What cut-purses have left with them,
For the right owners to redeem:

And what they dare not vent, find out,
To gain themselves and th' art repute;
Draw figures, schemes, and horoscopes,
Of Newgate, Bridewell, brokers' shops,
Of thieves ascendant in the cart;:
And find out all by rules of art:
Which way a serving-man, that's run
With clothes and money away, is

Who pick'd a fob at holding forth,

gone:

And where a watch for half the worth,

34.5

350

When terms begin and end could tell,

With their returns, in doggerel:
When the Exchequer opes and shuts,
And sow-gelder with safety cuts:

When men may eat and drink their fill,
And when be temp'rate if they will;

365

T' advance his master's fame and gains;
And, like the devil's oracles,

Put into dogg'rel rhymes his spells;

Which over ev'ry month's blank page

375

I' th' almanac, strange bilks presage.

He would an elegy compose

On maggots squeez'd out of his nose;

In lyric numbers write an ode on

His mistress eating a black-pudding;

And when imprison'd air escap'd her,
It puff'd him with poetic rapture.
His sonnets charm'd th' attentive crowd,
By wide-mouth'd mortal troll'd aloud,
That, circled with his long-ear'd guests,
Like Orpheus look'd among the beasts:

A carman's horse could not pass by,
But stood ty'd up to poetry;

380

385

No porter's burden pass'd along,

But serv'd for burden to the song.

390

B 2

Each window like a pill'ry appears,

With heads thrust through, nail'd by the cars;

All trades run in, as to the sight

Of monsters, or their dear delight,

The gallows tree, when cutting purse

395

Breeds bus'ness for heroic verse,

Which none does hear, but would have hung
T' have been the theme of such a song.

These two together long had liv'd

In mansion prudently contriv'd;

400

Where neither tree nor house could bar

The free detection of a star;

And nigh an ancient obelisk

Was rais'd by him, found out by Fisk,

On which was written, not in words,

405

But hieroglyphic mute of birds,
Many rare pithy saws concerning
The worth of astrologic learning:
From top of this there hung a rope,
To which he fasten'd telescope;
The spectacles with which the stars
He reads in smallest characters.
It happen'd as a boy, one night.
Did fly his tarsel of a kite;

410

The strangest long-wing'd hawk that flies,

That like a bird of paradise,

Or herald's marlet, has no legs,

Nor hatches young ones, nor lay eggs;
His train was six yards long, milk-white,
At the end of which there hung a light,
Inclos'd in lantern made of paper,
That, far off, like a star did appear.
This Sidrophel by chance espy'd,
And with amazement staring wide,

415

420

Bless us! quoth he, What dreadful wonder 425
Is that appears in heaven yonder?

A comet, and without a beard,
Or star that ne'er before appear'd?

I'm certain 'tis not in the scroll

Of all those beasts, and fish, and fowl,

430

With which, like Indian plantations,

The learned stock the constellations;
Nor those that drawn for signs have been,
To th' houses where the planets inn.

It must be supernatural,

Unless it be the cannon-ball,

That, shot i' th' air point-blank upright,
Was borne to that prodigious height,

435

Whom he discovering, turn'd his glass,
And found far off 'twas Hudibras.

Whachum, quoth he, look yonder, some

To try or use our art are come:
The one's the learned Knight; seek out
And pump 'em what they come about.
Whachum advanc'd with all submissness
T'accost 'em, but much more their bus'ness:

He held a stirrup, while the Knight

From leathern bare-bones did alight;
And taking from his hand the bridle,
Approach'd the dark Squire to unriddle:
He
gave him first the time o' the day,
And welcom'd him, as he might say:

490

495

500

He ask'd him whence they came, and whither
Their bus'ness lay? Quoth Ralpho, Hither.
Did not you lose?-Quoth Ralpho, Nay;-
Quoth Whachum, Sir, I meant your way.
Your Knight Quoth Ralpho, is a lover,
And pains intol'rable doth suffer:

505

For lover's hearts are not their own hearts,
Nor lights, nor lungs, and so forth downwards.
What time?-Quoth Ralpho, Sir, too long,

Three

years

it off and on has hung

510