But to his eldest son his house and land he assigned, Charging him in his will to keep the old bountiful mind
To be good to his old tenants, and to his neighbors be kind;
With an old study filled full of learned old But in the ensuing ditty you shall hear how he was books;
With an old reverend chaplain-you might know
With an old buttery hatch worn quite off the hooks;
And an old kitchen that maintained half a dozen old cooks;
Like an old courtier of the queen's,
And the queen's old courtier.
Like a young courtier of the king's, And the king's young courtier.
Like a flourishing young gallant, newly come to his land,
Who keeps a brace of painted madams at his command;
And takes up a thousand pound upon his father's land;
With an old hall, hung about with pikes, guns, and And gets drunk in a tavern, till he can neither go bows,
With old swords and bucklers, that had borne many
And an old frieze coat, to cover his worship's trunk hose,
And a cup of old sherry, to comfort his copper
Like an old courtier of the queen's, And the queen's old courtier.
With a good old fashion, when Christmas was come,
To call in all his old neighbors with bagpipe and
Like a young courtier of the king's, And the king's young courtier.
With a new-fangled lady, that is dainty, nice, and spare,
Who never knew what belonged to good housekeeping or care;
Who buys gaudy-colored fans to play with wanton
And seven or eight different dressings of other women's hair;
Like a young courtier of the king's,
And the king's young courtier.
And this is the course most of our new gallants hold,
With a new-fashioned hall, built where the old one stood,
Hung round with new pictures, that do the poor Which makes that good housekeeping is now grown no good;
With a fine marble chimney, wherein burns neither
Among the young courtiers of the king Or the king's young courtiers.
Elegy on the Weath of a Mad Dog.
GOOD people all, of every sort,
Give ear unto my song;
And if you find it wond'rous short
It cannot hold you long.
In Islington there was a man,
Of whom the world might say
That still a godly race he ran,
Whene'er he went to pray.
A kind and gentle heart he had,
To comfort friends and foes;
The naked every day he clad,
When he put on his clothes.
And in that town a dog was found,
As many dogs there be,
Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound, And curs of low degree.
This dog and man at first were friends,
But when a pique began,
The dog, to gain his private ends,
Went mad, and bit the man.
Around from all the neighboring streets
The wandering neighbors ran,
And swore the dog had lost his wits,
To bite so good a man.
The wound it seemed both sore and sad
To every Christian eye:
And while they swore the dog was mad,
They swore the man would die.
But soon a wonder came to light,
That showed the rogues they lied:
The man recovered of the bite,
The dog it was that died.
Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos;
Sed juvat hoc precibus me tribuisse tuis.- MARTIAL.
WHAT dire offence from amorous causes springs,
What mighty contests rise from trivial things,
I sing This verse to Caryl, muse! is due;
This, e'en Belinda may vouchsafe to view:
Slight is the subject, but not so the praise,
If she inspire, and he approve my lays.
What though no credit doubting wits may give?
The fair and innocent shall still believe.
Know, then, unnumbered spirits round thee fly-
The light militia of the lower sky;
These, though unseen, are ever on the wing,
Hang o'er the box, and hover round the ring,
Think what an equipage thou hast in air,
And view with scorn two pages and a chair.
As now your own, our beings were of old,
And once enclosed in woman's beauteous mould;
Thence, by a soft transition, we repair
From earthly vehicles to these of air.
Think not, when woman's transient breath is fled,
That all her vanities at once are dead;
Say what strange motive, goddess! could com- Succeeding vanities she still regards,
pel
A well-bred lord t' assault a gentle belle?
Oh, say what stranger cause, yet unexplored,
Could make a gentle belle reject a lord?
In tasks so bold can little men engage,
And in soft bosoms dwell such mighty rage?
Sol through white curtains shot a timorous ray,
And ope'd those eyes that must eclipse the day.
Now lap-dogs give themselves the rousing shake,
And sleepless lovers just at twelve awake;
And, though she plays no more, o'erlooks the
Her joy in gilded chariots, when alive,
And love of ombre, after death survive;
For when the fair in all their pride expire,
To their first elements their souls retire;
The sprites of fiery termagant in flame
Mount up, and take a salamander's name;
Soft yielding minds to water glide away,
And sip, with nymphs, their elemental tea;
Thrice rung the bell, the slipper knocked the The graver prude sinks downward to a gnome ground,
And the pressed watch returned a silver sound.
Belinda still her downy pillow prest―
Her guardian sylph prolonged the balmy rest:
'Twas he had summoned to her silent bed
The morning-dream that hovered o'er her head:
A youth more glittering than a birthnight beau
(That e'en in slumber caused her cheek to glow,)
Seemed to her ear his winning lips to lay,
And thus in whispers said, or seemed to say:
Fairest of mortals, thou distinguished care
Of thousand bright inhabitants of air!
If e'er one vision touched thy infant thought
Of all the nurse and all the priest have taught,
Of airy elves by moonlight-shadows seen,
The silver token, and the circled green;
Or virgins visited by angel powers
In search of mischief still on earth to roam;
The light coquettes in sylphs aloft repair,
And sport and flutter in the fields of air.
"Know further yet; whoever fair and chaste
Rejects mankind, is by some sylph embraced :
For spirits, freed from mortal laws, with ease
Assume what sexes and what shapes they please.
What guards the purity of melting maids,
In courtly balls and midnight masquerades,
Safe from the treacherous friend, the daring spark,
The glance by day, the whisper in the dark-
When kind occasion prompts their warm desires,
When music softens, and when dancing fires?
"Tis but their sylph, the wise celestials know,
Though honor is the word with men below.
"Some nymphs there are, too conscious of their
face,
With golden crowns and wreaths of heavenly flow- For life predestined to the gnome's embrace;
Hear and believe! thy own importance know,
Nor bound thy narrow views to things below.
Some secret truths, from learned pride concealed,
To maids alone and children are revealed;
These swell their prospects and exalt their pride,
When offers are disdained, and love denied;
Then gay ideas crowd the vacant brain,
While peers, and dukes, and all their sweeping
train,
And garters, stars, and coronets appear,
From each she nicely culls with curious toil, And in soft sounds, Your grace,' salutes their And decks the goddess with the glittering spoil.
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'Tis these that early taint the female soul,
Instruct the eyes of young coquettes to roll;
Teach infant cheeks a bidden blush to know,
And little hearts to flutter at a beau.
"Oft when the world imagine women stray,
The sylphs through mystic mazes guide their way;
Through all the giddy circle they pursue,
And old impertinence expel by new.
What tender maid but must a victim fall
To one man's treat, but for another's ball?
When Florio speaks, what virgin could withstand,
If gentle Damon did not squeeze her hand?
With varying vanities from every part
They shift the moving toy-shop of their heart;
Where wigs with wigs, with sword-knots sword-
knots strive,
Beaux banish beaux, and coaches coaches drive.
This erring mortals levity may call-
Oh, blind to truth! the sylphs contrive it all.
"Of these am I, who thy protection claim;
A watchful sprite, and Ariel is my name.
Late, as I ranged the crystal wilds of air,
In the clear mirror of thy ruling star,
I saw, alas! some dread event impend,
Ere to the main this morning's sun descend;
But heaven reveals not what, or how, or where:
Warned by the sylph, O pious maid, beware!
This to disclose is all thy guardian can;
Beware of all, but most beware of man!"
This casket India's glowing gems unlocks,
And all Arabia breathes from yonder box.
The tortoise here and elephant unite,
Transformed to combs - the speckled, and the
white.
Here files of pins extend their shining rows;
Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billets-doux.
Now awful beauty puts on all its arms;
The fair each moment rises in her charms,
Repairs her smiles, awakens every grace,
And calls forth all the wonders of her face;
Sees by degrees a purer blush arise,
And keener lightnings quicken in her eyes.
The busy sylphs surround their darling care,
These set the head, and these divide the hair;
Some fold the sleeve, whilst others plait the gown;
And Betty's praised for labors not her own.
Not with more glories, in the ethereal plain,
The sun first rises o'er the purpled main,
Than, issuing forth, the rival of his beams
Launched on the bosom of the silver Thames.
Fair nymphs and well-dressed youths around her
shone,
But every eye was fixed on her alone.
On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore,
Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore;
Her lively looks a sprightly mind disclose-
He said; when Shock, who thought she slept too Quick as her eyes, and as unfixed as those; long,
Favors to none, to all she smiles extends;
Leaped up, and waked his mistress with his tongue. Oft she rejects, but never once offends.
"Twas then, Belinda, if report say true,
Thy eyes first opened on a billet-doux ;
Wounds, charms, and ardors, were no sooner read,
But all the vision vanished from thy head.
And now, unveiled, the toilet stands displayed,
Each silver vase in mystic order laid.
First, robed in white, the nymph intent adores,
With head uncovered, the cosmetic powers.
A heavenly image in the glass appears -
To that she bends, to that her eyes she rears;
Th' inferior priestess, at her altar's side,
Trembling begins the sacred rites of pride.
Unnumbered treasures ope at once, and here
The various offerings of the world appear;
Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike;
And, like the sun, they shine on all alike.
Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride,
Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide:
If to her share some female errors fall,
Look on her face, and you'll forget them all.
This nymph, to the destruction of mankind,
Nourished two locks, which graceful hung behind
In equal curls, and well conspired to deck
With shining ringlets the smooth, ivory neck.
Love in these labyrinths his slaves detains,
And mighty hearts are held in slender chains.
With hairy springes we the birds betray;
Slight lines of hair surprise the finny prey;
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