When justice wink’d on every jovial crew,

And ten-pins tumbled in the parson’s view.”

He told, when angry wives, provoked to rail,

Or drive a third-day drunkard from his ale,

What were his triumphs, and how great the skill

That won the vex’d virago to his will;

Who raving came; - then talked in milder strain, -

Then wept, then drank, and pledged her spouse again.

Such were his themes : how knaves o’er laws prevail,

Or, when made captives, how they fly from jail;