No cruel mafter could require,

*From flaves employ'd for daily hire,
'What Stella, by her friendship warm'd,
With vigour and delight perform'd :
My finking fpirits now fupplies
With cordials in her hands and eyes;
Now with a foft and filent tread
Unheard fhe moves about my bed.
I fee her taste each naufeous draught;
And fo obligingly am caught,

1 blefs the hand from whence they came, "Nor dare distort my face for fhame.

Best pattern of true friends! beware:
You pay too dearly for your care,
If, while your tenderness secures
My life it muft endanger yours;
For fuch a fool was never found,
Who pull'd a palace to the ground,
Only to have the ruins made
Materials for an house decay'd.

On the DEATH of DEMAR, the USURER;

Who died the fixth of July, 1720.

KNOW all men by these prefents, Death the tamer By mortgage hath secur❜d the corpse of Demar: Nor can four hundred thousand ferling pound Redeem him from his prifon under ground.

N 2

His

His heirs might well, of all his wealth poffefs'd,
Bestow to bury him one iron chest.

Plutus the god of wealth will joy to know

His faithful fteward in the fhades below.

He walk'd the ftreets, and wore a threadbare cloak;
He din'd and supp'd at charge of other folk:
And by his looks, had he held out his palms,
He might be thought an object fit for alms.
So, to the poor if he refus'd his pelf,

He us'd them full as kindly as himself.

Where'er he went, he never faw his betters; Lords, knights, and squires, were all his humble debtors; And under hand and seal the Irish nation

Were forc'd to own to him their obligation.

He that could once have half a kingdom bought,
In half a minute is not worth a groat.

His coffers from the coffin could not fave,
Nor all his intereft keep him from the grave.
A golden monument would not be right,
Because we wish the earth upon him light.

Oh London tavern! thou haft loft a friend,
Though in thy walls he ne'er did farthing spend:
He touch'd the pence, when others touch'd the pot;
The hand that fign'd the mortgage paid the fhot.
Old as he was, no vulgar known disease

On him could ever-boaft a power to feize;

"But, as he weigh'd his gold, grim Death in fpight "Cast-in his dart, which made three moidores light;

* A tavern in Dublin, where Demar kept his office. + Thefe four lines were written by Stella.

"And

"And, as he faw his darling money fail,

66

Blew his last breath, to fink the lighter fcale."
He who fo long was current, 'twould be ftrange
If he should now be cry'd down fince his change.
The fexton fhall green fods on thee bestow;
Alas, the fexton is thy banker now!

A difmal banker must that banker be,
Who gives no bills but of mortality.

EPITAPH ON A MISER.

BENEATH this verdant hillock lies

Demar, the wealthy and the wife.

His heirs, that he might fafely rest,
Have put his carcafe in a cheft;
The very cheft, in which, they fay, ·
His other felf, his money, lay.
And, if his heirs continue kind
To that dear felf he left behind,
I dare believe, that four in five
Will think his better half alive.

TO MRS. HOUGHTON OF BORMOUNT. Upon praifing her Husband to Dr. SWIFT.

OU

You always are making a God of your Spouse;

But this neither Reafon nor Confcience allows :

Perhaps you will fay, 'tis in gratitude due,
And you adore him, because he adores you.
Your argument 's weak, and fo you will find;
For you, by this rule, muft adore all mankind.

N3

VERSES,

VERSES, WRITTEN ON A WINDOW,

At the DEANRY HOUSE, ST. PATRICK'S.

AR

cheated?

RE the guests of this houfe ftill doom'd to be [treated. Sure, the fates have decreed they by halves fhould be In the days of good * Jolin, if you came here to dine, You had choice of good meat, but no choice of good. In Jonathan's reign, if you come here to eat, [wine. You have choice of good wine, but no choice of good meat. Oh, Jove! then how fully might all fides be bleft, Would'st thou but agree to this humble request ? Put both deans in one; or, if that 's too much trouble, Instead of the deans, make the deanry double.

ON ANOTHER WINDOW.

A BARD, on whom Phoebus his fpirit beftow'd,

Refolving t' acknowledge the bounty he ow'd, Found out a new method at once of confeffing, And making the most of fo mighty a bleffing: To the God he'd be grateful; but mortals he'd chouse, By making his patron prefide in his house;

And wifely forefaw this advantage from thence,

That the God would in honour bear moft of th' expence :
So the bard he finds drink, and leaves Phoebus to treat
With the thoughts he infpires, regardless of meat.
Hence they, that come hither expecting to dine,
Are always fobb'd off with sheer wit and fheer wine.
* Dean Sterne was diftinguished for his hofpitality.
By Dr. Delany, in conjunction with Stella..

APOLLO

APOLLO to the DEA N. 1720.

RIGHT trufty, and fo forth-we let you to know

We are very ill us'd by you mortals below.

For, first, I have often by chemifts been told,

"

Though I know nothing on 't, it is I that make gold,
Which when you have got, you fo carefully hide it,
That, fince I was born, I hardly have spy'd it.
Then it must be allow'd, that, whenever I fhine,
I forward the grafs, and I ripen the vine
To me the good fellows apply for relief,

Without whom they could get neither claret nor beef: Yet their wine and their victuals thefe curmudgeon lubbards

Lock up from my fight in cellars and cupboards.
That I have an ill eye, they wickedly think,

And taint all their meat, and four all their drink.
But, thirdly and laftly, it must be allow'd,
I alone can infpire the poetical crowd:

This is gratefully own'd by each boy in the college,
Whom if I infpire, it is not to my knowledge.
This every pretender to rhyme will admit,
Without troubling his head about judgement or wit.
These gentlemen use me with kindness and freedom,
And as for their works, when I please I may read 'em:
They lie open on purpose on counters and ftalls,
And the titles I view, when I fhine on the walls.
But a comrade of yours, that traitor Delany,
Whom I for your fake love better than any,

N4

And,