Compar'd with fuch a proud, infulting dame,
Sicilian 6 tyrants may renounce their name.
For, if the haftes abroad to take the air,

Or goes to Ifis' church (the bawdy-house of pray'r)
She hurries all her handmaids to the task;

Her head, alone, will twenty dreffers ask.
Pfecas, the chief, with breaft and fhoulders bare,
Trembling, confiders ev'ry facred hair;

If any ftraggler from his rank be found,
A pinch muft, for the mortal fin, compound.
Pfecas is not in fault: but in the glass,
The dame's offended at her own ill face.
The maid is banish'd; and another girl
More dext'rous, manages the comb and curl;
The reft are fummon'd on a point so nice;
And first, the grave old woman gives advice.
The next is call'd, and fo the turn goes round,
As each for age, or wisdom, is renown'd:
Such counfel, fuch deliberate care they take,
As if her life and honour lay at stake:
With 7 curls on curls, they build her head before,
And mount it with a formidable tow'r.

A giantess fhe feems; but look behind,
And then she dwindles to the pigmy kind.
Duck-legg'd, fhort-waifted, fuch a dwarf the is,
That fhe muft rife on tip-toes for a kifs.

Mean while, her husband's whole eftate is spent !
He may go bare, while fhe receive his rent.
She minds him not; fhe lives not as a wife,
But like a bawling neighbour, full of strife:
Near him, in this alone, that the extends
Her hate to all his fervants and his friends.

Bellona's priests, an eunuch at their head,
About the streets a mad proceffion lead;

6 Sicilian tyrants, are grown to a proverb in Latin for their cruelty. 7 This dreffing up the head fo high, which we call a tow'r, was an ancient way among the Romans.

The venerable guelding, large, and high,
O'erlooks the herd of his inferior fry.
His aukward clergymen about him prance;
And beat the timbrels to their myftic dance,
Guiltless of tefticles, they tear their throats,
And fqueak, in treble, their unmanly notes.
Mean while, his cheeks the mitred prophet fwells,
And dire prefages of the year foretels.
Unless with eggs (his priestly hire) they hafte
To expiate, and avert th' autumnal blast.
And 9 add befide a murrey-coloured veft,
Which, in their places, may receive the peft:
And, thrown into the flood, their crimes may bear,
Το purge th' unlucky omens of the year.
Th' aftonisht matrons pay, before the reft;
That fex is ftill obnoxious to the priest.

Thro' ye they beat, and plunge into the ftream,
If fo the God has warn'd 'em in a dream.
Weak in their limbs, but in devotion ftrong,
On their bare hands and feet they crawl along
A whole field's length, the laughter of the throng.
Should Io (Io's prieft I mean) command

A pilgrimage to Meroe's burning fand,

Thro' deferts they would feek the secret spring;
A holy water for luftration bring.

How can they pay their priests too much respect,
Who trade with heav'n, and earthly gains neglect !
With him, domeftic Gods difcourfe by night:
By day, attended by his choir in white,

The bald-pate tribe runs madding thro' the street,
And fmile to fee with how much ease they cheat
The ghoftly fire forgives the wife's delights,
Who fins, thro' frailty, on forbidden nights;

}

8 Bellona's priests were a fort of fortune-tellers, and the highprieft an eunuch.

9 And add befide, &c. A garment was given to the priest, which he threw into the river; and that, they thought, bore all the fins of the people, which were drowned with it.

And

And tempts her husband in the holy time,
When carnal pleasure is a mortal crime.
The fweating image fhakes his head, but he
With mumbled pray'rs attones the Deity.
The pious priesthood the fat goofe receive,
And they once brib'd, the godhead muft forgive.
No fooner these remove, but full of fear,
A gypfy Jewess whispers in your ear,

And begs an alms: an high-priest's daughter she,
Vers'd in their Talmud, and divinity,
And prophefies beneath a fhady tree.

Her goods a basket, and old hay her bed,

She strolls, and telling fortunes gains her bread:
Farthings, and fome fmall monies, are her fees;
Yet the interprets all your dreams for thefe..
Foretels th' eftate, when the rich uncle dies,
And fees a fweet-heart in the facrifice.
Such toys, a pigeon's entrails can disclose :
Which yet th' Armenian augur far outgoes:
In dogs, a victim more obfcene, he rakes;
And murder'd infants for inspection takes :
For gain, his impious practice he purfues;
For gain will his accomplices accufe.

More credit, yet, is to Chaldeans giv'n ;
What they foretel, is deem'd the voice of heav'n.
Their answers, as from Hammon's altar, come;
Since now the Delphian oracles are dumb,
And mankind, ignorant of future fate,
Believes what fond aftrologers relate.

Of these the most in vogue is he, who fent
Beyond feas, is return'd from banishment,
His art who to 2 afpiring Otho fold;
And fure fucceffion to the crown foretold.

1 Chaldeans are thought to have been the first Astrologers.

}

2 Otho fucceeded Galba in the empire; which was foretold him by an aftrologer.

VOL. IV.

$

For

For his esteem is in his exile plac'd ;
The more believ'd, the more he was disgrac❜d.
No aftrologic wizard honour gains,

Who has not oft been banish'd, or in chains.
He gets renown, who, to the halter near,
But narrowly escapes, and buys it dear.

From him your wife enquires the planets will,
When the black jaundice hall her mother kill:
Her fifter's and her uncle's end, would know :
But, firft, confults his art, when you fhall go.
And, what's the greateft gift that heav'n can give,
If, after her, th' adulterer fhall live.

She neither knows nor cares to know the reft ;
If 3 Mars and Saturn fhall the world infeft;
Or Jove and Venus with their friendly rays,
Will interpofe, and bring us better days.

Beware the woman too, and fhun her fight,
Who in thefe ftudies does herself delight,
By whom a greasy almanack is borne,
With often handling, like chaft amber worn;
Not now confulting, but confulted, she
Of the twelve houses, and their lords, is free.
She, if the scheme a fatal journey show,
Stays fafe at home, but lets her husband go.
If but a mile the travel out of town,
The planetary hour muft firft be known,
And lucky moment; if her eye but akes
Or itches, its decumbiture fhe takes.
No nourishment receives in her disease,
But what the ftars and 4 Ptolomy shall pleafe.
The middle fort, who have not much to fpare,
To chiromancers cheaper art repair,

Who clap the pretty palm, to make the lines more fair.

3 Mars and Saturn are the two unfortunate planets; Jupiter and Venus, the two fortunate.

4 Protomy a famous aftrologer, an Egyptian.

But

But the rich matron, who has more to give,

Her answers from the 5 Brachman will receive:
Skill'd in the globe and fphere, he gravely ftands,
And, with his compass, measures feas and lands.
The poorest of the fex, have ftill an itch
To know their fortunes, equal to the rich.
The dairy-maid enquires, if she shall take
The trufty taylor, and the cook forsake.

Yet thefe, tho' poor, the pain of childbed bear;
And, without nurses, their own infants rear:
You feldom hear of the rich mantle, fpread
For the babe, born in the great lady's bed.
Such is the pow'r of herbs; fuch arts they use
To make them barren, or their fruit to lofe.
But thou, whatever flops fhe will have brought,
Be thankful, and fupply the deadly draught:
Help her to make man-flaughter; let her bleed,
And never want for favin at her need.

For, if the holds till her nine months be run,
Thou mayst be father to 6 an Æthiop's fon.
A boy, who ready gotten to thy hands,
By law is to inherit all thy lands:

One of that hue, that fhould he crofs the way,
His 7 omen would difcolour all the day.

I pafs the foundling by, a race unknown,

At doors expos'd, whom matrons make their own:
And into noble families advance

A nameless iffue, the blind work of chance.

5 The Brachmans are Indian philofophers, who remain to this day; and hold, after Pythagoras, the tranflation of souls from one body to another.

6 His meaning is, help her to any kind of flops, which may cause her to mifcarry; for fear the may be brought to bed of a blackmoor, which thou, being her husband, art bound to father; and that baftard may by law inherit thy estate.

7 The Romans thought it ominous to fee a blackmoor in the morning, if he were the first man they met.

S 2

Indulgent