Aesop Dress'd or A Collection of Fables Writ in Familiar Verse. By B. Mandeville |
The Drunkard and his Wife.
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Aesop Dress'd | ||
The Drunkard and his Wife.
Man is so obstinate a CreatureNo Remedy can change his Nature.
Fear, Shame, all ineffectual prove
To cure us from the Vice we love.
A Drunkard, that had spent his Wealth,
And by the Wine impar'd his Health,
One Night was very Drunk brought home;
His Wife conveys him to a Tomb;
Undresses him from Head to Feet,
And wraps him in a Winding-sheet:
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All over dress'd like one that's dead:
Besides, she counterfeits her Voice,
With Torch in hand, and grunting Noise,
Looks frightful in a strange Array,
To pass for Dame Ctesiphone.
And every thing is done so well,
He thinks he's fairly gone to Hell;
And satisfy'd it was his Merit,
He says to his dissembling Spirit,
Who are you in the Name of Evil?
She answers hoarsely I'm a Devil,
That carries Victuals to the Damn'd,
By me they are with Brimstone cramm'd.
What, says the Husband, do you think
Never to bring them any Drink?
Aesop Dress'd | ||