EPIGRAM on this Question :

"Which is the more eligible for a Wife, a Widow or an Old Maid?"

Y

From the Effay on Old Maids.

E, who to wed the tweeteft wife would try,
Obferve how men a fweet Cremona buy!
New violins they feek not from the trade,
But one, on which fome good musician play'd:
Strings never try'd fome harfhnefs will produce;
The fiddle's harmony improves by ufe.

By the Right Hon. HENRY Fox, late Lord HOLLAND.

Where are all the winds? O! who will feize

And bear me gafping to fome northern breeze?
Or weftward to yon Pyrenæans go,

Lay me where lies the yet unmelted fnow.

Of my foul's panting with in mid-day dreams!
O! native foil! O! verdure, woods, and streams,
Where are ye? And thou! lovely Redlynch! where
Thy graffy profpects, and thy vernal air?
O! fend thy fpacious waters to my aid,
Lend me thy lofty elm's protecting shade;
Henceforth within thy limits let me live.
Oh! England! injur'd climate! I forgive
Thy fpleen-inflicting mifts, thy gloomy days,
I'll think thy clouds but intercept fuch rays
As now rage here, before whofe hoftile blaze
The waters fhrink, withers herb, fruit, and grain,
And the blood throbs in the diftemper'd vein.
So fhall I pleas'd behold thy low'ring skies,
Contented fee thy thickest fogs arife,
For e'en to thy November's arms, to fhun
This painful heat, with transport would I run.

}

Thefe verfes, with many fimilar advertisements in profe, were ipoken at a private masquerade, in the character of a Town Cryer.

N 3

A plain

A plain, old-fashion'd habitation,
Subftantial without decoration,

Large, and with room for friends to fpare;
Well-fituate, and in good repair.

Alfo the furniture; as fighs,

Hopes, fears, oaths, pray'rs, and fome few-lies;
Odes, fonnets, elegies, and fongs,
With all that to th' above belongs.

Alfo,-what fome might have been glad
Tho in a fep'rate lot to have had,—
A good rich foil of hopeful nature,
Six meafur'd acres (feet) of ftature.
Likewife another lot-an heap
Of tatter'd modefty, quite cheap.
This with the reft would have been fold
But that by feveral we were told,
If put up with the heart, the price
Of that it much might prejudice.

Note well; th' eftate, if manag'd ably,
May be improv'd confiderably.
Love is our money, to be paid
Whenever entry fhall be made;
And therefore have we fix'd the day,
For entering, in the month of May.
But if the buyer of the above
Can on the fpot pay ready love,
Hereby the owner makes profeffion,
She inftantly fhall have poffeffion,
The highest bidder be the buyer.
You may know further of THE CRYER.

*RONDEAU.

OURS, Jenny, yours in every thought,
At length this fickle heart is caught:
This heart that broke kind Kitty's chain;
Tho' ftudious to prevent my pain,
What you deny, she gave unfought.
And, if to my embrace were brought
She, for whom Greece and Ilion fought,
Ev'n her for you would I difdain,

Yours, Jenny, yours!

This is the only legitimate Rondeau, in the language. It was written at the request of a friend to exemplify the fyftem of rhymes, the divifion of ftanzas, and the laws of the return, according to the practice of Voiture, and the other French writers, who have most excelled in this laborious kind of trifling.

Then

Then meet my paffion, as you ought;
Nor aim, in vain coquetry taught,
By coy caprice to fix your reign,
If I whole months muft fue, to gain
What can in every street be bought;

Y

Yours, Jenny, yours!

A SIMILE,

OU fay, Sir, once a wit allow'd
A lady to be like a cloud;

Then take a Simile as foon
Between a Woman and the Moon ;
For let mankind fay what they will,
The fex are heav'nly bodies ftill

Grant me (to mimic mortal life)
The Sun and Moon are man and wife,
Whate'er kind Sol affords to lend her,
Madam difplays in midnight fplendor;
For while to reft he lays him down,
She's up and ftar'd at thro' the town;
From him her beauties clofe confining,
And only in his abfence fhining.
Or elfe the looks like fullen tapers ;
Or elfe is fairly in the vapours;
Or owns at once a wife's ambition,
And fully glares in oppofition.-
Say, is not this a modifh pair,
Where each for other feels no care.
Whole days in feparate coaches driving,
Whole nights to keep afunder ftriving;
Both in the dumps in gloomy weather,
And lying once a month together?
In one fole point unlike the cafe is,
On her own head the horns the places,

IMPROMPTU,

By Bishop ATTERBURY, on a Challenge to the Bishop to dictate fomething in praife of a Goofe-Quill; from the Words, " Defpife not the Worth of thofe Things that are fmall."

"The words of the wife man thus preach'd to us all,
Defpife not the worth of those things that are small.”

HE quill of the Goofe is a
Yet it feathers the arrow

TH

very flight thing,

that flies from the ftring;
N 4

Makes

Makes the bird it belongs to rife high in its flight,
And the jack it has oil'd against dinner go right.
It brightens the floor, when turn'd to a broom,
And brushes down cobwebs at the top of the room;
Its plumage by age into figures is wrought,
It's foft as the hand, and as quick as the thought.
It warms in a muff, and cools in a screen;
It is good to be felt, it is good to be seen.
When wantonly waving, it makes a fine show
On the crest of the warrior, or hat of the beau.
The quill of the goofe (I fhall never have done,
If thro' all its perfections and praises I run)
Makes the harpfichord vocal, which elfe would be mute,
And enlivens the found, the fweet found of the flute;
Records what is written in verte or in profe,

By Ramfay, by Cambray, by Boyle, or Defpreaux.
Therefore well did the wife man thus preach to us all-
66 Despise not the worth of those things that are fmall.”

IM PROMPT U.

By a Gentleman of the Temple, on the Sight of one of the Croydon Belles, in the Court at Kingston, during the Affixes.

HILST petty

offences and felonies fmart,

W Is there no jurifdiction for ftealing the heart?

You, my fair one, may cry "Laws and Court I defy you;"
Concluding no Peers can be fummon'd to try you.

But think not, fair Shorey, this plea will enture you,
Since the Graces and Mutes will just make a jury.

TH

SON G.

By Captain MORRIS.

HO' BACCHUS may boaft of his care-killing bowl,
And Folly in thought-drowning revels delight;

Such worship, alas! hath no charms for the foul,
When fofter devotions the fenses invite..

To the arrow of Fate, or the canker of Care,
His potions oblivious a balm may beftow:
But, to Fancy that feeds on the charm of the fair,
The death of Reflection's the birth of all Woe.

What