Page:Macflecknoe a poem.djvu/9

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( 5 )

A Watch-Tower once; but now, ſo Fate ordains,

Of all the Pile an empty Name remains.

From its old Ruins Brothel-houſes riſe,

Scenes of lewd Loves, and of polluted Joys.

Where their vaſt Courts the Mother-Strumpets keep,

And, undiſturb'd by Watch, in ſilence ſleep.

Near theſe a Nurſery erects its head,

Where Queens are form'd, and future Hero's bred;

Where unfledg'd Actors learn to laugh and cry,
Where infant Punks their tender Voices try,
And little Maximins the Gods defy.

Great Fletcher never treads in Buskins here,

Nor greater Johnſon dares in socks appear.

But gentle Simkin juſt reception finds

Amidſt this Monument of vaniſht minds:

Pure Clinches, the ſuburbian Muſe affords;

And Panton waging harmleſs War with words.

Here Fleckno, as a place to Fame well known,

Ambitiouſly deſign'd his Sh——'s Throne.

For ancient Decker propheſi'd long ſince,
That in this Pile ſhou'd Reign a mighty Prince,
Born for a ſcourge of Wit, and flayle of Senſe:

To whom true Dullneſs ſhou'd ſome Pſyches owe,

But Worlds of Miſers from his Pen ſhou'd flow;

Humoriſts and Hypocrites it ſhou'd produce,

Whole Raymond Families, and Tribes of Bruce.

Now Empress Fame had publiſh'd the Renown,

Of Sh——'s Coronation through the Town.

Rows'd by report of Fame, the Nations meet,

From near Bun-Hill, and diſtant Watling-ſtreet.

No Perſian Carpets ſpread the Imperial way,

But ſcatter'd Limbs of mangled Poets lay:

From duſty Shops neglected Authors come,

Martyrs of Pies, and Reliques of the Bum.

Much Heywood, Shirly, Ogleby there lay,

But Loads of Sh—— almoſt choak'd the way.

Bilk'd Stationers for Yeomen ſtood prepar'd,

And H——— was Captain of the Guard.

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