Humour of a retired Knight.
Sir Jeoffry Doe-right. Master Generous Goodman.
Gen. Sir Jeoffry, good morrow.
Sir J. The same to you, Sir.
Gen. Your early zeal condemns the rising sun
Of too much sloth; as if you did intend
To catch the Muses napping.
Sir J. Did you know
The pleasures of an early contemplation,
You’d never let Aurora blush to find
You drowsy on your bed; but rouse, and spend
Some short ejaculations,—how the night
Disbands her sparkling troops at the approach
Of the ensuing day, when th’ grey-eyed sky
Ushers the golden signals of the morn;
Whilst the magnanimous cock with joy proclaims
The sun’s illustrious cavalcade. Your thoughts
Would ruminate on all the works of Heaven,
And th’ various dispensations of its power.
Our predecessors better did improve
The precious minutes of the morn than we
Their lazy successors. Their practice taught
And left us th’ good Proverbial, that “To rise
Early makes all men healthy, wealthy, wise.”
Gen. Your practice. Sir, merits our imitation;
Where the least particle of night and day’s
Improv’d to th’ best advantage, whilst your soul
(Unclogg’d from th’ dross of melancholic cares)
Makes every place a paradise.
Sir J. ’Tis true,
I bless my lucky stars, whose kind aspects
Have fix’d me in this solitude. My youth
Past thro’ the tropics of each fortune, I
Was made her perfect tennis-ball; her smiles
Now made me rich and honour’d; then her frowns
Dash’d all my joys, and blasted all my hopes:
Till, wearied by such interchange of weather,
In court and city, I at length confined
All my ambition to the Golden Mean,
The Equinoctial of my fats; to amend
The errors of my life by a good end.
C.L.
[434] The murderers.
[435] Breathless?
[436] My transcript breaks off here. Perhaps what follows was of less value; or perhaps I broke off, as I own I have sometimes done, to leave in my readers a relish, and an inclination to explore for themselves the genuine fountains of these old dramatic delicacies.