Ye delicate! who nothing can support,
Yourselves most insupportable! for whom
The winter rose must blow, and silky soft
Favonious breathe still softer, or be chid;
And other worlds send odours, sauce, and song,
And robes, and notions, fram'd in foreign looms!
O ye who deem one moment unamus'd,
A misery, say, dreamers of gay dreams!
How will you weather an eternal night.
Oppress'd with grief, oppress'd with care,
A burden more than I can bear,
I sit me down and sigh,
O life! thou art a galling load,
Along a rough, a weary road,
To wretches such as I!
Dim backward as I cast my view,
What sick'ning scenes appear!
What sorrows yet may pierce me through,
Too justly I may fear.
Happy, ye sons of busy life,
Who, equal to the bustling strife,
No other view regard!
Ev'n when the wished end's denied,
Yet while the busy means are plied,
They bring their own reward!
Whilst I, a hope-abandon'd wight,
Unfitted with an aim,
Meet ev'ry sad returning night,
And joyless morn the same;
You bustling, and justling,
Forget each grief and pain;
I listless, yet restless,
Find ev'ry prospect vain.
DIGNITY. (Preserved by Distance)
Had I so lavish of my presence been,
So common-hackney'd in the eyes of men,
So stale and cheap to vulgar company;
Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
Had still kept loyal to possession;
And left me in reputeless banishment,
A fellow of no mark, nor likelihood.
By being seldom seen, I could not stir,
But, like a comet, I was wonder'd at:
That men would tell their children, This is he; Others would say,-Where ?—which is Bolingbroke?
And then I stole all courtesy from heaven,
And dress'd myself in such humility,
That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts,
Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths,
Even in the presence of the crowned king.
Thus did I keep my person fresh and new;
My presence, like a robe pontifical,
Ne'er seen, but wonder'd at: and so my state,
Seldom, but sumptuous, showed like a feast;
And won, by rareness, such solemnity.
DINNERS. (State, tiresome)
But hark! the chiming clocks to dinner call; A hundred footsteps scrape the marble hall : The rich buffet well-coloured serpents grace, And gaping Tritons spew to wash your face, Is this a dinner? this a genial room? No, 'tis a temple, and a hecatomb! A solemn sacrifice, perform'd in state; You drink by measure, and to minutes eat.
So quick retires each flying course, you'd swear
Sancho's dread doctor and his wand were there.
Between each act the trembling salvers ring,
From soup to sweet wine, and God bless the king.
In plenty starving, tantaliz'd in state,
And complaisantly help'd to all I hate,
Treated, caress'd, and tir'd, I take my leave,
Sick of his civil pride from morn to eve;
I curse such lavish cost, and little skill,
And swear no day was ever pass'd so ill!
DISCONTENT.
Why discontent for ever harbour'd there?
Incurable consumption of our peace!
Resolve me, why, the cottager, and king,
He whom sea-sever'd realms obey, and he
Who steals his whole dominion from the waste,
Repelling winter's blast, with mud and straw,
Disquieted alike, draw sigh for sigh
In fate so distant, in complaint so near.
DISLIKE. (From Prejudice)
I stuck my choice upon her, ere my heart
Durst make too bold a herald of my tongue :
Where the impression of mine eye infixing,
Contempt his scornful perspective did lend me,
Which warp'd the line of every other favour;
Scorn'd a fair colour, or express'd it stol'n;
Extended or contracted all proportions,
To a most hideous object: Thence it came,
That she, whom all men prais'd, and whom myself,
Since I have lost, have lov'd, was in mine eye
The dust that did offend it.
DISTINCTION. (General desire of) If at his title T. had dropt his quill,
might have pass'd for a great genius still; But T, alas! (excuse him if you can) Is now a scribbler, who was once a man. Imperious, some a classic fame demand, For heaping up with a laborious hand A waggon load of meanings for one word, While A's depos'd, and B with pomp restor❜d.
Some for renown on scraps of learning doat, And think they grow immortal as they quote. To patchwork learn'd quotations are allied; Both strive to make our poverty our pride.
On glass how witty is a noble peer! Did ever diamond cost a man so dear ?
Doeg, though without knowing how or why, Made still a blundering kind of melody;
Spurr'd boldly on, and dash'd through thick and thin,
Through sense and nonsense, never out nor in ;
Free from all meaning, whether good or bad,
And, in one word, heroically mad:
He was too warm on picking-work to dwell;
But fagotted his notions as they fell,
And, if they rhym'd and rattl'd, all was well;
Spiteful he is not, though he wrote a satire,
For still there goes some thinking to ill-nature;
He needs no more than birds and beasts to think,
All his occasions are to eat and drink.
If he call rogue and rascal from a garret,
He means you no more mischief than a parrot;
The words for friend and foe alike were made;
To fetter them in verse, is all his trade.
For almonds he'll cry whore to his own mother;
And call young Absalom king David's brother.
Let him be gallows-free by my consent,
And nothing suffer since he nothing meant;
Hanging supposes human soul and reason;
This animal's below committing treason.
DOVER CLIFF. (Description of)
Come on, Sir; here's the place;-stand still.—
How fearful
And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low!
The crows, and choughs, that wing the midway air,
Show scarce so gross as beetles: Half way down
Hangs one that gathers samphire; dreadful trade!
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head :
The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,
Appear like mice; and yon tall anchoring bark,
Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy
Almost too small for sight: The murmuring surge,
That on the unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes,
Cannot be heard so high:-I'll look no more;
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight
Topple down headlong.
Methought, that I had broken from the Tower, And was embark'd to cross to Burgundy: And, in my company, my brother Glo'ster, Who from my cabin tempted me to walk
Upon the hatches; thence we look'd toward England,
And cited up a thousand heavy times,
During the wars of York and Lancaster
That had befall'n us. As we pac'd along
Upon the giddy footing of the hatches,
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