows, cancel scores,
Make Scots speak treason, cozen subtlest whores,
With royal favourites in flattery vie,
And Oldmixon and Burnet both outlie.

He spies me out; I whisper, Gracious God!
What sin of mine could merit such a rod?
That all the shot of dulness now must be
From this thy blunderbuss discharged on me!
Permit (he cries) no stranger to your fame
To crave your sentiment, if
What speech esteem you most?
But the best words? "O, sir, the Dictionary."
You miss my aim; I mean the most acute

And perfect speaker?

But, sir, of writers?

66

's your name.

"The King's," said I.

"Onslow, past dispute."

Swift, for closer style;

"But Ho** y for a period of a mile."1

Why yes, 'tis granted, these indeed may pass :
Good common linguists, and so Panurge was;

1 [Bishop Hoadley.]

Nay troth, the apostles (though perhaps too rough)
Had once a pretty gift of tongues enough:
Yet these were all poor gentlemen! I dare
Affirm, 'twas travel made them what they were.
Thus others' talents having nicely shown,
He came, by sure transition, to his own:
Till I cried out, You prove yourself so able,
Pity you was not druggerman at Babel;
For had they found a linguist half so good,
I make no question but the tower had stood.

66

Obliging sir! for Courts you sure were made: Why then for ever buried in the shade?

80

85

Spirits like you should see and should be seen,

The king would smile on you—at least the queen."
Ah, gentle Sir! you courtiers so cajole us-

90.

But Tully has it, Nunquam minus solus:
And as for Courts, forgive me, if I say
No lessons now are taught the Spartan way:
Though in his pictures lust be full display'd,
Few are the converts Aretine has made;
And though the Court show vice exceeding clear,
None should, by my advice, learn virtue there.

At this, entranced, he lifts his hands and eyes,
Squeaks, like a high-stretch'd lutestring, and replies ;
"Oh, 'tis the sweetest of all earthly things
To gaze on princes, and to talk of kings!"

100

Then, happy man, who shows the tombs! said I,
He dwells amidst the royal family;

He every day from king to king can walk,
Of all our Harries, all our Edwards talk.
And get, by speaking truth of monarchs dead,
What few can of the living, ease and bread.

105

"Lord, sir, a mere mechanic! strangely low,
And coarse of phrase,-your English all are so.

"How elegant your Frenchmen!" Mine, d' ye mean? 110
I have but one, I hope the fellow's clean.
"Oh, sir, politely so! nay, let me die:
Your only wearing is your paduasoy."
Not, sir, my only, I have better still,
And this, you see, is but my dishabille.-
Wild to get loose, his patience I provoke,
Mistake, confound, object at all he spoke.

115

But as coarse iron, sharpen'd, mangles more,
And itch most hurts when anger'd to a sore :
So when you plague a fool, 'tis still the curse,
You only make the matter worse and worse.
He pass'd it o'er; affects an easy smile
At all my peevishness, and turns his style.

120

He asks, "What news?" I tell him of new plays,
New eunuchs, harlequins, and operas.

125

He hears, and as a still with simples in it,

Between each drop it gives, stays half a minute,

Loth to enrich me with too quick replies,

By little, and by little, drops his lies.

Mere household trash! of birthnights, balls, and shows, 130 More than ten Hollinsheds, or Halls, or Stowes.

When the queen frown'd, or smiled, he knows; and what

A subtle minister may make of that:

Who sins with whom: who got his pension rug,

Or quicken'd a reversion by a drug:

135

Whose place is quarter'd out, three parts in four,

And whether to a bishop, or a whore:

Who, having lost his credit, pawn'd his rent,

Is therefore fit to have a government:

Who, in the secret, deals in stocks secure,

140

And cheats the unknowing widow and the poor:

Who makes a trust of charity a job,

And gets an act of parliament to rob:

Why turnpikes rise, and now no cit nor clown
Can gratis see the country or the town:
Shortly no lad shall chuck, or lady vole,
But some excising courtier will have toll.
He tells what strumpet places sells for life,
What 'squire his lands, what citizen his wife :
At last (which proves him wiser still than all)
What lady's face is not a whited wall.

145

150

As one of Woodward's patients, sick and sore,
I puke, I nauseate,—yet he thrusts in more:
Trims Europe's balance, tops the statesman's part,
And talks Gazettes and Postboys o'er by heart.
Like a big wife at sight of loathsome meat
Ready to cast, I yawn, I sigh, and sweat.
Then, as a licensed spy, whom nothing can
Silence or hurt, he libels the great man;

155

Swears every place entail'd for years to come,
In sure succession to the day of doom:
He names the price for every office paid,
And says our wars thrive ill, because delay'd:
Nay hints, 'tis by connivance of the Court,
That Spain robs on, and Dunkirk's still a port.
Not more amazement seized on Circe's guests,
To see themselves fall endlong into beasts,
Than mine to find a subject, staid and wise,
Already half turn'd traitor by surprise.
I felt the infection slide from him to me,
As in the pox, some give it to get free;
And quick to swallow me, methought I saw
One of our giant statutes ope its jaw.

In that nice moment, as another lie
Stood just a-tilt, the minister came by.
To him he flies, and bows, and bows again,
Then, close as Umbra, joins the dirty train.
Not Fannius' self more impudently near,
When half his nose is in his prince's ear.2
I quaked at heart; and still afraid, to see
All the Court fill'd with stranger things than he,
Ran out as fast as one that pays his bail,
And dreads more actions, hurries from a jail.

160

165

170

175

180

Bear me, some god! oh quickly bear me hence
To wholesome solitude, the nurse of sense:
Where Contemplation prunes her ruffled wings,3
And the free soul looks down to pity kings!
There sober thought pursued the amusing theme,
Till fancy colour'd it, and form'd a dream.
A vision hermits can to hell transport,

185

190

And forced e'en me to see the damn'd at Court.
Not Dante dreaming all the infernal state,
Beheld such scenes of envy, sin, and hate.
Base fear becomes the guilty, not the free;
Suits tyrants, plunderers, but suits not me:
Shall I, the terror of this sinful town,
Care, if a liveried lord or smile or frown?

2 [Lord Fanny, or Hervey, whispering gossip or scandal at Court.]

8 [From Milton's Comus.]

195

Who cannot flatter, and detest who can,
Tremble before a noble serving-man?

O my fair mistress, Truth! shall I quit thee
For huffing, braggart, puff'd nobility?

Thou, who since yesterday, hast roll'd o'er all
The busy, idle blockheads of the ball,
Hast thou, oh Sun! beheld an emptier sort,
Than such as swell this bladder of a Court?
Now pox on those who show a Court in wax!4
It ought to bring all courtiers on their backs :
Such painted puppets! such a varnish'd race
Of hollow gewgaws, only dress and face!
Such waxen noses, stately, staring things—
No wonder some folks bow, and think them kings.
See! where the British youth engaged, no more,

At Fig's, at White's, with felons, or a whore,5
Pay their last duty to the Court, and come
All fresh and fragrant, to the drawing-room;
In hues as gay, and odours as divine,

200

205

210

215

As the fair fields they sold to look so fine.
"That's velvet for a king!" the flatterer swears;

'Tis true, for ten days hence 't will be King Lear's.
Our Court may justly to our stage give rules,
That helps it both to fools' coats and to fools,
And why not players strut in courtiers' clothes ?
For these are actors, too, as well as those :

220

Wants reach all states; they beg, but better dress'd,
And all is splendid poverty at best.

225

Painted for sight, and essenced for the smell,

Like frigates fraught with spice and cochinell,
Sail in the ladies: how each pirate eyes

So weak a vessel, and so rich a prize!

Top-gallant he, and she in all her trim,

He boarding her, she striking sail to him:

230

"Dear Countess! you have charms all hearts to hit!" And "Sweet Sir Fopling! you have so much wit!"

4 A famous show of the court of France, in wax-work.

5 White's was a noted gaming-house: Fig's, a prize-fighter's academy, where the young nobility received instruction in those days: it was also customary for the nobility and gentry to visit the condemned criminals in Newgate.