University of Virginia Library


306

THE RAKE: AN EPIGRAM.

Tho' Floris revell'd, subtile as a fox,
Thrice in six weeks poor Florio caught a pox;
The next six weeks brought weeping to his door,
Three pregnant wenches and a brimstone whore.
Mad at the sight, and tortur'd with the evil,
He drove the black assembly to the devil.
Well, here his griefs would end! Ah, piteous tale
Six following weeks beheld him in a jail;
The next six saw him, e'er that time flew by,
Roar, curse, blaspheme, pine, mortify and die.
Blest hadst thou been, O Florio! blest indeed!
Nor yet condemn'd among the common dead,
Had Fate withheld (to lengthen out thy days,)
Such fierce temptations from thy eager gaze,
And gracious given thee, to grasp the trick,
A longer patience, ------