Wouldst thou with mighty Beef augment thy Meal?
Seek
Leaden-hall;
St. James’s sends thee Veal.
Thames-street
gives Cheeses;
Covent-garden
Fruits;
Moor-fields
old Books; and
Monmouth-street
old Suits.
Hence may’st thou well supply the Wants of Life,
Support thy Family, and cloath thy Wife.
Volumes, on shelter’d Stalls expanded lye,
And various ScienceScience: knowledge (Johnson). lures the learned Eye;
The bending Shelves with pond’rous ScholiastsScholiasts : people who wrote explanatory notes or commentary upon an author or text.
groan,
And deep Divines to modern Shops unknown:
Here, like the Bee, that on industrious Wing,
Collects the various Odours of the Spring,
Walkers, at leisure, Learning’s Flow’rs may spoil,
Nor watch the Wasting of the Midnight Oil,
May Morals snatch from
Plutarch’s tatter’d Page,May Morals snatch from Plutarch’s tatter’d Page: a reference to Plutarch’s
Moralia.
A mildew’d
Bacon, or
Stagyra’s
Sage.
Stagyra’s Sage: Aristotle, who was born in the Ancient Greek city Stagira.
Here
Here saunt’ring ’Prentices o’er
Otway
weep,’Prentices o’er Otway weep: Thomas Otway was known for writing emotionally moving
plays.
O’er
Congreve smile,O’er Congreve smile: William Congreve was known for writing comic plays. or over
D***
sleep;over D*** sleep: John Dennis was Alexander Pope's longstanding enemy.
Pleas’d Sempstresses the Lock’s fam’d RapeLock’s fam’d Rape: Alexander Pope’s
Rape of the Lock (1712).
unfold,
And ✝The Name of an Apothecary in the Poem of the Dispensary.
Squirts read
Garth
’till ApozemsApozems: decoctions or infusions. grow
cold.
O
Lintott,Lintott: Bernard Lintot published Gay’s Trivia.
let my Labours obvious lie,
Rang’d on thy Stall, for ev’ry curious Eye;
So shall the Poor these Precepts gratis know,
And to my Verse their future Safeties owe.
What Walker shall his mean Ambition fix,
On the false Lustre of a Coach and Six?
Let the vain Virgin, lur’d by glaring Show,
Sigh for the Liv’rysLiv’rys: the identifying uniform worn by the liverymen of a Guild or City of London livery company.
of th’ embroider’d Beau.
E
See