MACAO
The solemn chime from out the ancient tower[15]
Invites to Macao at th’ accustomed hour.
The welcome summons heard, around the board
Each takes his seat and counts his iv’ry hoard.
’Tis strange to see how in the early rounds
The cautious punters risk their single pounds,
Till, fired with generous rage, they double stake
And offer more than prudent dealers take.
My Lady[16] through her glass with keen delight
Observes the brisk beginnings of the fight;
To some propitious, but to me unkind,
With candour owns the bias of her mind,
And asks of Fortune the severe decree
T’ enrich the happy Skew,[17] to ruin me.
The fickle Goddess heard one-half the prayer,
The rest was melted into empty air;
For while she smiled complacent on the Skew,[18]
On me she shed some trifling favours too.
Sure Granville’s luck exceeds all other men’s
Led through a sad variety of tens;[19]
The rest have sometimes eights and nines, but he
Is always followed by ‘the jolly three;’[20]
But the great Skew some guardian sylph protects,
His judgment governs, and his hand directs
When to refrain, when boldly to put in
And catch with happy nine the wayward pin.[21]
The next morning Luttrell came down with a whole paper full of epigrams (I had been winning at macao, and had turned up five nines in my deal):—
Why should we wonder if in Greville’s verses
Each thought so brilliant and each line so terse is?
For surely he in poetry must shine
Who is, we know, so favoured by the nine.[22]
THE JOLLY TENS.
Quoth Greville, ‘The commandments are divine;
But as they’re ten, I lay them on the shelf:
O could they change their number and be nine,
I’d keep them all, and keep them to myself!’
Thus we trifled life away.
[15] A clock tower.
[16] Lady Granville.
[17] E. Montagu.