MATTHEW PRIOR. 1664–1721.

All jargon of the schools.

On Exodus iii. 14.

Be to her virtues very kind;

Be to her faults a little blind.

An English Padlock.

Abra was ready ere I call'd her name ;
And, though I call'd another, Abra came.
Solomon on the Vanity of the World. Book ii. Line 364.
For hope is but the dream of those that wake.1
Ibid. Book iii. Line 102.

Who breathes, must suffer, and who thinks, must

mourn;

And he alone is bless'd who ne'er was born. Ibid. Book iii. Line 240.

Till their own dreams at length deceive 'em,

And, oft repeating, they believe 'em.

This thought is ascribed to Aristotle by Diogenes Laertius, Lib. v. § 18. Ερωτηθεὶς τί ἐστιν ἐλπίς; Εγρη γορότος, εἶπεν, ἐνύπνιον.

Menage, in his Observations upon Laertius, says that Stobæus (Serm. cix.) ascribes it to Pindar, whilst Ælian (Var. Hist. xiii. 29) refers it to Plato: "Eλɛyev ó 11λúrwv, τὰς ἐλπίδας ἐγρηγορότων ἀνθρώπων ὀνείρους εἶναι.

Now fitted the halter, now travers'd the cart,
And often took leave; but was loth to depart.1
The Thief and the Cordelier.

And thought the nation ne'er would thrive
Till all the whores were burnt alive.

Paulo Purganti.

Nobles and heralds, by your leave,

Here lies what once was Matthew Prior; The son of Adam and of Eve:

Can Bourbon or Nassau claim higher? 2

Epitaph on Himself.

Odds life! must one swear to the truth of a song?

A Better Answer.

That air and harmony of shape express,

Fine by degrees, and beautifully less.3

Henry and Emma.

1 As men that be lothe to departe do often take their leff. John Clerk to Wolsey. - Ellis's Letters, Third series, i. 262.

A loth to depart was the common term for a song, or a tune played, on taking leave of friends. See Tarlton's News out of Purgatory (about 1689); Chapman's Widow's Tears; Middleton's, The Old Law, Act iv. Sc. Beaumont and Fletcher's Wit at several Weapons, Act ii. Sc. 2.

I;

2 The following epitaph was written long before the time of Prior :

Johnnie Carnegie lais heer.

Descendit of Adam and Eve,

Gif ony con gang hieher,

Ise willing give him leve.

3 Fine by defect, and delicately weak. -- Pope, Moral Essays, Epistle ii. Line 43.

Our hopes, like tow'ring falcons, aim
At objects in an airy height;
The little pleasure of the game
Is from afar to view the flight.1

To the Hon. Charles Montague.

From ignorance our comfort flows.
The only wretched are the wise.2

They never taste who always drink ;
They always talk who never think.
Upon a Passage in the Scaligerana.

Ibid.

His cogitative faculties immers'd

In cogibundity of cogitation. Ibid. Acti. Sc. 1.

1 But all the pleasure of the game

2

Is afar off to view the flight.

Variations in a copy printed 1692.

Where ignorance is bliss,

'Tis folly to be wise.

Gray, Eton College, St. 10.

Let the singing singers

With vocal voices, most vociferous,

In sweet vociferation, out-vociferize

Ev'n sound itself.

Chronon. Act i. Sc. 1.

To thee, and gentle Rigdom Funnidos,
Our gratulations flow in streams unbounded.

Ibid. Acti. Sc. 3.

Go call a coach, and let a coach be called,
And let the man who calleth be the caller;
And in his calling let him nothing call,
But Coach! Coach! Coach! O for a coach, ye

gods!

Ibid. Act ii. Sc. 4.

Genteel in personage,

Conduct, and equipage;

Noble by heritage,

Generous and free.

The Contrivances. Acti. Sc. 2.

What a monstrous tail our cat has got!

The Dragon of Wantley. Act ii. Sc. 1.

Of all the girls that are so smart,
There's none like pretty Sally.1

Sally in our Alley.

Of all the days that 's in the week

I dearly love but one day,

And that's the day that comes betwixt

A Saturday and Monday.

1 Of all the girls that e'er was seen,

There's none so fine as Nelly.

Ibid.

Swift, Ballad on Miss Nelly Bennet.

JONATHAN SWIFT. 1667-1745.

I've often wished that I had clear,
For life, six hundred pounds a year,
A handsome house to lodge a friend,
A river at my garden's end.

Imitation of Horace. Book ii. Sat. 6.

So geographers, in Afric maps,1

With savage pictures fill their gaps,

And o'er unhabitable downs

Place elephants for want of towns.

Poetry, a Rhapsody.

Where Young must torture his invention
To flatter knaves, or lose his pension.

Ibid.

Hobbes clearly proves, that every creature

Lives in a state of war by nature.

So, naturalists observe, a flea

Ibid.

Has smaller fleas that on him prey ;

And these have smaller still to bite 'em ;
And so proceed ad infinitum.

Libertas et natale solum ;

Ibid.

Fine words! I wonder where you stole 'em. Verses occasioned by Whitshed's Motto on his Coach.

1 As geographers crowd into the edges of their maps parts of the world which they do not know about, adding notes in the margin to the effect that beyond this lies nothing but sandy deserts full of wild beasts and unap proachable bogs. — Plutarch, Theseus.