--W. E. B._]
[Footnote 5: Louis XIV.]
[Footnote 6: A cant word for false dice.--_Scott_.]
THE GARDEN PLOT
1709
When Naboth's vineyard[1] look'd so fine,
The king cried out, "Would this were mine!"
And yet no reason could prevail
To bring the owner to a sale.
Jezebel saw, with haughty pride,
How Ahab grieved to be denied;
And thus accosted him with scorn:
"Shall Naboth make a monarch mourn?
A king, and weep! The ground's your own;
I'll vest the garden in the crown."
With that she hatch'd a plot, and made
Poor Naboth answer with his head;
And when his harmless blood was spilt,
The ground became his forfeit guilt.
[Footnote 1: This seems to allude to some oppressive procedure by the
Earl of Wharton in relation to Swift's garden, which he called "Naboth's
Vineyard," meaning a possession coveted by another person able to possess
himself of it (i Kings, chap, xxi, verses 1-10). For some particulars of
the garden, see "Prose Works," xi, 415.--_W. E. B._]
SID HAMET'S ROD
Poor Hall, renown'd for comely hair,
Whose hands, perhaps, were not so fair,
Yet had a Jezebel as near;
Hall, of small scripture conversation,
Yet, howe'er Hungerford's[1] quotation,
By some strange accident had got
The story of this garden-plot;--Wisely
foresaw he might have reason
To dread a modern bill of treason,
If Jezebel should please to want
His small addition to her grant:
Therefore resolved, in humble sort,
To begin first, and make his court;
And, seeing nothing else would do,
Gave a third part, to save the other two.
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