that flame which she cannot quench. So at length after a tedious struggle and inhumane butchery, the fitt is solv'd, the matter is imperfectly extinguish'd, the poor Sufferer crawls out of the shambles for a while, as by a day-rule of the Fleet, till the merciless tormentor summons him again to equal misery. This is the blessed situation of a podagric! a happy occasion for the congratulation of friends. The pretended earnest of threescore. Well may he cry out as in Lucian, which I shall give in latin, because beautifully turn'd, and may be styl'd,
ODE in Podagrum
O Triste nomen, o diis odible,
Podagra, lachrymosa, Cocyto sata,
In Tartari specubus opacis edita!
Erinnys utero quam Megæra suo tulit,
et uberibus aluit; cuique parvulæ,
amarulentæ, in os lac Alecto dedit.
Ergo quis abominabilem Te dæmononum
produxit in lucem, exitio mortalibus?
Quod si luunt errate mane mortui,
Si luce commissi rationem nox petit;
nec Tantalus siti, nec Ixion rota
volubilis, nec Stygii fuit Ditis domo;
tuis sed omnes omnium soclerum reos
aptare decuit membrifrages cruciatibus.
