POETICAL RHAPSODY.

YET OTHER TWELVE WONDERS

OF THE WORLD:

NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED.

BY SIR JOHN DAVIS.

I. THE COURTIER.

LONG have I liv'd in Court, yet learn'd not all this while To sell poor suitors, smoke: nor where I hate to smile; Superiors to adore, inferiors to despise,

To fly from such as fall, to follow such as rise;

To cloak a poor desire under a rich array,

Nor to aspire by vice, though 'twere the quicker way.

II. THE DIVINE.

My calling is Divine, and I from God am sent;
I will no chop-church be, nor pay my patron rent;
Nor yield to sacrilege; but, like the kind true mother,
Rather will lose all the child, than part it with another.
Much wealth I will not seek; nor worldly masters serve,
So to grow rich and fat, while my poor flock doth starve.

B

III. THE SOLDIER.

My occupation is the noble trade of Kings,
The trial that decides the highest right of things;
Though MARS my master be, I do not VENUS love,
Nor honour BACCHUS oft, nor often swear by Jove;
Of speaking of myself I all occasion shun,

And rather love to do, than boast what I have done.

IV. THE LAWYER.

The law my calling is; my robe, my tongue, my pen,
Wealth and opinion gain, and make me Judge of men.
The known dishonest cause I never did defend,

Nor spun out suits in length, but wish'd and sought an end;
Nor counsel did bewray, nor of both parties take;
Nor ever took I fee for which I never spake.

V. THE PHYSICIAN.

I study to uphold the slippery state of man,

Who dies, when we have done the best and all we can.
From practice and from books I draw my learned skill,
Not from the known receipt of 'Pothecaries bill.
The earth my faults doth hide, the world my cures doth see;
What youth and time effect is oft ascrib'd to me.

VI. THE MERCHANT.

My trade doth every thing to every land supply, Discover unknown coasts, strange countries doth ally;

TWELVE WONDERS OF THE WORLD.

I never did forestall, I never did

engross,

Nor custom did withdraw, though I return'd with loss. I thrive by fair exchange, by selling and by buying, And not by Jewish use, reprisal, fraud, or lying.

VII. THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN.

3

Though strange outlandish spirits praise towns, and country scorn,

The country is my home, I dwell where I was born:
There profit and command with pleasure I partake,
Yet do not hawks and dogs my sole companions make.
I rule, but not oppress; end quarrels, not maintain;
See towns, but dwell not there, t'abridge my charge or train.

VIII. THE BACHELOR.

How many things as yet are dear alike to me,
The field, the horse, the dog, love, arms, or liberty!.
I have no wife as yet, whom I may call mine own;
I have no children yet, that by my name are known.
Yet if I married were, I would not wish to thrive,
If that I could not tame the veriest shrew alive.

IX. THE MARRIED MAN.

I only am the man among all married men,

That do not wish the priest to be unlink'd again;

And though my shoe did wring, I would not make my moan, Nor think my neighbour's chance more happy than mine

own,

Yet court I not my wife, but yield observance due, Being neither fond, nor cross, nor jealous, nor untrue.

X. THE WIFE.

The first of all our sex came from the side of man,
I thither am return'd, from whence our sex began:
I do not visit oft, nor many, when I do ;

I tell my mind to few, and that in counsel too.

I seem not sick in health, nor sullen but in sorrow;

I care for somewhat else, than what to wear tomorrow.

XI. THE WIDOW.

My husband knew how much his death would grieve me,a
And therefore left me wealth to comfort and relieve me:
Though I no more will have, I must not love disdain ;
PENELOPE herself did suitors entertain.

And yet to draw on such as are of best esteem,
Nor younger than I am, nor richer will I seem.

XII. THE MAID.

I marriage would forswear, but that I hear men tell, That she that dies a maid must lead an ape in hell. Therefore if Fortune come, I will not mock and play, Nor drive the bargain on, till it be driven away. Titles and lands I like, yet rather fancy can,

A man that wanteth gold, than gold that wants a man.

a In Sir Egerton Brydges's Edition of the Rhapsody this line stands

"My dying husband knew," &c.

an interpolation which, though perhaps called for by the metre, does not appear to be justified by either of the four editions supposed to have been printed during the lifetime of the original editor.