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For you he walks the streets thro' rain or duft,
For not in Chariots Peter puts his truft;
For you he fweats and labours at the laws,
Takes God to witness he affects your caufe,
And lies to ev'ry Lord in ev'ry thing,
Like a King's Favourite-or like a King.
'These are the talents that adorn them all,
From wicked Waters ev'n to godly * *
Not more of Simony beneath black gowns,
Nor more of baftardy in heirs to Crowns.
In fhillings and in pence at firft they deal;
And steal fo little, few perceive they steal;
Till, like the Sea, they compafs all the land,

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From Scots to Wight, from Mount to Dover ftrand: 85
And when rank Widows purchase luscious nights,
Or when a Duke to Jansen punts at White's,
Or City-heir in mortgage melts away;
Satan himself feels far lefs joy than they.
Piccemeal they win this acre firft, then that,
Glean on, and gather up the whole estate.
Then ftrongly fencing ill-got wealth by law,
Indentures, Cov'nants, Articles they draw,
Large as the fields themselves, and larger far
Than Civil Codes, with all their Gloffes, are;
So vaft, our new Divines, we must confess,
Are Fathers of the Church for writing less.
But let them write for you, each rogue impairs
The deeds, and dextrously omits, fes heires:

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When Luther was profeft, he did defire
Short Pater-nofters, faying as a Fryer

Each day his Beads; but having left those laws,
Adds to Chrift's prayer, the power and glory clause)
But when he fells or changes land, h'impaires
The writings, and (unwatch'd) leaves out, fes heires,
As flily as any Commenter goes by

Hard words, or sense; or, in Divinity

As controverters in vouch'd Texts, leave out Shrewd words, which might against them clear the doubt.

Where are these spread woods which cloath'd here

tofore

Those bought lands? not built, not burnt within

door.

Where the old landlords troops, and almes? In halls Carthufian Fafts, and fulfome Bacchanals

Equally I hate. Mean's bleft. In rich men's homes
I bid kill fome beafts, but no hecatombs ;

None ftarve, none furfeit fo. But (oh) we allow
Good works as good, but out of fashion now,
Like old rich wardrobes. But my words none draws
Within the vast reach of th' huge statutes jawes.

NOTES.

VER. 127. Treafon, or the Law.] By the Law is here meant the Lawyers.

No Commentator can more flily pafs

O'er a learn'd, unintelligible place;

Or, in quotation, fhrewd Divines leave out

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Those words, that would against them clear the doubt.
So Luther thought the Pater-nofter long,

When doom'd to fay his beads and Even fong; 105
But having caft his cowle, and left thofe laws,
Adds to Christ's pray'r, the Pow'r and Glory clause.
The lands are bought; but where are to be found
Those ancient woods, that shaded all the ground?
We fee no new-built palaces afpire,

No kitchens emulate the veftal fire.

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Where are those troops of Poor, that throng'd of yore The good old landlord's hofpitable door?

Well, I could wish, that still in lordly domes

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Some beasts were kill'd, tho' not whole hecatombs ;
That both extremes were banish'd from their walls,
Carthufian fafts, and fulfome Bacchanals;
And all mankind might that just Mean obferve,
In which none e'er could furfeit, none could starve.
These as good works, 'tis true, we all allow;
But oh! these works are not in fashion now:
Like rich old wardrobes, things extremely rare,
Extremely fine, but what no man will wear.

Thus much I've faid, I truft, without offence;
Let no Court Sycophant pervert my sense,
Nor fly Informer watch these words to draw
Within the reach of Treason, or the Law.,

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IV.

SATIRE

ELL; I may now receive, and die. My fin

WEL

Indeed is great, but yet I have been in

A Purgatory, fuch as fear'd hell is

A recreation, and scant map of this.

My mind, neither with pride's itch, nor hath been Poyfon'd with love to fee or to be seen,

I had no fuit there, nor new fuit to show,
Yet went to Court; but as Glare which did go

To Mafs in jeft, catch'd, was fain to disburse

Two hundred markes, which is the Statutes curfe,

NOTES.

VER. 1. Well, if it be etc.] Donne fays,

Well; I may now receive and die.

which is very indecent language on fo ludicrous an occafion.

VER. 3. 1 die in charity with fool and knave,] We verily think he did. But of the immediate caufe of his departure hence there is fome fmall difference between his Friends and Enemies. His family fuggefts that a general decay of nature, which had been long coming on, ended with a Dropfy in the breast, enough to have killed Hercules. The Gentlemen of the Dunciad maintain, that he

S A TIRE

IV.

WELL, if it be my time to quit the stage,

Adieu to all the follies of the age!

I die in charity with fool and knave,
Secure of peace at least beyond the grave.
I've had my Purgatory here betimes,
And paid for all my fatires, all my rhymes.
The Poet's hell, its tortures, fiends, and flames,
To this were trifles, toys and empty names.

With foolish pride my heart was never fir'd,
Nor the vain itch t'admire, or be admir'd;
I hop'd for no commiffion from his Grace;
1 bought no benefice, I begg'd no place;
Had no new verses, nor new fuit to show;
Yet went to Court !-the Dev'l would have it so.
But, as the Fool that in reforming days

Wou'd go to Mafs in jeft (as ftory fays)

NOTES.

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fell by the keen pen of our redoubtable Laureat. We ourselves fhould be inclined to this latter opinion, for the fake of ornamenting his ftory; for it would be a fine thing for his Historian to be able to say, that he died, like his immortal namefake, Alexander the Great, by a drug of fo deadly cold a nature, that, as Plutarch and other grave writers tell us, it could be contained in nothing but the Scull of an Afs. SCRIBL.

VER. 7. The Poet's hell] He has here with great prudence corrected the licentious expreffion of his Original.

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