Nolite ergo ante tempus judicare, quia fortasse
quos vos laudatis, Deus reprehendit, et quos vos reprehenditis, ille
laudabit, priminovissimi, et novissimi primi_. Petr. Chrysolog. Dublin,
Printed by the Society of Stationers, 1641."]
[Footnote 3: This trial took place in 1723; but being only found guilty
of an assault, with intent to commit the crime, the worthy colonel was
fined L300 to the private party prosecuting. See a full account of
Chartres in the notes to Pope's "Moral Essays," Epistle III, and the
Satirical Epitaph by Arbuthnot. Carruthers' Edition.--_W. E. B._]
ON STEPHEN DUCK
THE THRESHER, AND FAVOURITE POET
A QUIBBLING EPIGRAM. 1730
The thresher Duck[1] could o'er the queen prevail,
The proverb says, "no fence against a flail."
From threshing corn he turns to thresh his brains;
For which her majesty allows him grains:
Though 'tis confest, that those, who ever saw
His poems, think them all not worth a straw!
Thrice happy Duck, employ'd in threshing stubble,
Thy toil is lessen'd, and thy profits double.
[Footnote 1: Who was appointed by Queen Caroline librarian to a small
collection of books in a building called Merlin's Cave, in the Royal
Gardens of Richmond.
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