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• Think on the Meed, that tickles fweet your Hand, The glitt'ring Meed, no Doctor can withstand.

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Tho' Doctors differ for the human Tripe Tho' fome the Purge prefer, and fome the Pipe; Or in th' Inteftines raife the fharp Commotion, 70 Some with a Pill, and others with a Potion Tho', to apply the Flayer of the Skin, Some hold a Virtue, others hold a Sin; In Antimony fome their Truft repofe, And fome in Mercury-to fave a Nofe; In this one Point ye never difagree,Ye're all unanimous-about the Fee.

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Come then, my Friends, (for now methinks I fpy • A mild Complacency in ev'ry Eye,)

• Think on the Meed, that tickles fweet your Hand,80 The glitt'ring Meed, no Doctor can withstand.

NOTE S.

V. 72. The Flayer of the Skin.

• Like

A poetical Expreffion for Emplaftr. Epispastic.In plain English, a Blister.

V. 76. In this one Point ye never difagree,

Ye're all unanimous-about the Fee.

About each Symptom how they difagree,-
But how unanimous in cafe of Fee. GARTH.

V. 80. Think on the Meed that tickles fweet your Hand,
The glitt'ring Maed, no Doctor can withstand.

To corroborate the Truth of this Maxim, we fhall take the Liberty of fetting down the two following fhort Stories, by Way of Illuftration. The Circum

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340

THE BATTLE OF THE WIGS.
Like to the Cur in Afop's Tale difplay'd,
Ye quit the Subftance, and embrace the Shade.
Licentiato Licence has-to kill:

• Can Socio boast a greater Pow'r, or Skill?

While ye difpute, and quarrel for a Word, • Behold! your Patients are to Health restor’d.

NOTE S.

Y

Be H

Each

85

And

He

Circumftances required the Stile of the Narration to be more familiar than would fuit with the Dignity of the Reft of the Poem, to have them interwoven in the Body of it.

A Doctor once (no Matter whence I ween,
From Oxford, Leyden, Cam, or Aberdeen,)
Was call'd to vifit one with utmost Speed;
But, when he came, behold! the Patient's dead.
What! dead?'- Yes, Doctor,-dead,—but here's
6 your Fee.'-

Oh, very well:-'tis all the fame to me.?

A Doctor once (O tell it not in Bath,

Left Doctor Somebody be much in Wrath,)
Soon as he faw the fick Man, fhook his Head,-

No Pulfe-no Breath-the Man in fhort was dead.-
Now as our Doctor kept his filent Stand,
The tempting Shiner in the dead Man's Hand
He faw, he touch'd-and feizing, "Tis for me,'
He cried, and took his Farewell,-and the Fee.

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V. 87. Behold! your Patients are to Health reftor'd. It is very remarkable, that the Decrease of Burials within the Bills of Mortality for the Year 1767, is not lefs than 1299, owing (it may perhaps be fuppofed) to the Physicians having been fo much taken up with Squabbles among themselves.

* See the General Bil of Mortality, fet forth by the Parish Clerks, from December 15, 1766, to December 15, 1767.

• Ye

A Car
Six coa
Deaf t
Thefe

(Laid
In awf
Thro'
To the
A lazy
From

Leads

Twel

And w

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An

One I

And f

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guage to the

• Ye three-tail'd Sages, cease your Difputation, Be Friends, and focial join in Confultation; Each shake his loaded Noddle with the other, 90 • And Brother gravely smell his Cane with Brother.' He ended, and forthwith to Sight appears A Car triumphal in the Form of Hearse:

Six coal-black Steeds drag'd its flow Length along,'
Deaf to Aight, Aight, and heedlefs of the Thong. 95
Thefe with dull Pace th' infernal Monarch drew,
(Laid flat upon his Back, and hid from View,)
In awful Pomp, flow, folemn, fad, and ftill,
Thro' Warwick-Lane, and on, (down Ludgate-Hill,)
To the Fleet-Market,-whole ftupendous Ditch 100
A lazy Current rolls, as black as Pitch;

From whence a Paffage, difmal, dark, and dank,
Leads underneath to Acheron's gloomy Bank.
Twelve fable Imps the Vehicle furround,

And with lethiferous Nightfhade ftrew the Ground:

NOTE S.

105

V. 9o. Each shake his loaded Noddle with the cther, And Brother gravely fmell his Cane with Brother.

An Imitation of the following Lines;

One Fool lolls his Tongue out at another,

And shakes his empty Noddle at his Brother.

V. 94. Six coal-black Steeds drag'd its flow Length along,

A needlefs Alexandrine ends the Song,

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V. 95. Deaf to Aight, Aight, and heedlefs to the Thong.

Aight, Aight-an Expreffion in the Huynhym Language, made Ufe of by Coachmen, &c. in speaking to the Horfes, fignifying, Go on.

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A ftrong

A ftrong Perfume, as in his Car he rode,
Of Alla Foetida proclaim'd the God.

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Their Feuds forgot, the Doctors, with Amaze
And rev'rent Awe, on the Proceffion gaze.

NOTE.

V. 106. Aftrong Perfume, as in his Car he rode,
Of Affa Foetida proclaim'd the God.

Affa Foetida, vulgarly called Devil's Dung; Abun-
dance of which is found about the Peak in Derby-
fhire. [See Cotton's Natural Hiftory of that Place.]

SHAKE-

SHAKESPEARE:

A N

EPISTLE TO D. GARRICK, Efq.

Nil Admirari.

HOR.

Quod fi tam Graijs, Novitas invifa fuisset,
Quam nobis, quid nunc effet vetus? Idem.

HANKS to much Industry and Pains,
Much Twifting of the Wit and Brains,
Tranflation has unlock'd the Store,
And spread abroad the Grecian Lore,
While Sophocles his Scenes are grown,
E'en as familiar as our own.

No more fhall Tafte prefume to speak,
From its Enclosures in the Greek;
But, all its Fences broken down,
Lie at the Mercy of the Town.

Critic, I hear thy Torrent rage,
'Tis Blafphemy against that Stage,
Which Efchylus his Warmth defign'd,
Euripides his Taste refin'd,
And Sophocles his laft Direction,
Stamp'd with the Signet of Perfection."
Perfection's but a Word ideal,
And bears about it nothing real,
And Excellence was never hit

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In the firft Eflays of Man's Wit.

Shall ancient Worth, or ancient Fame

Preclude the Moderns from their Claim?

Muft

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