Maggots or, Poems on Several Subjects, Never before Handled. By a Schollar [i.e. Samuel Wesley] |
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On a CHEESE.
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 | Maggots |  |
On a CHEESE.
A Pastoral.
Virg.
On a Couch of downy Hay,
In the wither'd Age of Day:
Blest that one the other sees,
Blest with a spicy western Breeze,
Blest with a noble Rammel Cheese.
Each at t'other darts their Eye;
Each at the glittering Treasure by.
A sight that Strephon's passion moves;
Scarce Amoret he better loves:
To Amoretta's Heart so near,
Strephon's self was scarce more dear:
Woven around her May-day Pail;
Nor could either prove ungrate
For such a Gift to smiling Fate:
Oft with Vows and Flowers they ran
To smiling Fate, and smiling Pan;
Thus they pray, and thus they sing,
While all the answering Valleys ring.
Sprinkle all the dappled Mead!
Round the Turfy Altars lead!
Every Nymph and Fawn invite
To laugh and revel here at Night!
Jolly Toasts shall never fail,
Quite drunk with nappy nut-brown Ale:
Here's a Cheese would make a Feast
Where a King might be a Guest.
Amoretta.
Stay my Strephon! 'tis in vain;
Too low and humble is your strain:
You the Gift must higher raise,
Or you'll Satyr while you praise.
Let stiff Princes dream alone
On their steep unenvy'd Throne!
Our brighter Cheese out-shines their Crown,
And weighs the gilded Bauble down:
Well a nobler Note begin;
Call and rouze the God within!
Whence it came, and how 'twas made.
Strephon.
Each Flower that e're in Garland grew,
Amoretta! move for you,
And every Herb that sipps the Dew;
Each their distant Influence joyn
To an Invention so Divine:
The Daisy's pretty twinkling Eye,
The Infant Violet blooming by;
Primrose of refreshing smell,
And the Cowslip's spotted Bell.
Fragrant Tyme, and new-born Grass,
Where no rude Feet did ever pass;
All their Essences combine
To an Invention so Divine:
Each of these transfus'd, agrees
First in Milk, and then in Cheese;
In the Cow's Alembyc wrought,
Whence, when to perfection brought,
Amoretta's whiter hand
Springs of Nectar can command;
Cataracts which oft prevail
To overflow the largest Pail:
And when the laughing Virgins come
With their new-found Treasure home,
Amoretta shall declare
How the Miracle they rear.
Soft as Wooll, and white as Lambs
Lickt by their Officious Dams;
White as those fair Lillies grow
In our Copps,—white as Snow,
Next the Creamy Curds arise,
And with calm Glories greet the Eyes:
He that sees 'em dawning, sees
The Image of an Embryo Cheese.
Prometheus, being 'tis likely used to build Castles, and Dirt-pyes in his Youth, when he came to Age, set up the Trade of a Man-founder, for which Jove was so angry (as well he might, when to ther took his work out of his hands, without ever serving without ever serving his time to the Trade) that, what do me he but trusses him up, rivets him on Mount Caucasus, and sent an unconscionable Vulture to tear out the Heart of him.
See more in Tobacco-pipe. Read the story in Lucians Dialogues, Book 1. p. 48.
Mould the mighty Form of Man:
So the rising Vision shows,
As when the World from Chaos rose.
Then 'tis bruis'd, and prest till all
The pale Tears around it fall.
Thus when Jove intends to mould
A Hero out of purer Gold,
Hee'll shut him up in pain and Care,
And like Alcides, pinch him there;
'Till he by kind Afflictions trod,
Emerges, more than Half-a-God.
Strephon.
Thence in happy Triumph born,
Like groaning Loads of Welcome Corn,
On a cleanly shelf 'tis plac'd,
With so rich a Burden grac'd;
Or, lest the Foes its Walls attacque,
On a well-munited Rack.
Towring high in yielding Air,
By Ariosto built aloft,
All the Walls of costly Thought,
Or that sturdy Indian Rock
Which Ammon's Son so long did mock;
There it reigns, and there defies
Feeble Hosts of Rats and Mice:
Up they squint, but all in vain,
Up they leap with fruitless pain,
Down they drop, a-down again.
Reynard so with longing Eyne
Views the Cluster'd loaden Vine;
So when the Wolf a Fold has found,
Fenc't with Quick-set—Turn-pikes round,
About he stalks, and grinns, and scowls,
About he stalks, and vainly howls.
Amoretta.
Qu. Pray Mr. Author why is your Shepherdess so learned here, and in other places? how comes she to talk against decorum in Pastorals, and to fly upon the high ropes at this rate?
Answ. Because all things were are designed to be alike extravagant—let this serve once for all; for I'll trouble my self no more about it!
When of old they dar'd rebell:
Olympus they on Ossa pack,
Both on Pelions craggy back;
And, against the Thunder hurl'd
Half his own dismantled World:
Any one may discern this is a stroke of Lucretius, alluding to that first Principle of the Epicureans, so well express'd by that Poet, and so much better made English by Mr. Creech—thus.
“In undisturb'd, and everlasting ease, &c.
I have forgot the rest, but you shall have it all as soon as I can get it my self.
In undisturb'd eternal ease;
He scorns their Plots, and laughs above;
So sits my Cheese, and so sits Jove.
This dear day the happy birth
Of Amoretta bless't the Earth;
All the Lads of Mirth and Song,
O're the Plains shall Dance along:
And he that best can sing each Grace,
In my Amoretta's face,
Shall have the present Jove has given,
The Ancile was a certain very holy Relique among the Romans, being the very handy-work of Jupiter himself: but least this precious business should be stole from the Temple, while Gods and Men were asleep, two more were made so exactly like the right, and one another, that a Thief must have very good luck to be able to distinguish the original from the counterfeit. In the safe keeping it, they believ'd the Cityes safety consisted.
This prais'd, this lov'd, this envy'd Cheese,
For a Reward shall all be his.
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