(For the dean was so shabby, and look'd like a ninny, That the captain suppos'd he was curate to Jenny.*)

Never since I was born did I hear so much wit, And, madam, I laugh'd, till I thought I should split: So then you look'd scornful, and snift at the dean, As who should say, Now, am I skinny and lean?† But he durst not so much as open his lips, And the doctor was plaguily down in the hips.'

Thus merciless Hannah ran on in her talk, Till she heard the dean call, Will your ladyship walk? Her ladyship answers, I am just coming down:' Then turning to Hannah, and forcing a frown, Altho' it was plain in her heart she was glad,

Cry'd Hussy! why sure the wench is gone mad: How could these chimeras get into your brains ?— Come hither, and take this old gown for your pains. But the dean, if this secret should come to his ears, Will never have done with his gibes and his jeers: For your life, not a word of the matter, I charge ye, Give me but a barrack, a fig for the clergy.'

*The Doctor's name was Jenny.

+ A Nick-name for my lady.

195

THE ELEPHANT IN THE MOON.

[BUTLER.]

A LEARN'D Society of late,

The glory of a foreign state,
Agreed, upon a summer's night,

To search the Moon by her own light;
To take an invent❜ry of all

Her real estate, and personal;

And make an accurate survey
Of all her lands, and how they lay,
As true as that of Ireland, where

The sly surveyors stole a shire:

T'observe her country, how 'twas planted,
With what sh' abounded most, or wanted;
And make the proper'st observations

For settling of new plantations,
If the Society should incline

T'attempt so glorious a design.

This was the purpose of their meeting,
For which they chose a time as fitting,
When, at the full, her radiant light
And influence too were at their height.
And now the lofty tube, the scale
With which they heav'n itself assail,

*K

Was mounted full against the Moon,
And all stood ready to fall on;
Impatient who should have the honour

To plant an ensign first upon her.
When one, who for his deep belief
Was virtuoso then in chief,

Approv'd the most profound and wise,
To solve impossibilities,

Advancing gravely, to apply

To th' optic glass his judging eye,
Cry'd, Strange!-then reinforced his sight
Against the Moon with all his might,
And bent his penetrating brow,
As if he meant to gaze her through;
When all the rest began t'admire,
And, like a train, from him took fire,
Surprised with wonder, beforehand,
At what they did not understand,
Cry'd out, impatient to know what
The matter was they wonder'd at.

Quoth he, Th' inhabitants o' th' Moon, Who, when the sun shines hot at noon, Do live in cellars under ground,

Of eight miles deep, and eighty round, (In which at once they fortify

Against the sun and th' enemy)

Which they count towns and cities there, Because their people's civiller