Page:Trivia (John Gay) to which is added London (Samuel Johnson) (1809).djvu/30

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Here let the muse, fatigued amid the throng,
Adorn her precepts with digressive song;
Of shirtless youths the secret rise to trace,105
And shew the parent of the sable race.
Like mortal man, great Jove (grown fond of change)
Of old was wont this nether world to range,
To seek amours: the vice the monarch lov'd
Soon through the wide ethereal court improv'd:
And ev'n the proudest goddess, now and then,
Would lodge a night among the sons of men:
To vulgar deities descends the fashion,
Each, like her betters, had her earthly passion.
Then Cloacina (goddess of the tide115
Whose sable streams beneath the city glide)
Indulg'd the modish flame: the town she rov'd;
A mortal scavenger she saw—-she lov'd;
The muddy spots that dry'd upon his face,
Like female patches, heighten'd ev'ry grace:120
She gaz'd—she sigh'd; for Love can beauties spy
In what seems faults to ev'ry common eye.
Now had the watchman walk'd his second round,
When Cloacina hears the rumbling sound