The Humourous Poetry of the English Language

549
What a frail thing is beauty! says baron Le Cras,
Perceiving his mistress had one eye of glass:
And scarcely had he spoke it,
When she more confus'd as more angry she grew,
By a negligent rage prov'd the maxim too true:
She dropt the eye, and broke it.
EARNING A DINNER.
Full oft doth Mat. with Topaz dine,
Eateth baked meats, drinketh Greek wine;
But Topaz his own werke rehearseth;
And Mat. mote praise what Topaz verseth.
Now sure as priest did e'er shrive sinner,
Full hardly earneth Mat. his dinner.
BIBO AND CHARON.
When Bibo thought fit from the world to retreat,
And full of champagne as an egg's full of meat,
He waked in the boat; and to Charon he said,
He would be row'd back, for he was not yet dead.
Trim the boat, and sit quiet, stern Charon replied:
You may have forgot, you were drunk when you died.
THE PEDANT.
Lysander talks extremely well;
On any subject let him dwell,
His tropes and figures will content ye
He should possess to all degrees
The art of talk; he practices
Full fourteen hours in four-and-twenty
EPIGRAMS OF JOSEPH ADDISON.