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Miscellanies in prose and verse

on several occasions, by Claudero [i.e. James Wilson], son of Nimrod the Mighty Hunter. The Fourth Edition with large Additions
 
 

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An Epistle to Dr. Greenlaw.
 
 
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An Epistle to Dr. Greenlaw.

The buxom ladies of Parnassus,
Are quite unlike our modern lasses,
Who are a race of sordid b---s,
That prostitute their charms to riches:
Not so the gen'rous tuneful nine,
Who to a humble poet deign,
Their inspiration and their aid,
As well by day as night in bed;
From lame Claudero back to Homer,
They with the bards have dealt in honour;
Disdaining none, however poor,
Who whistled them unto their lure.

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All hail! ye gentle ladies meek,
Who measure lines as poets speak,
Assist me now with queint excuse,
From going to a tipling house:
Tell Greenlaw, he's an old divine,
With empty pockets like to mine,
And that to fuddle without money,
Tastes more of aloes than the honey;
Prose beggars too, like those in verse,
May chance to get a kicked a---e.
If this sad fact does not prevail
To wean him from the gin and ale,
Next tell him, Claud is very busy,
And wedded to a wicked hussy,
Whose yelping brats absorb his store,
While the damn'd shrew still craves for more,
And that the plagues of human life
All centre in a cursed wife.
If such excuses will not do,
Then lastly tell what's surely true,
Claud has no money.—There's the gust,
Nor knows an ale-wife that will trust.