CORYDON

However, you shall home with me to-night,
Forget your cares, and revel in delight,
I have in store a pint or two of wine,
Some cracknels, and the remnant of a chine.

And now on either side, and all around,
The weighty shop-boards fall, and bars resound;
Each ready sempstress slips her pattens on,
And ties her hood, preparing to be gone.

L. B. W. H. J. S. S. T.

[Footnote 1:  Swift and Pope delighted to ridicule Philips’ “Pastorals,” and wrote several parodies upon them, the fame of which has been eclipsed by Gay’s “Shepherd’s Week.”—­Scott.]

A CONFERENCE

BETWEEN SIR HARRY PIERCE’S CHARIOT, AND MRS. D. STOPFORD’S CHAIR [1]

CHARIOT

My pretty dear Cuz, tho’ I’ve roved the town o’er,
To dispatch in an hour some visits a score;
Though, since first on the wheels, I’ve been every day
At the ’Change, at a raffling, at church, or a play;
And the fops of the town are pleased with the notion
Of calling your slave the perpetual motion;—­
Though oft at your door I have whined [out] my love
As my Knight does grin his at your Lady above;
Yet, ne’er before this, though I used all my care,
I e’er was so happy to meet my dear Chair;
And since we’re so near, like birds of a feather,
Let’s e’en, as they say, set our horses together.

CHAIR

By your awkward address, you’re that thing which should carry,
With one footman behind, our lover Sir Harry. 
By your language, I judge, you think me a wench;
He that makes love to me, must make it in French. 
Thou that’s drawn by two beasts, and carry’st a brute,
Canst thou vainly e’er hope, I’ll answer thy suit? 
Though sometimes you pretend to appear with your six,
No regard to their colour, their sexes you mix: 
Then on the grand-paw you’d look very great,
With your new-fashion’d glasses, and nasty old seat. 
Thus a beau I have seen strut with a cock’d hat,
And newly rigg’d out, with a dirty cravat. 
You may think that you make a figure most shining,
But it’s plain that you have an old cloak for a lining. 
Are those double-gilt nails?  Where’s the lustre of Kerry,
To set off the Knight, and to finish the Jerry? 
If you hope I’ll be kind, you must tell me what’s due
In George’s-lane for you, ere I’ll buckle to.

CHARIOT