 | The Distressed Poet |  |
In Physic, Sir, you may be wise,
In Law, your knowledge I despise;
In your own way the point to urge,
You know that Jalap's sure to purge,
That Blisters irritate the skin,
Emetics clear the parts within;
Now Law, by me infus'd, supplies
Th' effects of these three Remedies,
Acting as each, its power I quicken,
Make it work,—irritate,—and sicken;
From Term to Term the dose I'll ply,
Till I drain all his Humours dry,
And what, perhaps, may still be worse,
Drain too, the substance of his purse.
To prove he's hamper'd by Vexation,
I'll plague him with an Arbitration,
To compass which, I'll call from far
The influence of the Polar Star,
Tho' its weak powers can little act,
'Twill serve my purpose to protract;
By poorest Tools we often try
To gain a point, then throw them by,
And from the Law's delay, you know,
Far more than half its evils flow.
But—greater things I have in view,
Than what I now declare to you;
On my sagacity recline,
You have your Nostrums, I have mine:
Therefore, good Doctor, rest assur'd,
Your patient shall by me be cur'd.
In Law, your knowledge I despise;
In your own way the point to urge,
You know that Jalap's sure to purge,
That Blisters irritate the skin,
Emetics clear the parts within;
Now Law, by me infus'd, supplies
Th' effects of these three Remedies,
Acting as each, its power I quicken,
Make it work,—irritate,—and sicken;
From Term to Term the dose I'll ply,
Till I drain all his Humours dry,
And what, perhaps, may still be worse,
Drain too, the substance of his purse.
68
I'll plague him with an Arbitration,
To compass which, I'll call from far
The influence of the Polar Star,
Tho' its weak powers can little act,
'Twill serve my purpose to protract;
By poorest Tools we often try
To gain a point, then throw them by,
And from the Law's delay, you know,
Far more than half its evils flow.
But—greater things I have in view,
Than what I now declare to you;
On my sagacity recline,
You have your Nostrums, I have mine:
Therefore, good Doctor, rest assur'd,
Your patient shall by me be cur'd.
| The Distressed Poet | |