UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

3 9015 05990 0939

BUILDING USE ONLY.

BUILDING
USE ONLY

BRUILDING USE ONLY

85

So canting coblers, while from tubs they teach,
Buffoon the gospel they pretend to preach.)
Boalt petty courts, whence rules new rigour draw,
Unknown to Nature's and to Statute-law;
Quirks that explain all saving rights away,
To give th' attorney and the catchpoll prey.
Is there where law too rigorous may descend,
Or charity her kindly hand extend ?
Thy courts, that, shut when pity would redress,
Spontaneous open to inflict distress.
Try misdemeanours !-all thy wiles employ,
Not to chastise th' offender, but destroy ;

90
Bid the large lawless fine his fate foretel;
Bid it beyond his crime and fortune fwell ;
Cut off from service due to kindred blood,
To private welfare and to public good,
Pitied by all, but thee, he sentenc'd lies ;

95 Imprison’d languishes, imprison'd dies.

Boast swarming vessels, whose plebeian state
Owes not to merchants but mechanics freight.
Boast nought but pedlar-feets-in war's alarms,
Unknown to glory, as unknown to arms. 100

Boaft

Boast thy base * Tolsey, and thy turn-fpit dogs,
Thy | Halliers horses and thy human hogs ;
Upstarts and mushrooms, proud, relentless hearts;
Thou blank of sciences ! thou dearth of arts !
Such foes as learning once was doom'd to see! 105
Huns, Goths, and Vandals, were but types of thee.

Proceed, great Bristol, in all-righteous ways,
And let one Justice heighten yet thy praise ;
Still spare the catamite, and swinge the whore,
And be, whate'er Gomorrha was before,

1

* A place where the merchants used to meet to transact their affairs before the Exchange was erected. See Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. XIII. p. 496.

| Halliers are the persons who drive or own the Hedges, which are here uled instead of carts.

CON

Prologue to Shakespeare's Henry the Sixth

I31

The Animalcule

132

To Mrs. Haywood