Old man's wish/The Old Man's Wish

THE OLD MAN’S WISH.

A song by Dr. POPE.

Benjamin Franklin L L D speaking of the following song, in a letter to his friend George Whately Esq Treasurer of the Foundling Hospital, London; says, 'What signifies our wishing?' Things happen after all as they will happen.

I have sung that wishing Song a thousand times when I was young, and now find at fourscore that the three contraries have befallen me; being subject to the gout, and the stone, and not being yet master of all my passions Like the proud girl in my country, Who wishsd and resolved not to marry a Parson, nor a Presbyterian, nor an Irishman, and at length found herself married to an Irish Presbyterian Parson!

IF I live to grow old, for I find I go down,
Let this be my fate:—in a neat country town,
May I have a warm house, with a stone at the gate.
And a cleanly young girl, to rub my bald pate.

chorus.

May I govern my passion with an absolute way.
And grow wiser and better as my strength wears away.
Without gout or stone, by a gentle decay.

Near a fine shady grove and a murmuring brook,
With the ocean at at a distanc, whereon I may look;
With a fair spacious plain, without hedgs or a stile,
And an easy pad-nag when I ride out a mile.
May I govern,&c.

With Horace and Petrarch, and two or three more,
Of the best wits that reign’d in the ages before.
With roast mutton, rather than ven'son or veal.
And clean, though coarse, linen at every meal.
May I govern, &c.

With a pudding on Sunday’s, some stout humming liquor,
And remnants of latin to welcome the vicar;
With Monte Fra cone,' or Burgundy wine,
To drink the king’s health as oft as I dine
May I govern, &c.

With a courage undauated may I face my last day.
And when I am dead may the better sort say,
In the morning, when sobor, in the evening when mellow.
He is gone and has not left behind him his fellow.

chorus.

For he govern'd his passion with an absolute sway
And grew wiser and better as his strength wore away,
Without gout or stone, by a gentle decay.