The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 18/A Riddle

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The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 18
(c. 1707)
by Jonathan Swift, edited by Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols, John Boyle, Patrick Delany, John Hawkesworth, Deane Swift, William Bowyer, John Birch, and George Faulkner

A Riddle

Epitaph at Lee in Kent, on William Pate, the learned Woollen-draper

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1691588The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 18
— A Riddlec. 1707Jonathan Swift

A RIDDLE^[1].

I'M wealthy and poor,
⁠I'm empty and full,
I'm humble and proud,
⁠I'm witty and dull.

I'm foul, and yet fair;
⁠I'm old, and yet young;
I lie with Moll Kerr,
⁠And toast Mrs. Long.

ANSWER, BY MR. F—R.

IN rigging he's rich, though in pocket he's poor;
⁠He cringes to courtiers, and cocks to the cits;
Like twenty he dresses, but looks like threescore;
⁠He's a wit to the fools, and a fool to the wits.

Of wisdom he's empty, but full of conceit;
⁠He paints and perfumes, while he rots with the scab;
'Tis a beau you may swear by his sense and his gait;
⁠He boasts of a beauty, and lies with a drab.

↑ Originally communicated by Swift (together with the Riddle on a Fan, vol. VII, p. 308,) to Mr. Oldisworth, who published them in "The Muse's Mercury," 1707.

[1] Originally communicated by Swift (together with the Riddle on a Fan, vol. VII, p. 308,) to Mr. Oldisworth, who published them in "The Muse's Mercury," 1707.

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