The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 7/Letter to Dr. Sheridan
TO DR. SHERIDAN[1].
1 P. S.
I wish, when you prated, your letter you'd dated:
Much plague it created. I scolded and rated;
My soul is much grated; for your man I long waited.
I think you are fated, like a bear to be baited:
Your man is belated: the case I have stated;
And me you have cheated. My stable's unslated.
Come back t' us well freighted.
I remember my late head; and wish you translated,
For teasing me.
2 P. S.
Mrs. Dingley desires me singly
Her service to present you; hopes that will content you;
But Johnson madam is grown a sad dame,
For want of your converse, and cannot send one verse.
3 P. S.
You keep such a twattling with you and your bottling;
But I see the sum total, we shall ne'er have a bottle;
The long and the short, we shall not have a quart.
I wish you would sign't, that we have a pint.
For all your colloguing, I'd be glad of a knoggin[3]:
But I doubt 'tis a sham; you won't give us a dram.
'Tis of shine a mouth moon-full, you won't part with a spoonful,
And I must be nimble, if I can fill my thimble.
You see I won't stop, till I come to a drop;
But I doubt the oraculum, is a poor supernaculum;
Though perhaps you may tell it, for a grace if we smell it.
Stella.
- ↑ In this letter, though written in prose, the reader upon examining, will find each second sentence rhimes to the former.
- ↑ Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Dingley.
- ↑ A knoggin is a name used in Ireland for the English quartern.