DISCORD and Plots, which have undone our Age, With the same ruine have o'erwhelmed the Stage. Our House has suffered in the common Woe, We have been troubled with @3Scotch@1 Rebels too. Our brethren are from @3Thames@1 to @3Tweed@1 departed, And of our Sisters all the kinder-hearted To @3Edenborough@1 gone, or coached or carted. With bonny Blewcap there they act all night For @3Scotch@1 half-crown, in @3English@1 Threepence hight. One Nymph, to whom fat @3Sir John Falstaff's@1 lean, There with her single Person fills the Scene. Another, with long Use and Age decay'd, Div'd here old Woman, and rose there a Maid. Our trusty Door-keepers of former time There strut and swagger in Heroique Rhyme. Tack but a copper Lace to drugget Suit, And there's a Heroe made without Dispute; And that which was a Capon's tayl before Becomes a plume for @3Indian@1 emperor. But all his Subjects, to express the Care Of Imitation, go, like @3Indians@1, bare; Lac'd Linen there would be a dangerous Thing; It might perhaps a new Rebellion bring; The @3Scot@1 who wore it wou'd be chosen King. But why should I these Renegades describe, When you yourselves have seen a lewder Tribe? @3Teag@1 has been here, and to this learned Pit With @3Irish@1 Action slandered @3English@1 Wit; You have beheld such barbarous @3Macs@1 appear As merited a second Massacre; Such as like @3Cain@1 were branded with Disgrace, And had their Country stampt upon their Face. When Strollers durst presume to pick your purse, We humbly thought our broken Troop not worse. How ill soe'er our Action may deserve, @3Oxford's@1 a place where Wit can never sterve. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FIRST BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 7 by THOMAS CAMPION THE SUPPLIANT by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON ON THE STATUE OF AN ANGEL, BY BIENAIME by WASHINGTON ALLSTON THE BIRDS: THE BUILDING OF CLOUDCUCKOOCITY by ARISTOPHANES |