Accufe me not of Incivility,

In blabbing Privacy;,

Since all Men know, that in thofe Mysteries,
(Quite different from other Deities)
No Man obliged is to Secrefy.

Yea, if I should conceal,
'Twould be in vain:

That pervious Tribe would their own Acts reveal,' Since Wine (tranfparent thing!) no Secret can re

II.

The Actors of this Scene were not of one
Age, Humour, Figure, or Condition.

See one with hollow Cheeks, meagre and lean,
By Sipping-Hectick e'en confumed quite,
As he a Skeleton had been,

(tain.

Enough to put Death's felf into a fright:
Only in this he feem'd to differ from the Dead,
He lifted off his Hand up to his Head.
Another fwoln up with Hydropick Fat,
Out-strutting Eyes, and Paunch that fo o'er-grows,
He might vie Bellies with the very Butt,
From whence the precious Liquor flows.
One comes with Crimson Face,

More red than Erysipelas;

Another Pale, thro Vital Heat struck dead,
By greater heat of Wine extinguished.
Yet is the Cafe of both much what the fame,
Nature, in one, is on a Flame,

And, in the other, all in Ashes laid.
One young as Hebe, fmooth as Ganimede,
Another old Silenus feems to be,

With trembling Hand, and Palfy-Head,
And lame on Feet, with gouty Malady:
One Grave and Saturnine,
Another jolly, brisk and fine,

He feem'd not much unlike the lufty God of Wine.

III.

One Noble was, yclep'd a Lord, I wis,
Another did a meaner Title take,

A Tinker hight; but all's one, that or this,
Lycan Laws no difference do make,
Cups reconcile Degrees, and Natures too;
He Nobleft is, who can in Drink out-do:
No boast of Blood will here allowed be,

But what from tender Grape is prest.
No need of Heraulds, or their Blazonry;
He bears best Coat, who beats his Liquor beft.
(Such Pallive Valour is in most Request)
No talk of Race, or Pedigree;

For Honour here is a mere fudden thing:
The Garland hops from Brow to Brow,
As more,or lefs, the moift Atchievements grow,
Who yesterday was Puny, now is crown'd a King.

IV.

But fee: the Battel comes,

Sound Trumpets now, and Drums!

Two Armies rank'd, and facing, I efpy'd;
Whom nothing but one long Plain did divide,
The Table call'd. Well chofen Ground for both,
So plain, and smooth,
It gave no vantage unto either Side.
Signal once giv'n, the Bullets fly
From fide to fide, fo furiously,

That, in fhort time, none fcap'd without a Wound,
Yea bloody Wound; only, 'twixt this

And common Wounds fome difference is,
That those do let Blood out, but these infund.
One thing indeed I mus'd to fee,

Each Soldier to his own Mouth lift his Paw,
Before he aim'd at Face of Enemy.

What? fure, quoth I, thefe do their Bullets chaw,
Before they fight. Or, is it Dutch-man's Law,

Who,

Who, e'er his Valour in Sea Fight appear,
First takes a Dose of his own Gunpowder?
And now the Battle's hot. Each Champion grows
(Like chafed Lion) more enrag'd by Blows.
For Wounds do Valour but augment,
Wounds broach their Fury,and giveRage a vent.
Nothing will now their keen Revenge content,
Until they fee their Foes

Lie prostrate at their Feet, senseless and dead,
And hence their Blows

Are level'd all against the Soul's chief Seat, the

V.

(Head.
And, by this time, me-thought, I faw
Dame Reafon trembling ftand upon
The Top of her Conarion,

Dreading a Deluge from the Floods below.
As Mortals in Deucalion's Flood, on cliff
Of Caucafus, or Tenariff,
On Airy Alps, or Apennine,

Prolong'd that Fate, which they could not decline.
But what the fear'd is come.

See! the Waves rife, and Billows foam;
And washing firft her Foot, and Shin,

Then Waft and Shoulders, Neck and Chin,

At laft quite stopher Mouth, furround her piercing Yea swallow Head and Brain,

Till nought of her doth visible remain,

No not the very Hair,

Which stands upright,

Thro difmal fright,

But all, by fwelling Surge, furmounted are.

VI.

(Eye,

And now a new Scene comes, The Cenfor's gone, All things in medley and confufion run.

Words now, like Thieves in Interregnums, break Their Prisons. All Men hear, and all Men fpeak: Yet none another understands, nor yet

Himself a whit.

And,

And, could fome nimble-handed Scribe have writ
All that was faid, Babel had been retriev'd,
And all her Tongues reviv'd.

Yea more confus'd thefe Tongues,than Babel's were:
They talkt of Towers on Earth, but thefe in Air.
A. VII

One is all Manhood, talks of nothing else,
But Swords, and Guns, and Forts, and Citadels;
Sieges, and Fights by Sea and Land,

And with a Gravity Cenforian,

'Twixt generous Scorn and Pity, doth condemn What the World calls Exploit, or Stratagem. Alas! your Dutch-Fights, or Blake's Tunis Knacks, What were they all, but Squibs and Cracks? Throw Eighty Eight in,

'Twas but a mere Bear-baiting; Cales Fight was but a Flutter, And Great Lepanto, fam'd of yore,

To a true Sea-Fight, was no more (Altho-Hiftorick Coxcombs make a Splutter) Than fhooting Ducks in Pond,or ftabbing of anOtter, VIII.

Some talk of Bajazet's great Battel;
'Twas more a Tumult, than a Fight,.
I would more Execution with one

Well-marshal'd, refolute Troop, have done,
Than Tamerlain's long drove of Motley Cattel.
And Canna Field (to speak the right)
Was merely loft for want

Of Courage both, and Management.
O, how I would have knockt, had I been there,
And kickt, and cuff'd that Punick Cur,
As long as he could stir!

I would have giv'n him Beef to his Vineger.
The ftripling Macedonian,

What was he to a Man,

Altho

Altho his Legends make a mighty pother!

And those two Roman Boys,

Who in Pharfalian Fray did make fuch noise (As Lucan prates) they did but fpit at one another.

IX.

The World did ne'er yet know

What Refolution, join'd with Art, could do.
Could I but find

A pack of Heroes to my Mind,

And of as clear

A Valour, as my felf; I'd not defpair
To rid poor Christendom of all its Fear.
I'd feize the Turk in his own Dardanells,
That all the Spells

Of Magick Art should never fet him free.
Then wafting o'er the Euxine Sea,
To Cham of Tartary,

I'd make his Cham-fhip, and his flat-flac'd Men
For eating raw Horfe-legs agen.
The Perfian King

I'd take, and in his Carpets roll

Him up, like his own Silk-worms; and fo bring
Him quite away under my Arm. Mogul
I'd make to ftoop; or, if he durft advance
His sturdy Lance,

I'd hamstring him, and all his Elephants.
So paffing on

To China, and Japan,

To Africk fhore, and to American,

I'd conquer th' Universe, in far lefs bound (round.
Of time, than lazy Drake, or Magellan could fail it
X.

Another, he is all State Policy;
Efteeming then himself moft wife
In Mysteries

Of Government, when he
Has loft the Hegemonick Faculty.

T

As