University of Virginia Library

To the Ghosts of Hannibal and Scipio.

Where e're your thin remaines, and shaddows dwell;
In the Elysian blisse, or paines of Hell;
I, that with writing of your story new
Am almost worne into a ghost like you,
Present you with your selves: such as you were
When you breath'd ayre, and had your beings here.
Let not hells Iudges damne it to the fire;
It past mens sentence: there's besides some hire
Yet undischarg'd; and where the debt was due
Being deny'd, I have sent the bill to you,
Say not for money, how shall we come by it?
Borrow of Pluto: he will not deny it
Vpon your bond. Stay: here's a great mistaking;
His state and riches were of Poets making:
And they I feare so apt are to belye him,
I cannot think he hath one penny by him.
How e're your patronage shall doe me right,
'Bove the prefixt name of a Lord or Knight:
Or other outside men: such as inherit
Of honour but the title, not the merit.
Who think that if the least state action rest
On their dispatch; or to a Christmas feast
They yearly call the neighbour-hood; or be
Put in commission, or the Shrivaltie
(The Countreys highest grace) they may dispence
With what belongs more to their difference,
Bounty unto desert. But you are free;
And if you might would rather come to me,
Then put me to a charge: the journey's great,
And ere I could return, I might want meat:
Vnlesse some kind poore cobler, (you know well
Mending of soales is no rich trade in Hell.)
Lend me a shilling. Loth I am 'tis true
At any rate of hopes to come to you.