How think you of our friend the dean?
I wonder what some people mean!
My lord and he are grown so great,105
Always together, tête à tête;
What! they admire him for his jokes? —
See but the fortune of some folks!"
There flies about a strange report
Of some express arriv'd at court:110
I'm stopp'd by all the fools I meet,
And catechis'd in every street.
"You, Mr. dean, frequent the great:
Inform us, will the emperor treat?
Or do the prints and papers lie?"115
Faith, sir, you know as much as I.
"Ah, doctor, how you love to jest!
'Tis now no secret" — I protest
'Tis one to me — "Then tell us, pray,
When are the troops to have their pay?"120
And, though I solemnly declare
I know no more than my lord mayor,
They stand amaz'd, and think me grown
The closest mortal ever known.
Thus
109. Frigidus à rostris manat per compita rumor;
Quicunque obvius est, me consulit. —
121. Jurantem me scire nihil, miratur, ut unum
Scilicet egregii mortalem altique silenti.
in their road to Windsor, got into lord Oxford's coach, and begun some political conversation; lord Oxford said, "Swift, I am up; there is a cat." Bolingbroke was disgusted with this levity, and went again into his own carriage. This was
"Nugari et discincti ludere"
with a witness. Dr. Warton.
125. Per-
