The Poetical Works of the Ingenious and Learned William Meston ::

Madam, I am appointed by our host,
Here to attend you on the Stygian coast:
And bid you welcome on the flaming shore.
Come, trace my footsteps as you did before,
I'll quickly land you in your last abode:
None knows so well as I the gloomy road.

Here lies the way. Come let's be jogging on.
Lo, yonder stands our Monarch's flaming throne!
There Noll and I in liquid burnings dwell,
Next Judas in the bagnio of H*ll.
He, like a puny rogue in wickedness,
Threw back his gold, and did his crime confess;
Whereas, you know, that Oliver and I,
Without all signs of penitence did die;
Which makes us both repine against the sentence,
By which he was prefer'd for his repentance.

Your Sister next of noted memory,
With Tullia the Roman Dame doth lie.
One was their life, one is their matchless fame;
And here you see their lodging is the same.

In yonder burning lake of liquid gold,
Are they by whom old Caledon was sold.
For their black crimes this is their punishment;
Here they enjoy a full Equivalent.

Next, Madam, for yourself you will not grudge,
With your good friend S---ia here to lodge,
Her interest you still had at your heart;
So of her lodging you shall have a part.

A---e, dropping a low Courtesy.

Waving the honour to my sex is due,
Wherein am I inferior to you?

226

I bravely finish'd what you did project;
May I not therefore claim the same respect?
Except the murder of G---o alone,
In all things else you are by me outdone.
In blackest crimes and most unnatural sin,
I will not yield to any Sutrikin.

You pull'd, I grant, an U---e from his throne,
Must you for this have all the praise alone?
No, Sir, I'll have my share, and that the rather,
Because you must confess he was my Father.

A colony of Scots in foreign lands,
Were starved too by your unjust commands.
But, Sir, remember, my auspicious reign
Did all the country into slav'ry bring:
And that I might perpetuate my fame,
I'd be the last of all the S---t's name.

Before you took your last farewel of light,
And dropt into the shades of endless night,
You plagu'd your subjects with an Ab---n.
Pray, Sir, be pleas'd to read this Proclamation,
Which I before my death did issue forth:
This shews my merit and proclaims my worth.
This, as my passport, I have brought along;
This the last stroke, the end of an old song:
And this, if any justice be in H---ll,
With worthy Cain will make me to dwell.

A price upon a head.

Ipecacuhana;

or Physic for the D---l.

Lately arriv'd at Aberdeen,
A traitor and a rebel keen,
A true blue rogue, a B---k knight,
An enemy to God and right;

227

The sham Don Pedro of G---k---die,
The D---l came and fetch'd him inde;
With whom to H---ll in haste he posted,
There to be fri'd, and lous'd, and roasted,
And fricasseed for a ragoo
To Noll and the usurping crew,
Who ate him greedily, and then
Turn'd sick, and spu'd him up again.
These H---ll-hounds did their vomit lick up,
Which gave them a confounded hiccup.
They ate, and spu'd, and ate again,
And spu'd to their eternal pain.

The D---l seeing them so sick,
And pain'd with spuing, took a freak
To try the fine confect. Anon,
He cried, By H---ll I am undone!
I've swallowed down a worldly Elf,
Ten times more devilish than myself:
My guts with endless pains he racks,
Unless I void him in the jakes.
This viper, my dear friends, I tell ye,
Will eat his passage thro' my belly.
Alas! alas! I'm like to burst!
And, having then in haste untruss'd,
He rais'd his bum, his guts did rumble,
Downwards Don Pedro took a tumble.
Ten thousand tons of plagues he voided,
The stench was such H*ll could not bide it!
Pheu! cried the fends, to corners slinking,
G---k---die in the jakes lies stinking.
He plagued earth, and with his smell,
He's now come down to poison H---ll!

FINIS.

University of Virginia Library

APPENDIX.

Dialogue between K. W--- and Q. A--- on her arrival at, &c.

Ipecacuhana;

or Physic for the D---l.