Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 7.djvu/40

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28
SWIFT'S POEMS.

"With these is parson Swift,
Not knowing how to spend his time,
Does make a wretched shift,
To deafen them with puns and rhyme."





A BALLAD,


TO THE TUNE OF, THE CUT-PURSE[1].


Written in 1699.


I.


ONCE on a time, as old stories rehearse,
A friar would need show his talent in Latin;
But was sorely put to 't in the midst of a verse,
Because he could find no word to come pat in:
Then all in the place
He left a void space,
And so went to bed in a desperate case:
When behold the next morning a wonderful riddle!
He found it was strangely filled up in the middle.

Cho. Let censuring criticks then think what they list on 't;
Who would not write verses with such an assistant?


II.


This put me the friar into an amazement:
For he wisely consider'd it must be a sprite;

  1. Lady Betty Berkeley, finding the preceding verses in the author's room unfinished, wrote under them the concluding stanza; which gave occasion to this ballad, written by the author in a counterfeit hand, as if a third person had done it.

That