The queen, forsooth (despotick), gave25
Twelve coronets without thy leave!
A breach of liberty, 'tis own'd,
For which no heads have yet aton'd!
Believe me, what thou'st undertaken
May bring in jeopardy thy bacon;30
For madmen, children, wits, and fools,
Should never meddle with edg'd tools.
But, since thou'rt got into the fire,
And canst not easily retire,
Thou must no longer deal in farce,35
Nor pump to cobble wicked verse;
Until thou shalt have eas'd thy conscience,
Of spleen, of politicks, and nonsense;
And, when thou'st bid adieu to cares,
And settled Europe's grand affairs,40
'Twill then, perhaps, be worth thy while
For Drury Lane to shape thy style:
"To make a pair of jolly fellows,
The son and father, join to tell us,
How sons may safely disobey,45
And fathers never should say nay;
By which wise conduct they grow friends
At last — and so the story ends[1]."
When first I knew thee, Dick, thou wert
Renown'd for skill in Faustus' art[2];50
Which made thy closet much frequented
By buxom lasses — some repented
Their luckless choice of husbands — others,
Impatient to be like their mothers,
- ↑ This is said to be a plot of a comedy with which Mr. Steele has long threatened the town. Swift. — In some particulars it would apply to "The Conscious Lovers.'
- ↑ There were some tolerable grounds for this reflection. Mr. Steele had actually a laboratory at Poplar.
