The Works of Sir John Suckling in prose and verse/A Barber

by John Suckling

A BARBER

I am a barber, and, I'd have you know,
A shaver too, sometimes no mad one though:
The reason why you see me now thus bare
Is 'cause I always trade against the hair.
But yet I keep a state; who comes to me,5
Whos'e'er he is, he must uncover'd be.
When I'm at work, I'm bound to find discourse,
To no great purpose, of great Sweden's force,
Of Witel, and the Burse, and what 'twill cost
To get that back which was this summer lost:10
So fall to praising of his Lordship's hair;
Ne'er so deform'd, I swear 'tis sans compare:
I tell him that the King's doth sit no fuller,
And yet his is not half so good a colour;
Then reach a pleasing glass, that's made to lie,15
Like to its master, most notoriously;
And, if he must his mistress see that day,
I with a powder send him strait away.