FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   >>  
ce was I entered, when, behold! there came A thing which Adam had been posed to name; Noah had refused it lodging in his Ark, Where all the race of reptiles might embark: A verier monster, that on Afric's shore The sun e'er got, or slimy Nilus bore, Or Sloane or Woodward's wondrous shelves contain, Nay, all that lying travellers can feign. The watch would hardly let him pass at noon, At night, would swear him dropped out of the moon. One whom the mob, when next we find or make A Popish plot, shall for a Jesuit take, And the wise Justice starting from his chair Cry: "By your priesthood tell me what you are?" Such was the wight; the apparel on his back Though coarse, was reverend, and though bare, was black: The suit, if by the fashion one might guess, Was velvet in the youth of good Queen Bess, But mere tuff-taffety what now remained; So time, that changes all things, had ordained! Our sons shall see it leisurely decay, First turn plain rash, then vanish quite away. This thing has travelled, speaks each language too, And know what's fit for very state to do; Of whose best phrase and courtly accent joined, He forms one tongue, exotic and refined, Talkers I've learned to bear; Motteux I knew, Henley himself I've heard, and Budgel too. The doctor's wormwood style, the hash of tongues A pedant makes, the storm of Gonson's lungs, The whole artillery of the terms of war, And (all those plagues in one) the bawling bar: These I could bear; but not a rogue so civil, Whose tongue will compliment you to the devil. A tongue that can cheat widows, cancel scores, Make Scots speak treason, cozen subtlest w***es, With royal favourites in flattery vie, And Oldmixon and Burnet both outlie. He spies me out, I whisper: "Gracious God! What sin of mine could merit such a rod? That all the shot of dulness now must be From this thy blunderbuss discharged on me!" "Permit" (he cries) "no stranger to your fame To crave your sentiment, if ----'s your name. What speech esteem you most?" "The King's," said I "But the best words?"--"O, sir, the dictionary." "You miss my aim; I mean the most acute And perfect speaker?"--"Onslow, past dispute." "But, sir, of writers?" "Swift, for closer style, But Ho**y for a period of a mile." "Why, yes, 'tis granted, these indeed may pass: Good common linguists, and so Panurge was; Nay troth the Apostles (though perhaps too rough) Had once a pretty gift of tongues enough: Yet these were all
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   >>  



Top keywords:

tongue

 

tongues

 

treason

 

subtlest

 

flattery

 

outlie

 

whisper

 

Gracious

 
Burnet
 

favourites


Oldmixon

 

Gonson

 
artillery
 
pedant
 

Henley

 

Budgel

 

doctor

 

wormwood

 

plagues

 

compliment


widows
 

scores

 

cancel

 
bawling
 

period

 

closer

 

speaker

 

perfect

 

Onslow

 

writers


dispute

 

granted

 

Apostles

 
Panurge
 

linguists

 
common
 

pretty

 
blunderbuss
 
discharged
 

Permit


dulness
 

dictionary

 
esteem
 

stranger

 

speech

 

sentiment

 

language

 

dropped

 
travellers
 

starting