AN ANSWER, BY DELANY, TO THOMAS SHERIDAN

Dear Sherry, I'm sorry for your bloodsheded sore eye,

And the more I consider your case, still the more I

Regret it, for see how the pain on't has wore ye.

Besides, the good Whigs, who strangely adore ye,

In pity cry out, "He's a poor blinded Tory."

But listen to me, and I'll soon lay before ye

A sovereign cure well attested in Gory.

First wash it with _ros_, that makes dative _rori_,

Then send for three leeches, and let them all gore ye;

Then take a cordial dram to restore ye,

Then take Lady Judith, and walk a fine boree,

Then take a glass of good claret _ex more_,

Then stay as long as you can _ab uxore_;

And then if friend Dick[1] will but ope your back-door, he

Will quickly dispel the black clouds that hang o'er ye,

And make you so bright, that you'll sing tory rory,

And make a new ballad worth ten of John Dory:

(Though I work your cure, yet he'll get the glory.)

I'm now in the back school-house, high up one story,

Quite weary with teaching, and ready to _mori_.

My candle's just out too, no longer I'll pore ye,

But away to Clem Barry's,[2]--there’s an end of my story.

[Footnote 1: Dr. Richard Helsham.]

[Footnote 2: See "The Country Life," i, 140.]

The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume 2 · 第 216 / 310 题