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قراءة كتاب A Satyr Against Hypocrites
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اللغة: English
الصفحة رقم: 8
things,
There is a time for great things and for small things,
There’s a time to eate, and drink, and reformation,
A time to empty, and for procreation.
Therefore deare Sister let us take our time,
There’s reason for’t, I never car’d for Rhyme.
Then truly answer’d she, tis a good motion,
And I embrace it with a warme devotion.
Nothing beyond ingratitude.
Why you know Brother you did never prove
That I was ere ingratefull for your love,
But sometimes Angels did attend your Purse,
At other times you know I did you nurse,
With many a secret dish of lusty meat,
And presently we went and did the feat.
Truly quoth Dorcas then, I saw a Vision,
That we should have our foes in great derision.
Quoth Martha straight (and then she shook the crums
From off her apron white, and pickt her gums)
So I doe hope, for so our Brother said;
O what a heavenly piece of work he made!
But I am ign’rant, and my memory short,
I shall forget, were I to be hang’d for’t.
Then quoth the Priest, The cheere that here we see,
Is but an Emblem of Mortality.
The Oxe is strong, and glories in his strength,
Yet him the Butcher knocks down, and at length
We eate him up. A Turkie’s very gay,
Like worldly people clad in fine array;
Yet on the Spit it looks most piteous,
And we devoure it, as the wormes eate us.
Then full of sawce and zeale up steps Elnathan,
[This was his name now, once he had another,
Untill the Ducking-pond made him a Brother]
A Deacon, and a Buffeter of Sathan.
A man may love his brother
Truly, quoth he, I know a Brother deare,
Would gladly pick the bones of what’s left here.
Nay he would gladly pick your pockets too
Of a small two-pence, or a groat, or so,
The sorry remnants of a broken shilling;
Therefore I pray you friends be not unwilling.
But as for me, tis more than I doe need,
To be charitable both in word and deed;
For as to us, the holy Scriptures say,
but
The Deacons must receive, the Lay-men pay.
Why Heathen folks that doe in Taverns stray,
Will never let their friends the reckning pay.
And therefore poure your charity into the bason,
Brethren and Sisters eke, your coats have lace on.
Why Brethren in the Lord, what need you care
For six pence? we’ll one houre enhance our ware.
Your six pence comes againe, nay there comes more;
Thus Charity’s th’ encreaser of your store.
Truly well spoke, then cry’d the Master-feaster,
Since you say so, here, you shall have my tester:
But for the women, they gave more liberally,
For they were sure to whom they gave, and why:
Not better than himselfe.
Then did Elnathan blinke, for he knew well
What he might give, and what he might conceale.
But now the Parson could no longer stay,
’Tis time to kiss, he cryes and so away.
At which the sisters, once th’ alarum tak’n,
Made such a din as would have serv’d to wak’n
A snoring brother, when he sleeps at Church;
With bagg and baggage then they gan to march;
And tickled with the thoughts of their delight,
One sister to the other bids Good night.
Good night quoth Dorcas to Priscilla, she,
Good night deare sister Dorcas unto thee.
In these goodly good nights much time was spent,
And was it not a holy complement?
At length in steps the Parson, on his breast
Christian Liberty.
Laying his hand. A happy night of rest
Reward thy labours sister: yet ere we part,
Feel in my lips the passion of my heart.
To another straight he turn’d his face, and kist her,
And then he cryes, All peace be with thee Sister.
To another in a godly tune he whines,
Nere a profane kisse among all these.
Deare Sister from thy lip Ile take my tines.
With that he kist, and whispers in her eare,
The time when it should be, and the place where.
Thus they all part, the Parson followes close,
For well the Parson knoweth where he goes.
This seem’d a golden time, the fall of sin,
You’d think the thousand years did now begin,
When Satan chain’d below should cease to roare,
Nor durst the wicked as they wont before
Come to the Church for pastime, nor durst laugh
To heare the non-plust Doctor faigne a cough.
The Devill himselfe, alas! now durst not stand
Within the switching of the Sextons wand,
For so a while the Priests did him pursue,
That he was faine to keep the Sabbath too,
Lest being taken in the Elders lure,
He should have paid his crown unto the poore;
And lest he should like a deceiver come
’Twixt the two Sundays inter stitium,
They stuft up Lecturers with texts and straw,
On working-dayes to keep the Devill in awe.
But strange to thinke, for all this solemn meeknesse,
At length the Devill appeared in his likenesse,
While these deceits did but supply the wants
Of broken unthrifts, and of thread-bare Saints.
Oh what will men not dare, if thus they dare
Be impudent to Heaven, and play with Prayer!
Play with that feare, with that religious awe
Which keeps men free, and yet is mans great law:
What can they but the worst of Atheists be,
Who while they word it ’gainst impiety,
Affront the throne of God with their false deeds,
Alas, this wonder in the Atheist breeds.
Are these the men that would the Age reforme,
That Down with Superstition cry, and swarme
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