"A few in verse; but most in prose→→→→" 515 "Against the court to shew his spite. 520 "But-not one sermon, you may swear." 525 "Was cheerful to his dying day, "And friends would let him have his way." "As for his Works in verse or prose, "I own myself no judge of those; 530 "Nor can I tell what critics thought 'em, "But this I know, all people bought 'em, "As with a moral view design'd, "To please and to reform mankind; "And if he often miss'd his aim, 535 "The world must own it, to their shame, "The praise is his, and theirs the blame. "No nation wanted it so much. 540 "That kingdom he hath left his debtor, CASSINUS AND PETER. A TRAGICAL ELEGY. Written in the year 1731. Two college sophs of Cambridge growth, On love, and books, in rapture sweet, A ragged shirt and tawny hide : Scorch'd were his shins, his legs were bare, F His jordan stood in manner fitting, 25 With eyes in smoke and weeping drown'd, The leavings of his last night's pot On embers plac'd, to drink it hot. Why, Cassy! thou wilt doze thy pate ; 30 What makes thee lie a-bed so late? Aurora with thy early flute. Heav'n send thou hast not got the hips! A college-joke to cure the dumps. The swain at last, with grief opprest, Cry'd, "Celia !" thrice, and sigh'd the rest. "Dear Cassy! tho' to ask I dread, "Yet ask I must-Is Celia dead ?" "How happy I were that the worst! "But I was fated to be curst." 35 40 "Come, tell us, has she play'd the whore ?" 45 "Oh, Peter, would it were no more!" "Why, plague confound her sandy locks; “Say, has the small or greater pox "Sunk down her nose, or seam'd her face? "Be easy, 'tis a common case." 50 "O Peter! beauty's but a varnish, "Which time and accident will tarnish; "But Celia has contriv'd to blast "Those beauties, that might ever last : " Nor can imagination guess, " Nor eloquence divine express, "How that ungrateful charming maid "My purest passion has betray'd. "Conceive the most envenom'd dart "To pierce an injur'd lover's heart." "Why, hang her! tho' she seem'd so coy, "I know she loves the barber's boy." "Friend Peter! this I could excuse, "For ev'ry nymph has leave to chuse ; "Nor have I reason to complain "She loves a more deserving swain: "But, oh! how ill hast thou divin'd "A crime that shocks all human-kind "A deed unknown to female race, 55 60 65 "At which the sun should hide his face ; 70 "Advice in vain you would apply "Then leave me to despair and die. "Ye kind Arcadians! on my urn "These elegies and sonnets burn; "And on the marble grave these rhymes, "A monument to after times; "Here Cassy lies, by Celia slain, "And, dying, never told his pain. "Vain empty world! farewell. But, hark, "The loud Cerberian triple bark. "And there behold Alecto stand! “Dear Cassy! thou must purge and bleed "I fear thou wilt be mad indeed. ; 85 ၄၁ "But now, by friendship's sacred laws, "I here conjure thee tell the cause, "And Celia's horrid fact relate; “ Thy friend would gladly share thy fate.” "Yet when conjur'd by such a friend— o' Cambridge waft the direful tale; 95 100 105 |