Not Fannius' felf more impudently near,
When half his nofe is in his Prince's ear.

I quak'd at heart; and still afraid, to fee

All the Court fill'd with ftranger things than he, his bail

180

Ran out as faft, as one that pays
And dreads more actions, hurries from a jail.
Bear me, fome God! oh quickly bear me hence
To wholfome Solitude, the nurse of sense: 185
Where Contemplation prunes her ruffled wings,
And the free foul looks down to pity Kings!
There fober thought purfu'd th'amusing theme,
Till Fancy colour'd it, and form'd a Dream.
A Vision hermits can to Hell transport,
And forc'd ev'n me to fee the damn'd at Court.
Not Dante dreaming all th'infernal state,
Beheld fuch scenes of envy, fin, and hate.
Bafe Fear becomes the guilty, not the free;

Suits Tyrants, Plunderers, but fuits not me:

O quickly bear me hence.

190

195

VER. 188. There faber thought] These two lines are remarkable for the delicacy and propriety of the expreffion.

VER. 194. Bafe Fear.] Thefe four admirable lines become the high office he had affumed, and fo nobly sustained.

Becomes the guilty, not th' accufer: Then,
Shalt I, none's flave, of high-born or rais'd men
Fear frowns; and my miftrefs truth, betray thee
For th' huffing, bragart, puft nobility?

No, no, thou which fince yesterday hast been,
Almoft about the whole world, haft thou feen,
O fun in all thy journey, vanity,

Such as fwells the bladder of our court? I

b

Think he which made your Waxen garden, and
Transported it from Italy, to ftand

With us at London, flouts our Courtiers; for
Juft fuch gay painted things, which no fap, nor
Tafte have in them, ours are; and natural

с

Some of the stocks are; their fruits bastard all.

'Tis ten a Clock and paft; all whom the mues, Baloun, or tennis, diet, or the stews

Had all the morning held, now the fecond

Time made ready, that day, in flocks are found
In the Prefence, and I (God pardon me)
As fresh and sweet their Apparels be, as be

A fhow of the Italian Garden in Waxwork, in the time of King James the First.

That is, of wood.

VER. 206. Court in wax!] A famous fhow of the Court of France, in Wax-work.

VER. 213. At Fig's, at White's,] White's was a noted gaminghoufe: Fig's, a Prize-fighter's Academy, where the young

200

205

Shall I, the Terror of this finful town,
Care, if a liv'ry'd Lord or smile or frown?
Who cannot flatter, and deteft who can,
Tremble before a noble Serving-man?
O my fair mistress, Truth! fhall I quit thee
For huffing, braggart, puft Nobility?
Thou, who fince yesterday haft roll'd o'er all
The bufy, idle blockheads of the ball,
Haft thou, oh Sun! beheld an emptier fort,
Than fuch as fwell this bladder of a court ?
Now pox on those who shew a Court in wax 1
It ought to bring all courtiers on their backs
Such painted puppets! such a varnish'd race
Of hollow gew-gaws, only drefs and face!
Such waxen nofes, ftately ftaring things-
No wonder fome folks bow, and think them Kings.
See! where the British youth, engag'd no more
At Fig's, at White's, with felons, or a whore,
Pay their laft duty to the Court, and come
All fresh and fragrant, to the drawing-room;
In hues as gay, and odours as divine,

As the fair fields they fold to look so fine.

215

Nobility received instruction in those days: It was also customary for the nobility and gentry to vifit the condemned criminals in Newgate.

Their fields they fold to buy them. For a king
Those hose are, cry the flatterers: and bring
Them next week to the theatre to fell.

Wants reach all ftates: me feems they do as well
At ftage, as courts; all are players. Whoe'er looks
(For themselves dare not go) o'er Cheapfide books,
Shall find their wardrobes inventory. Now

The Ladies come. As pirates (which do know
That there came weak ships fraught with Cutchanel)
The men board them; and praise (as they think)
well,

Their beauties; they the mens wits; both are bought.
Why good wits ne'er wear scarlet gowns, I thought
This caufe, These men, mens wits for speeches buy,
And women buy all red which scarlets dye.
He call'd her beauty lime-twigs, her hair net:
She fears her drugs ill lay'd, her hair loose set d.
Wouldn't Heraclitus laugh to see Macrine
From hat to fhoe, himself at door refine,

As if the Prefence were a Mosque: and lift
His fkirts and hofe, and call his clothes to fhrift,
Making them confefs not only mortal

Great ftains and holes in them, but venial

4i. e. Conscious that both her complexion and her hair are borrowed, the fufpects that, when, in the common cant of flatterers, he calls her beauty lime-twigs, and her hair a net to catch

220

"That's velvet for a King?" the flatt'rer fwears;
"Tis true, for ten days hence 'twill be King Lear's.
Our Court may justly to our stage give rules,
That helps it both to fools-coats and to fools.
And why not players ftrut in courtiers cloaths?
For these are actors too, as well as those :
Wants reach all states; they beg but better drest,
And all is fplendid poverty at beft.

225

230

Painted for fight, and effenc'd for the smell, Like frigates fraught with spice and cochine'l, Sail in the Ladies: how each pyrate eyes So weak a veffel, and fo rich a prize! Top-gallant he, and fhe in all her trim, He boarding her, fhe ftriking fail to him: "Dear Countefs! you have charms all hearts to hit!" And "Sweet Sir Fopling! you have so much wit!" Such wits and beauties are not prais'd for nought, For both the beauty and the wit are bought. 'Twou'd burst ev'n Heraclitus with the spleen, To fee those anticks, Foplin and Courtin: The Prefence feems, with things fo richly odd, The mofque of Mahound, or fome queer Pa-god, See them furvey their limbs by Durer's rules, 240 Of all beau-kind the best proportion'd fools!

235

lovers, he means to infinuate that her colours are coarsely laid on, and her borrowed hair loosely woven.

VIR. 240. Durer's rules,] Albert Durer.