o oft I owe
That I'm alive to tell you so.

DEATH AND DAPHNE

TO AN AGREEABLE YOUNG LADY, BUT EXTREMELY LEAN. 1730

Lord Orrery gives us the following curious anecdote respecting this
poem:

"I have just now cast my eye over a poem called 'Death and Daphne,' which
makes me recollect an odd incident, relating to that nymph. Swift, soon
after our acquaintance, introduced me to her as to one of his female
favourites. I had scarce been half an hour in her company, before she
asked me if I had seen the Dean's poem upon 'Death and Daphne.' As I
told her I had not, she immediately unlocked a cabinet, and, bringing out
the manuscript, read it to me with a seeming satisfaction, of which, at
that time, I doubted the sincerity. While she was reading, the Dean was
perpetually correcting her for bad pronunciation, and for placing a wrong
emphasis upon particular words. As soon as she had gone through the
composition, she assured me, smilingly, that the portrait of Daphne was
drawn for herself. I begged to be excused from believing it; and
protested that I could not see one feature that had the least
resemblance; but the Dean immediately burst into a fit of laughter. 'You
fancy,' says he, 'that you are very polite, but you are much mistaken.
That lady had rather be a Daphne drawn by me, than a Sacharissa by any
other pencil.' She confirmed what he had said with great earnestness, so
that I had no other method of retrieving my error, than by whispering in
her ear, as I was conducting her down stairs to dinner, that indeed I
found
'Her hand as dry and cold as lead!'"
--_Remarks on the Life of Swift_, Lond., 1752, p. 126.

Death went upon a solemn day
At Pluto's hall his court to pay;
The phantom having humbly kiss'd
His grisly monarch's sooty fist,
Presented him the weekly bills
Of doctors, fevers, plagues, and pills.
Pluto, observing since the peace
The burial article decrease,
And vex'd to see affairs miscarry,
Declared in council Death must marry;
Vow'd he no longer could support
Old bachelors about his court;
The interest of his realm had need
That Death should get a numerous breed;
Young deathlings, who, by practice made
Proficient in their father's trade,
With colonies might stock around
His large dominions under ground.
A consult of coquettes below
Was call'd, to rig him out a beau;
From her own head Megaera[1] takes
A periwig of twisted snakes:
Which in the nicest fashion curl'd,
(Like toupees[2]