Matthew Prior. Dialogues of the Dead and Other Works ::

Stil like to keep their fancy up
No more can drink yet kiss the Cup
* * * those who have weak heads
Their Answer from their fitts provide
And wear their Logic by their side.

Blind Folks shall know You by Your walk
And Dumb and Deaf shal see You talk.

All this says Richard is but Nonsense
For whats the Will without the Conscience
That mighty Pow'r by whom the thought
Is from Kings Bench to Chancery brought
What Seat for her have You assign'd
When She may view and sway the mind.

Dear Dick at Surgeons Hall they tell Y[e]
There are two Regions in the belly
The Diaphragma (You love Greek)
The Midriff as the Vulgar speak
Lyes between both that thou may'st know
How far the bounds of either go
As in the Tennis-court the Nett
Determines either Parties bett
Or Berwick whilom did distinguish
The Limitts between Scots and English.

326

For hark You, Richard, shou'd we put
The Conscience lower towards the Gut
It wou'd remain inept and quiet
And stil go downward with our Diet
Hence the Desires She wou'd Produce
Wou'd all be Sordid Base & Loose.

Now place her in a higher part
Amid'st the Region of the heart
From thence so many Conduits lead
Directly upward to the head
That mounting by too swift advances
And bursting in ten thousand fancys
She wou'd from Neighborhood of place
Be always flying in your face
And fire your Brain with so much Heat
That You wou'd neither Sleep nor Eat
For Dick Your Conscience—

Yet happy Human race my Friend
Did here the sickly madness end.
But Mitis troubl'd half the nation
About his Offsprings Education;
And urg'd by some unhappy fate
Gave him Two Thirds of his Estate
To settle the sad Wretch in Mariage
(This of his life the Sole Miscariage)
Yet Hopeful counts his Fathers Years,
And blames the Sloth of Clotho's Sheers;
That thus protracts the long wish'd death;
Of whom? the Man who gave him breath,
Say this, and the ill jesting Calf
Replyes ye with an impious laugh
His Mother help'd, and he cou'd spare
Her too, from all this Worldly care:
Were She, good Soul, but once in Heav'n
Her Jointure wou'd set matters even.
Wou'd Fate this double Blessing give
A happy Orphan he shou'd Live.

327

Hence Frantic Att-all's endless rage
Hates the Recess requir'd by Age
[OMITTED]* * * * * *
Most People live by Drink and Diet,
He feeds on other Mens disquiet.
Eternal Watch the Madman keeps
When e'er he knows his Neighbor Sleeps.
Scar'd with his own injurious Deed
He thinks it safest to proceed.
Hears jingling Chains and Clinking Fetters
And wou'd impose 'em on his Betters
Which does the Bedlam fear the most
H***** Alive or G*****y's Ghost
Leave him as God and Man has done
And let the Muse go gently on.

With the Image of his own ill deed
Frighted he must to worse proceed
Hearing the Clinck of Chains & Fetters
He hopes to put them on his Betters.

And make Him say what just they please
As Statesmen do with Witnesses.

Further tis easy to produce
People who make the proper use
Of others Limbs, for Instance now
The General (Poets thus Allow
And Socrates) gain the Price of War
The Lawrel hides his want of Hair.

Besides, Dear Dick, tho You and I
With ipse dixet shou'd comply
He never will obtain his Ends
On many of our Gresham friends;
Who with Authority dispense
And in its Place have setl'd sense.

328

Besides a Man must never put
His Oar into anothers Boat.
Are there not Bells in every Steeple
To Summon in the Docile People?
And Deans and Prebends, whose great Care
Some Two and Fifty times a Year
Shou'd to their Parish gravely read?
But if They send them in their stead
Some Curate who can hardly spell,
This some conceive does e'en as well.

University of Virginia Library

Fragments for Alma.