Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 7.djvu/111

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CURATE'S COMPLAINT.
99

Within an hour and eke a half,
I preach'd three congregations deaf;
Where thundering out, with lungs longwinded,
I chopp d so fast, that few there minded.

My emblem, the laborious sun,
Saw all these mighty labours done
Before one race of his was run.

All this perform'd by Robert Hewit:

What mortal else could e'er go through it!





CADENUS AND VANESSA[1].


Written at Windsor, 1713.


THE shepherds and the nymphs were seen
Pleading before the Cyprian queen.
The counsel for the fair began,
Accusing the false creature Man.
The brief with weighty crimes was charg'd,5
On which the pleader much enlarg'd;
That Cupid now has lost his art,
Or blunts the point of every dart; —
His altar now no longer smokes,
His mother's aid no youth invokes:10
This tempts freethinkers to refine,
And bring in doubt their powers divine;
Now love is dwindled to intrigue,
And marriage grown a money league;

  1. This is thought to be one of Dr. Swift's correctest pieces. Its chief merit, indeed, is the elegant ease with which a story, but ill conceived in itself, is told. Goldsmith.
H 2
Which