lxxxv
Cosway, Frazer, & Baldwin of Egypt's Lake1
Fear to associate with Blake.
This Life is a Warfare against Evils ;
They heal the sick : he casts out devils.
Hayley, Flaxman, & Stothard are also in doubt5
Lest their Virtue should be put to the rout.
One grins, t'other spits, and in corners hides.
And all the Virtuous have shewn their backsides.
MS. Book, p. 37. EY ('Memoir' chap, vii) i. 81, with last couplet, i. 219.
6 Virtue] friendship EY. 7, 8 One . . . backsides] A marginal
addition. 7 fother] other EY. 8 shewn] shaved EY.
lxxxvi
An Epitaph
Come knock your heads against this stone,
For sorrow that poor John Thompson 's gone.
MS. Book, p. 37. This and the two following epitaphs were obviously
written before the Stothard lines (cp. xlix, 11. 45, 46). Only in EY i. 219,
without title.
lxxxvii
Another
I was buried near this dyke,
That my Friends may weep as much as they like.
MS. Book, p. 37. Cp. xlix, II. 49, 50, WMR ('Coupl.' XVIII), EY (ist
line only) i. 219.