John Gay

        A juggler once had travelled thorough
        Each city, market-town, and borough;
        You'd think, so far his art transcended,
        Old Nick upon his fingers tended.

        Vice heard his name: she read his bill,
        And sought his booth - defied his skill.

        The juggler, willing, laid a wager,
        Not yet by losses rendered sager;
        He played his tricks of high emprize, -
        Confounding touch, deluding eyes.
        Then cards obeyed his will, and gold
        From empty bags in torrents rolled!
        He showed an ivory egg: and then
        Hatched and brought forth the mother-hen!

        Vice then stepped forth, with look serene
        Enough to stir a juggler's spleen:
        She passed a mag...

        What stupid nonsense must the Beauty
        Endure in her diurnal duty -
        Buzzings and whispers from the stores
        Of the fatuities of bores!
        Yet such impertinence must be pleasing,
        Or Beauty would resent such teazing.
        A flap will drive a fly away,
        A frown will drive a dog to bay:
        So if the insects are persistent
        'Twas Beauty that was inconsistent!
        And if she does not know herself,
        Blame not the persecuting elf.

        It chanced upon a summer day
        That Boris in her boudoir lay -
        She the last work of God's fair creatures,
        Contemplated her faultless features.
        A wasp assailed her so reclined,
        Bred of a persecuting kind.
   ...

        All men are fond of rule and place,
        Though granted by the mean and base;
        Yet all superior merit fly,
        Nor will endure an equal nigh.
        They o'er some ale-house club preside
        With smoke and joke and paltry pride.
        Nay, e'en with blockheads pass the night;
        If such can read, to such I write.

        A lion cub of sordid mind
        Avoided all the lion-kind,
        And, greedy of applause, sought feasts
        With asses and ignoble beasts;
        There, as their president appears,
        An ass in every point, but ears.
        If he would perpetrate a joke,
        They brayed applause before he spoke;
        And when he spoke, with shout they praised,
        And said he beautifully br...

        A lion, sick of pomp and state,
        Resolved his cares to delegate.
        Reynard was viceroy named - the crowd
        Of courtiers to the regent bowed;
        Wolves, bears, and tigers stoop and bend,
        And strive who most could condescend;
        Whilst he, with wisdom in his face,
        Assumed the regal grace and pace.
        Whilst flattery hovered him around,
        And the pleased ear in thraldom bound,
        A fox, well versed in adulation,
        Rose to pronounce the due oration:

        "Vast talents, trained in virtue's school,
        With clemency, from passion cool -
        And uncorrupted - such a hand
        Will shed abundance o'er the land.
        The brain shall prompt the wiser part,
        Merc...

        Accept, my Prince, the moral fable,
        To youth ingenuous, profitable.
        Nobility, like beauty's youth,
        May seldom hear the voice of truth;
        Or mark and learn the fact betimes
        That flattery is the nurse of crimes.
        Friendship, which seldom nears a throne,
        Is by her voice of censure known.
        To one in your exalted station
        A courtier is a dedication;
        But I dare not to dedicate
        My verse e'en unto royal state.
        My muse is sacred, and must teach
        Truths which they slur in courtly speech.
        But I need not to hide the praise,
        Or veil the thoughts, a nation pays;
        We in your youth and virtues trace
        The dawnings of your royal race;

        Nothing, methinks, is to be seen
        On earth that does not overween.
        Doth not the hawk, from high, survey
        The fowls as destined for his prey?
        And do not Cæsars, and such things,
        Deem men were born to slave for kings?
        The crab, amidst the golden sands
        Of Tagus, or on pearl-strewn strands,
        Or in the coral-grove marine,
        Thinks hers each gem of ray serene.
        The snail, 'midst bordering pinks and roses,
        Where zephyrs fly and love reposes,
        Where Laura's cheek vies with the peaches,
        When Corydon one glance beseeches, -
        The snail regards both fruit and flower,
        And thanks God for the granted bower.

        And man, who, standing on some bluff...

        (To my Native Land.)


        My native land, whose fertile ground
        Neptune and Amphitrite bound, -
        Britain, of trade the chosen mart,
        The seat of industry and art, -
        May never luxury or minister
        Cast over thee a mantle sinister!
        Still let thy fleet and cannon's roar
        Affright thy foes and guard thy shore.
        When Continental States contend,
        Be thou to them a common friend.
        Imperial rule may sway their land;
        Here Commerce only takes her stand,
        Diffusing good o'er all the world.
        The flag of Commerce, where unfurled,
        Stands with fair plenty in her train,
        And wealth, to bless her bright domain.
        For where the mer...

        The wind was high, the window shook,
        The miser woke with haggard look;
        He stalked along the silent room,
        He shivered at the gleam and gloom,
        Each lock and every corner eyed,
        And then he stood his chest beside;
        He opened it, and stood in rapture
        In sight of gold he held in capture;
        And then, with sudden qualm possessed,
        He wrung his hands and beat his breast:
        "O, had the earth concealed this gold,
        I had perhaps in peace grown old!
        But there is neither gold nor price
        To recompense the pang of vice.
        Bane of all good - delusive cheat,
        To lure a soul on to defeat
        And banish honour from the mind:
        Gold raised the sword m...

        "Give me a son, grant me an heir!"
        The fairies granted her the prayer.
        And to the partial parent's eyes
        Was never child so fair and wise;
        Waked to the morning's pleasing joy,
        The mother rose and sought her boy.
        She found the nurse like one possessed,
        Who wrung her hands and beat her breast.
        "What is the matter, Nurse - this clatter:
        The boy is well - what is the matter?"

        "What is the matter?    Ah! I fear
        The dreadful fairy has been here,
        And changed the baby-boy. She came
        Invisible; I'm not to blame
        She's changed the baby: here's a creature! -
        A pug, a monkey, every feature!
        Where is his mother's mouth and grace?
 ...

        He who holds friendship with a knave,
        Will reputation hardly save;
        And thus upon our choice of friends
        Our good or evil name depends.

        A wrinkled hag - of naughty fame -
        Sat hovering o'er a flickering flame,
        Propped with both hands upon her knees
        She shook with palsy and the breeze.
        She had perhaps seen fourscore years,
        And backwards said her daily prayers;
        Her troop of cats with hunger mewed, -
        Tabbies and toms, a numerous brood.
        Teased with their murmuring, out she flew
        In angry passion: "Hence, ye crew! -
        What made me take to keeping cats?
        Ye are as bad as bawling brats:
        With brats I might perhaps have grown rich;

        Once an old hen led forth her brood
        To scratch and glean and peck for food;
        A chick, to give her wings a spell,
        Fluttered and tumbled in a well.
        The mother wept till day was done,
        When she met with a grown-up son,
        And thus addressed him: - "My dear boy,
        Your years and vigour give me joy:
        You thrash all cocks around, I'm told;
        'Tis right, cocks should be brave and bold:
        But never - fears I cannot quell -
        Never, my son, go near that well;
        A hateful, false, and wretched place,
        Which is most fatal to my race.
        Imprint that counsel on your breast,
        And trust to providence the rest."

        He thanked the dame's maternal care,
   ...

        An owl took, in a barn, a station
        As fittest for deep contemplation;
        There (like a Turk) upon a beam
        He sat, as Turks sit in hareem.

        So smokers, at the Magpie met,
        Peruse the 'Post-boy' or 'Gazette;'
        And thence foretell, in wise and sure hope,
        The future destinies of Europe.

        The farmer comes to see his sheaves.
        The owl his silent soul relieves;
        "Reason in man is sheer pretence,
        Would he - were he endowed with sense -
        Treat owls with scorning? He can praise
        The birds that twitter on the sprays:
        Linnets, and larks, and nightingales,
        Yet in the nobler owl he fails.
        Should I, by daylight, view my reign,
        Th...

        (To a Mother.)


        Yes, I have seen your eyes maternal
        Beam, as beam forth the stars eternal,
        Intercommuning of your joys -
        Sayings and doings of your boys.
        Nature, in body and in mind,
        Has been to them profusely kind;
        It now remains to do your part,
        To sow good morals in the heart.
        None other, as a mother can,
        Can form and educate the man.
        Perhaps now you anticipate
        In youth unknown each future state.
        The Church, the Navy, and the Bar,
        I censure not: such choices are
        Precarious truly in the event;
        Yet ere we give a last assent,
        We should remember nor destroy
        The latent genius in the bo...

        (To a Young Heir.)


        No sooner was thy father's death
        Proclaimed to some, with bated breath,
        Than every gambler was agog
        To win your rents and gorge your prog.

        One counted how much income clear
        You had in "ready" - by the year.

        Another cast his eyelid dark
        Over the mansion and the park.
        Some weighed the jewels and the plate,
        And all the unentailed estate:
        So much in land from mortgage free,
        So much in personality.

        Would you to highwaymen abroad
        Display your treasures on the road?
        Would you abet their raid of stealth
        By the display of hoarded wealth?
        And are you yet with blacklegs...

        A sage awakened by the dawn,
        By music of the groves was drawn
        From tree to tree: responsive notes
        Arose from many warbling throats.
        As he advanced, the warblers ceased;
        Silent the bird and scared the beast -
        The nightingale then ceased her lay,
        And the scared leveret ran away.
        The sage then pondered, and his eye
        Roamed round to learn the reason why.

        He marked a pheasant, as she stood
        Upon a bank, above her brood;
        With pride maternal beat her breast
        As she harangued and led from nest:

        "Play on, my infant brood - this glen
        Is free from bad marauding men.
        O trust the hawk, and trust the kite,
        Sooner than ...

        A pin which long had done its duty,
        Attendant on a reigning beauty, -
        Had held her muffler, fixed her hair,
        And made its mistress _debonnaire_, -
        Now near her heart in honour placed,
        Now banished to the rear disgraced;
        From whence, as partners of her shame,
        She saw the lovers served the same.
        From whence, thro' various turns of life,
        She saw its comforts and its strife:
        With tailors warm, with beggars cold,
        Or clutched within a miser's hold.
        His maxim racked her wearied ear:
        "A pin a day's a groat a year."
        Restored to freedom by the proctor,
        She paid some visits with a doctor;
        She pinned a bandage that was crossed,
      ...

        Of all the burthens mortals bear
        Time is most galling and severe;
        Beneath his grievous load oppressed
        We daily meet a man distressed:
        "I've breakfasted, and what to do
        I do not know; we dine at two."
        He takes a pamphlet or the papers,
        But neither can dispel his vapours;
        He raps his snuff-box, hums an air,
        He lolls, or changes now his chair,
        He sips his tea, or bites his nails,
        Then finds a chum, and then bewails
        Unto his sympathising ear
        The burthen they have both to bear.

        "I wish all hours were post meridiem,"
        Said Tom; "so that I were well rid of 'm.
        Why won't men play piquet and ombre
        Before...

        Pythagoras, at daybreak drawn
        To meditate on dewy lawn,
        To breathe the fragrance of the morning,
        And, like philosophers, all scorning
        To think or care where he was bound,
        Fell on a farm. A hammer's sound
        Arrested then his thoughts and ear:

        "My man, what are you doing there?"

        The clown stood on a ladder's rung,
        And answered him with rudish tongue:
        "I've caught the villain - this here kite
        Kept my hens ever in a fright;
        I've nailed he here to my barn-door,
        Him shan't steal turkey-pouts no more."
        And lo! upon the door displayed,
        The caitiff kite his forfeit paid.

        "Friend," said Pythagoras, "'tis right
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