With me you may safely their consequence wait;

To recruit your lost spirits ’tis prudent to come,

And to fly to a friend when the devil’s at home.

That I’ve faults is confess’d; but it won’t be denied,

’Tis my interest the faults of my neighbours to hide;

If I’ve sometimes lent Scandal occasion to prate,

I’ve often conceal’d what she lov’d to relate;

If to Justice’s bar some have wander’d from mine,

’Twas because the dull rogues wouldn’t stay by their wine;

And for brawls at my house, well the poet explains,