A Ballad To The Tune Of The Cut-Purse

[1]

WRITTEN IN AUGUST, 1702


I

Once on a time, as old stories rehearse,
    A friar would need show his talent in Latin;
But was sorely put to 't in the midst of a verse,
    Because he could find no word to come pat in;
                    Then all in the place
                    He left a void space,
        And so went to bed in a desperate case:
When behold the next morning a wonderful riddle!
He found it was strangely fill'd up in the middle.
    CHO. Let censuring critics then think what they list on't;
        Who would not write verses with such an assistant?


II

This put me the friar into an amazement;
    For he wisely consider'd it must be a sprite;
That he came through the keyhole, or in at the casement;
    And it needs must be one that could both read and write;
                Yet he did not know,
                If it were friend or foe,
    Or whether it came from above or below;
Howe'er, it was civil, in angel or elf,
For he ne'er could have fill'd it so well of himself.
        CHO. Let censuring, & c.


III

Even so Master Doctor had puzzled his brains
    In making a ballad, but was at a stand;
He had mixt little wit with a great deal of pains,
    When he found a new help from invisible hand.
                Then, good Doctor Swift
                Pay thanks for the gift,
    For you freely must own you were at a dead lift;
And, though some malicious young spirit did do't,
You may know by the hand it had no cloven foot.
        CHO. Let censuring, & c.