At home he was pursued with noise;
Abroad was pester'd by the boys:
Within, his wife would break his bones:
Without, they pelted him with stones;
The 'prentices procured a riding,[2]
To act his patience and her chiding.
False patience and mistaken pride!
There are ten thousand Dicks beside;
Slaves to their quiet and good name,
Are used like Dick, and bear the blame.
[Footnote 1: See _post_, p. 200, "A beautiful young nymph."]
[Footnote 2: A performance got up by the rustics in some counties to
ridicule and shame a man who has been guilty of beating his wife (or in
this case, who has been beaten by her), by having a cart drawn through
the village, having in it two persons dressed to resemble the woman and
her master, and a supposed representation of the beating is inflicted,
enacted before the offender's door. "Notes and Queries," 1st S., ix,
370, 578.--_W. E. B._]
ADVICE TO THE GRUB-STREET VERSE-WRITERS
1726
Ye poets ragged and forlorn,
Down from your garrets haste;
Ye rhymers, dead as soon as born,
Not yet consign'd to paste;
I know a trick to make you thrive;
O, 'tis a quaint device:
Your still-born poems shall revive,
And scorn to wrap up spice.
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