82
SATYR.
For what less Influence can produce,
20 So great a Monster as a Chowse;
Or any two-leg'd Thing possess
With such a brutish Sottishness?
Unless those tutelar Stars,
Intrusted by Astrologers
25 To have the Charge of Man, combin'd
To use him in the self-same Kind;
As those, that help'd them to the Trust,
Are wont to deal with others just.[1]
For to become so sadly dull
30 And stupid, as to fine for Gull,
(Not, as in Cities, to b' excus'd,
But to be judg'd fit to be us'd)
That, whoso'ere can draw it in
Is sure inevitably t'win;
35 And, with a curs'd half-witted Fate,
To grow more dully desperate,
The more 'tis made a common Prey,
And cheated foppishly at Play,
Is their Condition, Fate betrays
40 To Folly first, and then destroys.
20 So great a Monster as a Chowse;
Or any two-leg'd Thing possess
With such a brutish Sottishness?
Unless those tutelar Stars,
Intrusted by Astrologers
25 To have the Charge of Man, combin'd
To use him in the self-same Kind;
As those, that help'd them to the Trust,
Are wont to deal with others just.[1]
For to become so sadly dull
30 And stupid, as to fine for Gull,
(Not, as in Cities, to b' excus'd,
But to be judg'd fit to be us'd)
That, whoso'ere can draw it in
Is sure inevitably t'win;
35 And, with a curs'd half-witted Fate,
To grow more dully desperate,
The more 'tis made a common Prey,
And cheated foppishly at Play,
Is their Condition, Fate betrays
40 To Folly first, and then destroys.
- ↑ 28. Are wont to deal with others just.] In the preceding Line the Poet seems a little obscure, but when attended to, we shall find his Meaning, that nothing could produce such a brutish Sottishness, except the Stars themselves had combin'd by their Influence, to make Men as great Fools as their Masters the Astrologers had done.
46. As
