Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?
_Henry IV., Pt. I. Act iii. Sc. 3_. SHAKESPEARE.
Now musing o'er the changing scene
Farmers behind the tavern screen
Collect; with elbows idly pressed
On hob, reclines the corner's guest,
Reading the news to mark again
The bankrupt lists or price of grain.
Puffing the while his red-tipt pipe
He dreams o'er troubles nearly ripe,
Yet, winter's leisure to regale,
Hopes better times, and sips his ale.
_The Shepherd's Calendar_. J. CLARE.
Souls of poets dead and gone,
What Elysium have ye known,
Happy field or mossy cavern,
Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?
_Lines on the Mermaid Tavern_. J. KEATS.
Now spurs the lated traveller apace
To gain the timely inn.
_Macbeth, Act iii. Sc. 3_. SHAKESPEARE.
Whoe'er has travelled life's dull round,
Where'er his stages may have been,
May sigh to think he still has found
The warmest welcome at an inn.
_Written on a Window of an Inn_. W. SHENSTONE.