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SATYR.
Who would not rather get him gone[1]
Beyond th' intolerablest Zone;
Or steer his Passage through those Seas,
That burn in Flames, or those that freeze,
5 Than see one Nation go to School,
And learn of another, like a Fool?
To study all its Tricks and Fashions
With epidemic Affectations;
And dare to wear no Mode or Dress,
10 But what they, in their Wisdom, please;
As Monkies are, by being taught
To put on Gloves and Stockings, caught:
Submit to all that they devise,
As if it wore their Liveries;
Beyond th' intolerablest Zone;
Or steer his Passage through those Seas,
That burn in Flames, or those that freeze,
5 Than see one Nation go to School,
And learn of another, like a Fool?
To study all its Tricks and Fashions
With epidemic Affectations;
And dare to wear no Mode or Dress,
10 But what they, in their Wisdom, please;
As Monkies are, by being taught
To put on Gloves and Stockings, caught:
Submit to all that they devise,
As if it wore their Liveries;
- ↑ Who wou'd not rather get him gone.] The Object of this Satyr was that extravagant and ridiculous Imitation of the French, which prevailed in Charles the Second's Reign, partly owing to the Connection and Intercourfe, which the Politicks of those Times, obliged us to have with that Nation, and partly to our eager Desire of avoiding the formal and precise Gravity of the hypocritical Age that preceded.It has been observed already, that our Poet is not a servile and exact Adherer to Grammatical Niceties, and it appears no where
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