Which condemn not the faults they rehearse, FASHION. A DIALOGUE. CONSIDER, my good Friend, the value”— I have consider'd, Sir, I tell you, And, preach and practise what you will, I scorn'd them once, and scorn them still. How this and that man ties his queue, In this the benefit which one (hark ye) "You poets think it only—a jest, eh! "To cut and slash at peers and majesty ! "When did I ever say a Briton "Must creep, like pointer, hands and feet on? "I only said, what I suppose "You know, and every body knows, "That in their forms of etiquette, "The small must copy from the great; "Must learn their passions and their fancies, "How this lord laughs, and that duke dances. "For, as a frugal housewife gathers 66 Clippings of silk, and gaudy feathers, "Which will by length of time prepare "A covering for an easy chair : "Even thus, from the great world, our beaus "Pick shreds of swearing and bon mots; "Which, when they o'er their souls have wrought 'em, "Hide Honesty's black leather bottom; "And a new covering we behold "Where every single patch is old." And what, if I be not inclin'd To clap a cover on my mind, Because they flaunted on a peer? Although as relicks fools adore them, "The grave man's care, the gay man's passion, "The lady's every thing-the fashion." I never would affirm, my friend, (To see how folks misapprehend !) That a good action grows a worse one, For being done by any person. I never will avoid the rabble When right, because, they're fashionable: For fashion's sake, if they be wrong. “Nobles have honour in a nation, Proportion'd to their exaltation." And I allow to those great people The same respect as to a steeple; That one acknowledge they are high, That one look up as one goes by; But not, however, that one's head Must jangle bells, or carry lead. "I wish you would leave off your joking, A tree once in a church yard grew, But that is neither here nor there. Two stems must from its root have grown, For t'other, hewn from parent stock, } |