Page:Trivia (John Gay) to which is added London (Samuel Johnson) (1809).djvu/48

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There oft I enter (but with cleaner shoes),
For Burlington's belov'd by ev'ry muse.500
O ye associate walkers! O my friends!
Upon your state what happiness attends!
What though no coach to frequent visit rolls,
Nor for your shilling chairmen sling their poles;
Yet still your nerves rheumatic pains defy,505
Nor lazy jaundice dulls your saffron eye:
No wasting cough discharges sounds of death,
Nor wheezing asthma heaves in vain for breath;
Nor from your restless couch is heard the groan
Of burning gout or sedentary stone.510
Let others in the jolting coach confide,
Or in the leaky boat the Thames divide;
Or, box'd within the chair, contemn the street,
And trust their safety to another's feet:
Still let me walk:—for oft the sudden gale515
Ruffles the tide, and shifts the dang'rous sail;
Then shall the passenger, too late, deplore
The whelming billow, and the faithless oar:
The drunken chairman in the kennel spurns,
The glasses shatter, and his charge o'erturns.520