Lest a host Beneath his foot be lost! Turn'd aside From his hide Clouds he blows: When he speaks, When he eats, On thy hand Let me stand; Lofty poet! touch the sky. A GENTLE ECHO ON WOMAN. IN THE DORIC MANNER. [These verses were supposed, by the late Mr Reed, to have been written either in imitation of Lord Sterling's Aurora, or of a scene of the old play, entitled, "The Hog has lost his Pearl." There is a similar scene in Webster's Duchess of Malfy, and every reader must remember the dialogue between the Bearward and Echo in Hudibras.] SHEPHERD. ECHO, I ween, will in the woods reply, SHEPHERD. ECHO. Try. What must we do our passion to express? SHEPHERD. ECHO. Press. ECHо. Before. How shall I please her who ne'er lov'd before? SHEPHERD. What most moves women when we them address? SHEPHERD. Say, what can keep her chaste, whom I adore! SHEPHERD, ECHO. A dress. Eсно. A door. ECHO. Lyar. If music softens rocks, love tunes my lyre. SHEPHERD. Then teach me, Echo, how shall I come by her? SHEPHERD. ECно. Buy her. Eсно. Her deer. When bought, no question, I shall be her dear? SHEPHERD. But deer have horns: how must I keep her under? SHEPHERD. How shall I hold her, ne'er to part asunder? SHEPHERD. ECHO. Keep her under. ECHо. A-Se under. ECHо. Beer. ECHо. Be kind. But what can glad me, when she's laid on bier? SHEPHERD. What must I do, when woman will be kind? SHEPHERD. What must I do, when woman will be cross? SHEPHERD. Lord, what is she, that can so turn and wind? SHEPHERD. If she be wind, what stills her when she blows? SHEPHERD. ECHо. Be cross. ECHO. Wind. ECHO. Blows. ECHO. Bang her. ECHO. Hang her. But, if she bang again, still should I bang her? SHEPHERD. Is there no way to moderate her anger? SHEPHERD. Thanks, gentle Echo! right thy answers tell ECHо. Guard her well. EPITAPH.* HERE continueth to rot In spite of AGE and INFIRMITIES, * This epitaph on a man infamous for all manner of vices, was written by Dr Arbuthnot, His insatiable AVARICE exempted him from the first; WEALTH: For, without TRADE or PROFESSION, A MINISTERIAL ESTATE. He was the only person of his time Who could CHEAT without the mask of HONESTY; Retain his primeval MEANNESs when possessed of TEN THOUSAND a-YEAR; And, having daily deserved the GIBBET for what he did, Was at last condemned to it for what he could not do.* O indignant reader! Think not his life useless to mankind! PROVIDENCE Connived at his execrable designs, To give to after ages conspicuous PROOF and EXAMPLE Of how small estimation is EXORBITANT WEALTH in the sight of GOD, By his bestowing it on the most UNWORTHY of ALL MORTALS. JOHANNES jacet hic Mirandula-cætera norant Et Tagus et Ganges-forsàn et Antipodes. *The Colonel, at a very advanced period of life, was tried for a rape. APPLIED TO F. C. HERE Francis Chartres lies*-be civil! EPIGRAM. PETER complains, that God has given ANOTHER. You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come: EPITAPH OF BY-WORDS. HERE lies a round woman, who thought mighty odd Ev'ry word she e'er heard in this church about God. To convince her of God the good Dean did endea vour; But still in her heart she held Nature more clever. * Thus applied by Mr Pope: "Here lies Lord Coningsby."-H. |