14
LE LUTRIN
Canto 2.
He now and then dares venture over,
And steps as far as Deal or Dover.
Mean while a Hagg, made up of Mouths and Ears,
Who prates both what, and more than what she hears,
The Moderns call her Fame: This crafty Jade
Of Slandring drives an unknown subtle trade;
For she had got the Faculty to Brew
With dubious, Certain; and with false, things true;
And with such Art she her Ingredients mixed,
That where she pleas'd A Calumny she fixed;
This Baggage once in her mad Moods and Tenses
Had Lombard read, the Master o'th Sentences;
Thence she had learn'd to spread a Lie Malicious,
And then to serve a Turn, us'd the Officious;
When her light business call'd her to the Court
Us'd the Jocose, and lewdly ly'd in sport;
Her trade she practis'd first in private Letters,
Bespatter'd there, and vilifi'd her Betters:
In Coffee-houses then she grew a Prater,
Broke off all Trades, she sets up Observator.
A Justice once clapt her i'th' Stocks and stript her,
Then by a tough-back't Knave severely Whipt her;
Not warn'd, the Brazen-face would out be flying
Against the State with her Opprobrious Lying;
Jockey for Leasing put her to the Horning,
In England she was Pillory'd for Suborning;
A thousand pounds for False News she was fined;
And till she paid the fine to Gaol Confined:
Venturing at last on Scandalum Magnatum,
Two Thousand more; yet still the Jade did rate 'um:
Thus did the Gypsey flutter up and down
Through City, Country, Village, and good Town;
And steps as far as Deal or Dover.
Mean while a Hagg, made up of Mouths and Ears,
Who prates both what, and more than what she hears,
The Moderns call her Fame: This crafty Jade
Of Slandring drives an unknown subtle trade;
For she had got the Faculty to Brew
With dubious, Certain; and with false, things true;
And with such Art she her Ingredients mixed,
That where she pleas'd A Calumny she fixed;
This Baggage once in her mad Moods and Tenses
Had Lombard read, the Master o'th Sentences;
Thence she had learn'd to spread a Lie Malicious,
And then to serve a Turn, us'd the Officious;
When her light business call'd her to the Court
Us'd the Jocose, and lewdly ly'd in sport;
Her trade she practis'd first in private Letters,
Bespatter'd there, and vilifi'd her Betters:
In Coffee-houses then she grew a Prater,
Broke off all Trades, she sets up Observator.
A Justice once clapt her i'th' Stocks and stript her,
Then by a tough-back't Knave severely Whipt her;
Not warn'd, the Brazen-face would out be flying
Against the State with her Opprobrious Lying;
Jockey for Leasing put her to the Horning,
In England she was Pillory'd for Suborning;
A thousand pounds for False News she was fined;
And till she paid the fine to Gaol Confined:
Venturing at last on Scandalum Magnatum,
Two Thousand more; yet still the Jade did rate 'um:
Thus did the Gypsey flutter up and down
Through City, Country, Village, and good Town;
Once
