FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92  
93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   >>   >|  
e. Hakluyt's "Navigations," etc., vols. viii, ix.--_W. E. B._] [Footnote 9: The butler.] [Footnote 10: The housekeeper.] [Footnote 11: The agent.] ROBIN AND HARRY.[1] 1730 Robin to beggars with a curse, Throws the last shilling in his purse; And when the coachman comes for pay, The rogue must call another day. Grave Harry, when the poor are pressing Gives them a penny and God's blessing; But always careful of the main, With twopence left, walks home in rain. Robin from noon to night will prate, Run out in tongue, as in estate; And, ere a twelvemonth and a day, Will not have one new thing to say. Much talking is not Harry's vice; He need not tell a story twice: And, if he always be so thrifty, His fund may last to five-and-fifty. It so fell out that cautious Harry, As soldiers use, for love must marry, And, with his dame, the ocean cross'd; (All for Love, or the World well Lost!) [2] Repairs a cabin gone to ruin, Just big enough to shelter two in; And in his house, if anybody come, Will make them welcome to his modicum Where Goody Julia milks the cows, And boils potatoes for her spouse; Or darns his hose, or mends his breeches, While Harry's fencing up his ditches. Robin, who ne'er his mind could fix, To live without a coach-and-six, To patch his broken fortunes, found A mistress worth five thousand pound; Swears he could get her in an hour, If gaffer Harry would endow her; And sell, to pacify his wrath, A birth-right for a mess of broth. Young Harry, as all Europe knows, Was long the quintessence of beaux; But, when espoused, he ran the fate That must attend the married state; From gold brocade and shining armour, Was metamorphosed to a farmer; His grazier's coat with dirt besmear'd; Nor twice a-week will shave his beard. Old Robin, all his youth a sloven, At fifty-two, when he grew loving, Clad in a coat of paduasoy, A flaxen wig, and waistcoat gay, Powder'd from shoulder down to flank, In courtly style addresses Frank; Twice ten years older than his wife, Is doom'd to be a beau for life; Supplying those defects by dress, Which I must leave the world to guess. [Footnote 1: A lively account of these two gentlemen occurs in Dr. King's Anecdotes of his Own Times, p. 137 _et seq_., who confirms the peculiarities which Swift has enumerated in the text.--_Scott_.] [Footnote 2: The title of Dryden's Play, founded on the story of Antony and Cleopatra.--_W. E. B._]
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92  
93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Footnote

 
brocade
 

shining

 

besmear

 

sloven

 

farmer

 
metamorphosed
 

grazier

 

armour

 

gaffer


Swears

 

fortunes

 

broken

 
mistress
 
thousand
 

pacify

 

espoused

 

married

 

attend

 

quintessence


Europe
 

courtly

 
Anecdotes
 

occurs

 
gentlemen
 
lively
 

account

 

Dryden

 

founded

 
Cleopatra

Antony
 
peculiarities
 
confirms
 
enumerated
 

shoulder

 

addresses

 

Powder

 

loving

 

paduasoy

 
flaxen

waistcoat

 

Supplying

 

defects

 
twopence
 

pressing

 

careful

 

blessing

 
talking
 

tongue

 

estate