Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 7.djvu/154

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142
SWIFT'S POEMS.

My life is now a burden grown
To others, ere it be my own.
Ye formal weepers for the sick,
In your last offices be quick;
And spare my absent friends the grief
To hear, yet give me no relief;
Expir'd to day, intomb'd to morrow.
When known, will save a double sorrow.





THE FABLE OF THE BITCHES.


WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1715.


ON AN ATTEMPT TO REPEAL THE TEST ACT.


A BITCH that was full pregnant grown,
By all the dogs and curs in town,
Finding her ripen'd time was come,
Her litter teeming from her womb,
Went here and there, and every where,
To find an easy place to lay-her.
At length to Musick's house[1] she came,
And begg'd like one both blind and lame;
"My only friend, my dear," said she,
"You see 'tis mere necessity,
Hath sent me to your house to whelp:
I die if you refuse your help."
With fawning whine, and rueful tone,
With artful sigh and feigned groan,

With