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Now you fee, why his verfes fo feldom are shown:
The reason is plain, they're none of his own;
And obferve, while you live, that no man is fhy 55°
To discover the goods he came honeftly by

If I light on a thought, he'll certainly steal it, v
And when he has got it, find ways to conceal it:
Of all the fine things he keeps in the dark,
There's scarce one in ten, but what has my mark; 60
And let them be seen by the world if he dare,
I'll make it appear, they are all ftolen ware.
But as for the poem he writ on your sash,
I think I have now got him under my lash;
My fifter tranfcrib'd it last night to his forrow,
And the public fhall fee't, if I live till tomorrow.
Thro' the zodiac around, it shall quickly be spread
In all parts of the globe, where your language is read.
He knows very well, I ne'er gave a refufal,
When he ask'd for my aid in the forms that are usual:
But the fecret is this; I did lately intend

To write a few verfes on you, as my friend

I ftudied a fortnight before I could find,.

As I rode in my chariot, a thought to my mind,

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And refoly'd the next winter, (for that is my time, 75
When the days are at shortest), to get it in rhymes
Till then it was lock'd in my box at Parnaffus :
When that fubtle companion, in hopes to furpass us,
Conveys out my paper of hints by a trick,

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(For I think in my confcience he deals with old nick),
And from my own ftock provided with topics,
He gets to a window beyond both the tropics;
There out of my fight, juft again't the north zone,
Writes down my conceits, and calls them his own;
And you, like a cully, the bubble can swallow:
Now, who but Delany, that writes like Apollo

Zi 3.

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the writing was not inverted on that fide of the glass at which Stella looked, it must neceffarily be inverted in her eyes. Hawkef.

High treason by ftatute! but here you object,
He only ftole ftints, but the verse is correct;
Tho' the thought be Apollo's, 'tis finely exprefs'd.
So a thief steals my horse, and has him well dress'd.
Now, whereas the faid criminal feems past repentance,
We Phœbus think fit to proceed to the fentence. 92
Since Delany has dar'd, like Prometheus his fire,
To climb to our region, and thence to steal fire;
We order a vulture, in shape of the fpleen,
To prey on his liver, but not to be seen.

And we order our subjects of ev'ry degree
To believe all his verses were written by me;
And, under the pain of our highest displeasure,
To call nothing his but the rhyme and the measure.
And lastly, for Stella juft out of her prime,
I'm too much reveng'd already by time.
In return to her fcorn, I fent her diseases ;

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But will now be her friend, whenever she pleases : And the gifts I beftow'd her will find her a lover, 105 Tho' fhe lives to be grey as a badger all over.

An ELEGY on the much lamented death of Mr DEMAR, the famous rich ufurer, who died the fixth of July 1720*.

K

Written in the year 1720.

NOW all men by these prefents, Death the tamer By mortgage hath fecur'd the corpfe of Demar : Nor can four bundred thousand Sterling pound Redeem him from his prifon under ground. His heirs might well, of all his wealth poffefs'd, 5 Bestow to bury him one iron cheft.

This elegy was a subject started and partly executed in company, confifting of Swift and Stella, and a few friends. Every one threw in a hint; and Stella's were the 31st, 32d, 33d, and 34th lines. Hawkef.

ELEGY

ON THE DEATH OF MR DEMAR. 271 Plutus the god of wealth will joy to know

His faithful steward in the fhades below.

He walk'd the streets, and wore a threadbare cloak;
He din'd and fupp'd at charge of other folk:
And by his looks, had he held out his palms,
He might be thought an object fit for alms;
So, to the poor if he refus'd his pelf,

He us'd them full as kindly as himself.

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WHERE-E'ER he went, he never faw his betters; 15 Lords, knights, and 'quires, were all his humble debtors; And under hand and seal the Irish nation

Were forc'd to own to him their obligation.

He that could once have half a kingdom bought, In half a minute is not worth a groat.

His coffers from the coffin could not fave,
Nor all his intreft keep him from the grave.
A golden monument would not be right,
Because we wish the earth upon him light.
OH London tavern * ! thou haft loft a friend,
Tho' in thy walls he ne'er did farthing spend :
He touch'd the pence when others touch'd the pot ;
The hand that fign'd the mortgage paid the shot.

OLD as he was, no vulgar known disease
On him could ever boat a power to feize;
But as his gold he weigh'd, grim Death in spight
Caft in his dart, which made three moidores light;
And as he faw his darling money fail,

Blew his laft breath to fink the lighter scale.
He who fo long was current, 'twould be strange
If he should now be cry'd down fince his change.

THE Sexton fhall green fods on thee bestow :
Alas, the fexton is thy banker now.

A difmal banker must that banker be,.

Who gives no bills but of mortality †.

* A tavern in Dublin where Demar kept his office. + See an epitaph on this mifer, p. 182.

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The Run upon the BANKERS.

Written in the year 1720.

I.

THE bold incroachers on the deep

Gain by degrees huge tracts of land, Till Neptune with one gen'ral sweep Turns all again to barren strand.

II.

The multitude's capricious pranks
Are faid to represent the feas;
Which breaking bankers and the banks
Refume their own whene'er they please.
III.

Money, the life blood of the nation,

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Unless a proper circulation

Its motion and its heat maintains.

IV.

Becaufe 'tis lordly not to pay,

Quakers and aldermen in ftate

Like peers have levees ev'ry day
Of duns attending at their gate.

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V.

We want our money on the nail;
The banker's ruin'd if he pays :
They seem to act an antient tale;
The birds are met to ftrip the jays.

*

VI.
Riches, the wifeft monarch fings,
Make pinions for themfelves to fly:
They fly like bats on parchment wings,
And geefe their filver plumes fupply.

Solomon.

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Conceive the works of midnight-hags,
Tormenting fools behind their backs :

Thus bankers o'er their bills and bags
Sit fqueezing images of wax†.

IX.

Conceive the whole inchantment broke;

The witches left in open air,

With pow'r no more than other folk,

Expos'd with all their magic ware.

X.

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35.

So powerful are a banker's bills,

Where creditors demand their due;

They break up counters, doors, and tills,
And leave the empty chefts in view.

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XI.

Thus when an earthquake lets in light
Upon the god of gold and bell,
Unable to endure the fight,

He hides within his dark eft cell

XII.

As when a conj'rer takes a leafe

From Satan for a term of years,

The tenant's in a difmal cafe,

Whene'er the bloody bond appears ‡.

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It is faid of Nero, that when he first came to the imperial dignity from the tutorage of Seneca, being asked to fign a warrant for an execution, he wished he could not write. Hawkef. Witches were fabled to torment the abfent, by roasting or o therways ill treating their images in wax. Hawkes.

Thefe contracts were always fuppofed to be figned with blood. Hawkef.

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