Mary then, and gentle Anne, And sometimes Mary was the fair And sometimes Anne the crown did wear, And sometimes both I obey'd. Another Mary then arose, And did rigorous laws impose; Long, alas! should I have been Had not Rebecca set me free. When fair Rebecca set me free, For the gracious princess dy'd, And Judith reigned in her stead. One month, three days, and half an hour, Judith held the sovereign power: Wond'rous beautiful her face! But so wear ud small her wit, That she to govern was unfit, And so Susanna took her place. But when Isabella came, And th' artillery of her eye; She beat out Susan by the bye. But in her place I then obey'd Gentle Henrietta then, And a third Mary next began; Then Joan, and Jane, and Audria; And then a pretty Thomasine, And then another Katharine, But should I now to you relate, The ribbons, jewels, and the rings, If I should tell the politic arts The letters, embassies, and spies, The frowns, and smiles, and flatteries, The quarrels, tears, and perjuries, (Numberless, nameless, mysteries) And all the little lime-twigs laid, I more voluminous should grow But I will briefer with them be, Whom God grant long to reign! THE DESPAIRING LOVER. Distracted with care For Phyllis the fair, Since nothing could move her, Poor Damon, her lover, Resolves in despair No longer to languish, Nor bear so much anguish ; But, mad with his love, To a precipice goes, Where a leap from above Would soon finish his woes. When in rage he came there, Beholding how steep The sides did appear, And the bottom how deep; His torments projecting, And sadly reflecting, That a lover forsaken A new love may get But a neck when once broken, Can never be set; And that he could die To finish it so. But bold, unconcern'd At the thoughts of the pain, REPORT OF AN ADJUDGED CASE NOT TO BE FOUND IN ANY OF THE BOOKS. Between Nose and Eyes, a strange contest arose, The spectacles set them unhappily wrong; The point in dispute was, as all the world knows, To which the said spectacles ought to belong. E |