Discredit, rebels now 'gainst each great man.
He names the price of every office paid;
He saith our wars thrive ill, because delay'd:
Swears every place entail'd for years to come,
In sure succession to the day of doom:
He names the price of 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 headlong 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.
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.
Bear me, some god! oh quickly bear me hence
To wholesome solitude, the nurse of sense!
Where contemplation prunes her ruffled wings,
And the free soul looks down to pity kings!
There sober thought pursued the amazing theme,
Till fancy colour'd it, and form'd a dream,
A vision hermits can to hell transport,

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, plunders, but suits not me:
Shall I, the terror of this sinful town,
Care, if a liveried lord or smile or frown?
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, puft nobility?
Thou, who since yesterday has roll'd o'er all
The busy, idle blockheads of the ball.

That offices are entailed, and that there are
Perpetuities of them, lasting as far

As the last day; and that great officers
Do with the Spaniards share, and Dunkirkers.
1 more amazed than Circe's prisoners, when
They felt themselves turn beasts, felt myself then
Becoming traytor, and methought I saw
One of our giant statutes ope its jaw
To suck me in for hearing him: I found
That as burnt venemous leachers do grow sound
By giving others their sores, I might grow
Guilty, and be free: therefore I did show
All signs of loathing; but since I am in,
I must pay mine, and my forefathers sin
To the last farthing. Therefore to my power
Toughly and stubbornly I bear; the hower
Of mercy now was come: he tries to bring
Me to pay a fine to 'scape a torturing:

And says, 'Sir, can you spare me?' I said,' Will

ingly

'Nay sir can you spare me a crown?' Thankfully I Gave it, as ransom: but as fidlers still,

Though they be paid to be gone, yet needs will
Thrust one more jig upon you: so did he
With his long complimented thanks vex me.
But he is gone, thanks to his needy want,
And the prerogative of my crown; scant
His thanks were ended, when I (which did see
All the court fill'd with more strange things than he}
Ran from thence with such, or more haste than one
Who fears more actions, doth hast from prison.
At home in wholesale solitariness

My piteous soul began the wretchedness.
Of suitors at court to mourn, and a trance
Like his, who dreamt he saw hell, did advance
Itself o'er me such men as he saw there

I saw at court and worse and more. Lo, fear
Becomes the guilty,not the accuser: Then,
Shall I, none's slave, of highborn, or raised men
Fear frowns; and my mistress Truth, betray thee
For the huffing, bragart, puft nobility?

No, no, thou, which since yesterday has been
Almost about the whole world, has thou seen,
O sun, in all thy journey, vanity,

Such as swells the bladder of our court? I
Hast thou, oh Sun! beheld an emptier sort,
Than such as swell this bladder of a court?
Now pox on those that show a court in wax !
It ought to hring all courtiers on their backs!
Such painted puppets! such a varnish'd race
Ofhollow 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.
Pay thir last duty to the court, and come
All fresh and fragrant, to the drawing-room;
In hues as gay, and odours as divine,

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

Painted for sight, and essenced for the smell,
Like frigates fraught with spice and cochineal,
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;

'Dear countess ! you have charms all hearts to hit?
And Sweet sir Fopling! you have so much wit!
Such wits and beauties are not praised for nought,
For both the beauty and the wit are bought.
'Twould burst e'en Heraclitus with the spleen,
To see those anticks, Fopling and Courtin:
The
presence seems, with things so richly odd,
The mosque of Mahound, or some queer pa-god.
Of all beau-kind the best proportion'd fools?
Adjust their clothes, and to confession draw
Those venial sins, an atom, or a straw:

But, oh! what terrors must distract the soul
Convicted of that mortal crime, a hole ;
Or should one pound of powder less be spread
Those monkey-tails that wag behind their head.
Thus finish'd, and corrected to a hair,
They march, to prate their hour before the fair.

Think he which made your waxen garden, and
Transported it from Italy, to stand

With us, at London, flouts our courtiers; for
Just such gay painted things, which no sap, nor
Taste have in them, ours are and natural
Some of the stocks are; their fruits bastard all.
'Tis ten o'clock and past; all whom the mues,
Baloun, or tennis, diet, or the stews

Had all the morning held now the second
Time made ready, that day, in flock are found
In the presence; and I (God pardon me)
As fresh and sweet their apparels be as, be
Their fields they sold to buy them. For a king
Those hose are, cried the flatterers: and bring
Them next week the theatre to sell.

Wants reach all states: me seems they do as well
At stage, as courts: all are players. Whoe'er looks
(For themselves dare not go)o'er Cheapside books,
Shall find their wardrobes inventory Now
The ladies come. As pirates( which do know
That there came weak ships fraught with cutchanel)
The men board them: and praise (as they think) well,
Their beauties; they the men's wits: both are bought,
Why good wits ne'er wear scarlet gowns, I thought
This cause, these men, men's wits for speeches buy,