( 16 )
Or at the Ear of [1]Eve, familiar Toad,
Half Froth, half Venom, spits himself abroad,
In Puns, or Politicks, or Tales, or Lyes, 310
Or Spite, or Smut, or Rymes, or Blasphemies.
Did ever Smock-face act so vile a Part?
A trifling Head, and a corrupted Heart!
Eve's Tempter thus the Rabbins have exprest,
A Cherub's face, a Reptile all the rest; 315
Beauty that shocks you, Parts that none will trust,
Wit that can creep, and Pride that licks the dust.
Half Froth, half Venom, spits himself abroad,
In Puns, or Politicks, or Tales, or Lyes, 310
Or Spite, or Smut, or Rymes, or Blasphemies.
Did ever Smock-face act so vile a Part?
A trifling Head, and a corrupted Heart!
Eve's Tempter thus the Rabbins have exprest,
A Cherub's face, a Reptile all the rest; 315
Beauty that shocks you, Parts that none will trust,
Wit that can creep, and Pride that licks the dust.
Not Fortune's Worshipper, nor Fashion's Fool,
Nor Lucre's Madman, nor Ambition's Tool,
Nor proud, nor servile, be one Poet's praise 320
That, if he pleas'd, he pleas'd by manly ways;
That Flatt'ry, ev'n to Kings, he held a shame,
And thought a Lye in Verse or Prose the same:
In Fancy's Maze that wand'ring not too long,
He stoop'd to Truth, and moraliz'd his song: 225
That not for Fame, but Virtue's better end,
He stood the furious Foe, the timid Friend,
The damning Critic, half-approving Wit,
The Coxcomb hit, or fearing to be hit;
Nor Lucre's Madman, nor Ambition's Tool,
Nor proud, nor servile, be one Poet's praise 320
That, if he pleas'd, he pleas'd by manly ways;
That Flatt'ry, ev'n to Kings, he held a shame,
And thought a Lye in Verse or Prose the same:
In Fancy's Maze that wand'ring not too long,
He stoop'd to Truth, and moraliz'd his song: 225
That not for Fame, but Virtue's better end,
He stood the furious Foe, the timid Friend,
The damning Critic, half-approving Wit,
The Coxcomb hit, or fearing to be hit;
Laugh'd
- ↑ In the fourth Book of Milton, the Devil is represented in this Posture. It is but justice to own, that the Hint of Eve and the Serpent was taken from the Verses on the Imitator of Horace.
