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A VINDICATION OF THE LIBEL:
OR,
A NEW BALLAD,
Written by a Shoeboy, on an Attorney who was formerly a Shoeboy.
"Qui color ater erat, nunc est contrarius atro."
WITH singing of ballads, and crying of news,
With whitening of buckles, and blacking of shoes,
Did Hartley[1] set out, both shoeless and shirtless,
And moneyless too, but not very dirtless;
Two pence he had gotten by begging, that's all;
One bought him a brush, and one a black ball;
For clouts at a loss he could not be much,
The clothes on his back as being but such;
Thus vamp'd and accoutred, with clouts, ball, and brush,
He gallantly ventur'd his fortune to push:
Vespasian thus, being bespatter'd with dirt,
Was omen'd to be Rome's emperor for 't.
But as a wise fiddler is noted you know,
To have a good couple of strings to one bow;
So Hartley judiciously thought it too little,
To live by the sweat of his hands and his spittle:
He finds out another profession as fit,
And straight he becomes a retailer of wit.
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