shortly boys fhall not play

At fpan-counter, or blow-point, but shall pay
Toll to fome Courtier; and wifer than all us,
He knows what Lady is not painted. Thus

He with home meats cloyes me. I belch, spue, spit,
Look pale and fickly, like a Patient, yet

He thrufts on more, and as he had undertook,
To fay Gallo-Belgicus without book,

Speaks of all States and deeds that have been fince
The Spaniards came to th' lofs of Amyens.

Like a big wife, at fight of loathed meat,
Ready to travail: fo I figh, and fweat

2

To hear this Makaron talk: in vain, for yet,
Either my humour, or his own to fit,

He like a privileg'd spie, whom nothing can
Difcredit, libels now 'gainst each great man.
He names the price of ev'ry office paid;
He faith our wars thrive ill because delaid;

NOTES.

a Whom we call an Afs, the Italians ftyle Maccheroni. VER. 151. What Lady's face etc.] The Original is here very humourous. This torrent of scandal concludes thus, And wiser than all us

He knows what Lady

the reader expects it will conclude,-what Lady is painted. No, juft the contrary,

what Lady is not painted,

fatirically infinuating, that that is a better Proof of the goodness of his intelligence than the other. The Reader

3

Why Turnpikes rife, and now no Cit nor clown
Can gratis fee the country, or the town:
Shortly no lad fhall chuck, or lady vole,
But fome excifing Courtier will have toll.
He tells what ftrumpet places fells for life,
What 'Squire his lands, what citizen his wife :
And laft (which proves him wiser still than all)
What Lady's face is not a whited wall.

145

150

As one of Woodward's patients, fick, and fore, I puke, I nauseate,-yet he thrusts in more: Trim's Europe's balance, tops the statesman's part, And talks Gazettes and Poft-boys o'er by heart. Like a big wife at fight of loathsome meat Ready to caft, I yawn, I figh, and sweat. Then as a licens'd fpy, whom nothing can Silence or hurt, he libels the great Man; Swears ev'ry place entail'd for years to come, In fure fucceffion to the day of doom: He names the price for ev'ry office paid, And fays our wars thrive ill, because delay'd:

NOTES.

160

fees there is greater force in the use of these plain words, than in those which the Imitator employs. And the reafon is, because the fatire does not turn upon the odiousness of painting; in which cafe the terms of a painted wall had given force to the expreffion; but upon the frequency of it, which required only the fimple mention of the thing.

VER. 152. As one of Woodward's patients,] Alluding to the effects of his ufe of oils in bilious disorders.

That Offices are intail'd, and that there are
Perpetuities of them, lafting as far

As the last day; and that great Officers
Do with the Spaniards fhare, and Dunkirkers.
I more amaz'd than Circes prifoners, when
They felt themselves turn beafts, felt myself then
Becoming Traytor, and methought I faw

One of our Giant Statutes ope his jaw,
To fuck me in for hearing him: I found
That as burnt venemous Leachers do grow found
By giving others their fores, I might grow
Guilty, and he free: Therefore I did show
All figns of loathing; but fince I am in,
I must pay mine, and my forefathers fin
To the last farthing. Therefore to my power
Toughly and ftubbornly I bear; but th' hower
Of mercy now was come: he tries to bring
Me to pay a fine to 'scape a torturing,

And fays, Sir, can you fpare me? I faid, Willingly;
Nay, Sir, can you spare me a crown? Thankfully I
Gave it, as ranfom; but as fidlers, ftill,

Though they be paid to be gone, yet needs will
Thrust one more jigg upon you: fo did he
With his long complimental thanks vex me.
But he is gone, thanks to his needy want,
And the Prerogative of my Crown; fcant
His thanks were ended, when I (which did fee

All the Court fill'd with more ftrange things than he)

NOTES.

VER. 167. fall endlong] The fudden effect of the transformation is ftrongly and finely painted to the imagina

Nay hints, 'tis by connivance of the Court,

That Spain robs on, and Dunkirk's ftill a Port. 165
Not more amazement seiz'd on Circe's guests,
To fee themselves fall endlong into beafts,
Than mine, to find a subject stay'd and wife
Already half turn'd traytor by surprize.
I felt th' infection flide from him to me,
As in the pox, fome 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 Lye
Stood juft a-tilt, the Minifter came by.

To him he flies, and bows, and bows again,
Then, clofe as Umbra, joins the dirty train.
Not Fannius' felf more impudently near,
When half his nofe is in his Prince's ear.
I quak'd at heart; and ftill afraid, to fee

170

175

180

All the Court fill'd with ftranger things than he,
Ran out as faft, as one that pays his bail
And dreads more actions, hurries from a jail.

Bear me, fome God! oh quickly bear me hence
To wholfome Solitude, the nurse of sense:
Where Contemplation prunes her ruffled wings,
And the free foul looks down to pity Kings!

NOTES.

185

tion, not in the found, but in the fenfe of thefe two words. VER. 184. Bear me,] These four lines are wonderfully

Ran from thence with such, or more haft than one
Who fears more actions, doth haft from prifon.
At home in wholefome folitarinefs

My piteous foul began the wretchedness
Of fuiters at court to mourn, and a trance
Like his, who dreamt he faw hell, did advance
It felf o'er me: fuch men as he saw there

I faw at court, and worse and more. Low fear
Becomes the guilty, not th' accufer: Then,
Shall I, none's flave, of high-born or rais'd men
Fear frowns; and my mistress truth, betray thee
For th' huffing, bragart, puft nobility?

No, no, thou which fince yesterday hast been,
Almost about the whole world, haft thou seen,
O fun, in all thy journey, vanity,

Such as fwells the bladder of our court? I

b

Think he which made your Waxen garden, and
Tranfported it from Italy, to ftand

With us at London, flouts our Courtiers; for
Juft fuch gay painted things, which no fap, nor

NOTES.

fublime. His impatience in this region of vice, is like that of Virgil, in the region of heat. They both call out as if they were half tifled by the fulphury air of the place,

O qui me gelidis

O quickly bear me hence.

b A fhow of the Italian Gardens in Waxwork, in the time of King James the Firft. P.