Would take me in his coach to chat,
And question me of this and that;
As, "What's a clock?" And, "How's the
"Whose chariot's that we left behind?
Or gravely try to read the lines
Writ underneath the country signs :
Or, "Have you nothing new to-day,
"From Pope, from Parmel, or from Gay?
Such tattle often entertains
My Lord and me as far as fains:
As once a-week we travel down
To Windfer, and again to town;
Where all that paffes inter nos,
Might be proclaim'd at Charing-cross.
YET fome, I know, with envy fwell,
Because they see me us'd fo well;
"How think you of our friend the Dean?
"I wonder what fome people mean;
"My Lord and he are grown fo great,
Always together, téte a téte:
"What? they admire him for his jokes“See but the fortune of fome folks !
THERE flies about a strange report
Of fome exprefs arriv'd at court;
Subjectior in diem & horam
89. Frigidus a roftris manat per compita rumor ; Quicunque obvius eft, me confulit.
I'm ftopt by all the fools I meet,
And catechis'd in ev'ry street:
"You, Mr. Dean, frequent the great;
"Inform us will the Emp'ror treat?-
"Or do the prints and papers lie?
Faith, fir, you know as much as I.
"Ah Doctor, how you love to jest?
""Tis now no fecret I protest.
'Tis one to me.- "Then, tell us, pray,
"When are the troops to have their pay
And, though I' folemnly declare,
I know no more than my Lord Mayor,
- They stand amaz'd, and think me grown
The clofeft mortal ever known.
THUS, in a fea of folly toft,
My choiceft hours of life are loft;
Yet always wishing to retreat:
Oh, could I fee my country feat!
There leaning near a gentle brook,
Sleep, or perufe fome antient book;
And there, in sweet oblivion, drown
Those cares that haunt a court and town.
101. Jurantem me fcire nihil, mirantur, ut
Scilicet egregii mortalem altique filenti.
108. O rus, quando ego te afpiciam ? quandoque
Nunc veterum libris, nunc fomno & inertibus horis, Ducere folicita jucunda oblivia vita?
On the fuppofed DEATH of Partrige the Almanack-Maker.
Written in the Year 1708.
ELL; 'tis as Bickerftaff has gueft,
Tho' we all took it for a jeft:
Partrige is dead; nay more, he dy'd,
E'er he could prove the good 'Squire ly'd.
Strange, an Aftrologer should die,
Without one wonder in the sky!
Not one of all his crony ftars
Το pay their duty at his herse ?
No meteor, no eclipse appear'd ?
No comet with a flaming beard?
The fun has rofe, and gone to bed,
Juft as if Partrige were not dead:
Nor hid himfelf behind the moon,
To make a dreadful night at noon.
He at fit periods walks through Aries,
Howe'er our earthly motion varies;
And twice a-year he'll cut th' Equator,
As if there had been no fuch matter..
SOME wits have wonder'd what analogy
There is 'twixt cobling and Aftrology:
How Partrige made his Opticks rise,
From a fhoe-fole to reach the skies.
A lift the Coblers temples ties,
To keep the hair out of their eyes;
From whence, 'tis plain, the diadem,
That princes wear, derives from them:
And therefore crowns are now a-days,
Adorn'd with golden ftars and rays:
Which clearly fhews the near alliance
"Twixt cobling, and the planets science.
BESIDES; that flow pac'd fign Bootes,
As 'tis mifcall'd, we know not who 'tis :
But Partrige ended all disputes;
He knew his trade, and call'd it + Boots.
THE borned moon, which heretofore.
Upon their shoes the Romans wore,
Whose wideness kept their toes from corns,
And whence we claim our hooing borns ;
Shews how the art of cobling bears
A near resemblance to the spheres.
A fcrap of parchment hung by geometry, (A great refinement in Barometry)
* Partrige was a Cobler.
See his Almanack.
Can, like the ftars, foretel the weather;
And what is parchment elfe but leather?
Which an Aftrologer might ufe,
Either for almanacks or shoes.
THUS Partrige, by his wit and parts,
At once did practise both these arts:
And as the boding owl (or rather
The bat, because her wings are leather ✈
Steals from her private cell by night,
And flies about the candle-light;
So learned Partrige could as well
Creep in the dark from leathern cell,
And in his fancy fly as far,
To peep upon a twinkling ftar.
BESIDES, he could confound the Spheres,
And fet the planets by the ears:
To fhew his kill, he Mars could join
To Venus in afpe&t malign;
Then call in Mercury for aid,
And cure the wounds that Venus made.
GREAT scholars have in Lucian read,
When Philip King of Greece was dead,
His foul and Spirit did divide,
And each part took a diff'rent fide;
One rose a star; the other fell
Beneath, and mended fhoes in hell.
THUS Partrige ftill fhines in each art, The cobling and star-gazing part;
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