Miscellaneous Poems..

Songs would he play, and not hide his Wit,

Would squeak a Treble to his swaling Kit,

I Iis Dress was finical, his Music queer,

And pleas’d a Tapster’s Eyes, or Drawer’s Ear,

No Tavern, Brew-house, Ale-house in the Town,.Was to the gentle Absalon unknown :

But he was very careful of his Wind,

And never let it sally out behind.

To give the Devil his Due, he had an Art,

By civil Speech, to win a Lady’s Heart.

This Absalon, so jolly, spruce, and gay,

Went with the Censor on the Sabbath Day.

He swung the Incense Pot with comely Grace,

But chiefly would he fume a pretty Face.

His wanton Eye, which ev’ry where he cast,Dwelt on the Carpenters fine Dame at last.

So sweet and proper was his lovely Wife,

That he could freely gaze away his Life.

Were he a Cat, this pretty Mouse would feelToo soon his Tallons, a delicious Meal.

And now had Cupid shot a piercing Dart,

And wet the Feathers in his wounded Heart,

No'Off’ring of the handsome Wives he took,

He wonted nothing but a smiling Look,

The Parish Fees refus’d, and said, the LightOf the fair Moon shines brightest in the Night.Soon as the Cock had bid the Morning rife,

The smitten Lover to his Fiddle flies ;

A hideous Noise his sqeaking Trilloes make,

And all the drowsy Neighbourhood awake.

At the lov’d House some am’rous Tunes he play’d,And thus with gentle Voice he fung, or said,

Nonv, dear Lady, if thy Will be,

I pray you that you H pity me.

And twenty such complaining Notes he fung,Alike the Music of his Kit, and Tongue.

At this the staring Carpenter awoke,

And thus his Wife (fair Alison) bespoke: