Prev | Current Page 259 | Next

Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745

"The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume 2"

I shall not venture so far as
to give the Christian nick-name of the person chiefly concerned, lest I
should give offence, for which reason I shall call him Timothy, and leave
the rest to the conjecture of the world."--_Intelligencer_, No. viii. See
an account of this paper in "Prose Works," ix, 311.--_W. E. B._]
[Footnote 2: "Sir Martin Marall," one of Dryden's most successful
comedies. See Malone's "Life of Dryden," p. 93.--_W. E. B._]
[Footnote 3: "Ilias," lib. ii, 211, _seq.--W. E. B._]
[Footnote 4: To reach at vomiting.]
[Footnote 5: King William III.]
[Footnote 6: Old word for a puppet-show.--_Scott_.]


TIM AND THE FABLES

MY meaning will be best unravell'd,
When I premise that Tim has travell'd.
In Lucas's by chance there lay
The Fables writ by Mr. Gay.
Tim set the volume on a table,
Read over here and there a fable:
And found, as he the pages twirl'd,
The monkey who had seen the world;
(For Tonson had, to help the sale,
Prefix'd a cut to every tale.)
The monkey was completely drest,
The beau in all his airs exprest.
Tim, with surprise and pleasure staring,
Ran to the glass, and then comparing
His own sweet figure with the print,
Distinguish'd every feature in't,
The twist, the squeeze, the rump, the fidge in all,
Just as they look'd in the original.


Pages:
247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271