There
Hendel
strikes the Strings, the melting Strain
Transports the Soul, and thrills through ev’ry Vein;
There oft’ I enter (but with cleaner Shoes)
For
Burlington’s belov’d by ev’ry Muse.
The Happiness of Walkers.
O ye associate Walkers, O my Friends,
Upon your State what Happiness attends!
What, though no Coach to frequent Visit rolls,
Nor for your Shilling Chairmen sling their Poles;
Yet still your Nerves rheumatic Painsrheumatic Pains: John Kersey (1702) defines “Rheumatick” as “troubled with rheum” (a “defluxion of humours”). defye,
Nor lazy Jaundicelazy Jaundice: Gay suggests jaundice results from inactivity. Johnson has: “A distemper from obstructions of the glands of the liver, which prevents the gall being duly separated by them from the blood,” which can lead to the skin and whites of the eyes taking on a yellow colour.
dulls your SaffronSaffron: deep yellow. eye;
No wasting Coughwasting Cough: possibly consumption (tuberculosis), known as the “wasting disease.” Richard Blackmore, M.D., described one “accidental, or acquired Consumption” (that is, not inherited from the parents) as coming from “noxious Humours” generated in the blood. The “Seeds of this wasting Disease,” he wrote, “are bred in the Patient ... by the defective economy of Nature.” A Treatise of Consumptions and other Distempers Belonging to the Breast and Lungs (London, 1724), 38. discharges Sounds of Death,
Nor wheezing Asthma heaves in vain for Breath;
Nor from your restless Couch is heard the Groan
Of burning Gout or sedentary Stone.sedentary Stone: kidney stones.
Let others in the jolting Coach confide,
Or in the leaky Boat
the Thames
divide;
Or
Or, box’d within the Chair, contemncontemn: to scorn or disdain.
the Street,
And trust their Safety to another’s Feet,
Still let me walk; for oft’ the sudden Gale
Ruffles the Tide, and shifts the dang’rous Sail,
Then shall the Passenger, too late, deplore
The whelming Billow, and the faithless Oar;
The drunken Chairman in the Kennel spurns,
The Glasses shatters, and his Charge o’erturns.
Who can recount the Coach’s various Harms;
The Legs disjointed, and the broken Arms?
I’ve seen a Beau, in some ill-fated Hour,
When o’er the Stones choak’d Kennels swell the Show’r,
In gilded Chariot loll; he with Disdain,
Views spatter’d Passengers, all drench’d in Rain;
With Mud fill’d high, the rumbling Cart draws near,
Now rule thy prancing Steeds, lac’d Charioteer!
The