Where the nail’d Hoop defends the painted Stall,
Of avoiding Paint.
Brush not thy sweeping Skirt too near the Wall:
Thy heedless Sleeve will drink the colour’d Oil,
And Spot indelible thy pocket soil.
Has not wise Nature strung the Legs and Feet
With firmest Nerves, design’d to walk the Street?
Has she not given us Hands to grope aright,
Amid the frequent dangers of the Night?
And thinkst thou not the double Nostril meant,
To warn from oily Woes by previous Scent?
Who can the various City Frauds recite,
Of various Cheats formerly inpractice.
With all the petty Rapines of the Night?
Who now the Guinea-Dropper’sGuinea-Dropper: a person who cheats by dropping counterfeit guineas.
bait regards,
Trick’d by the Sharper’sSharper: a fraudulent gamester; cheat; swindler.
Dice? or Juggler’s cards?
Why should I warn thee ne’er to join the Fray,
Where the Sham-Quarrel interrupts the Way?
F
Lives
Lives there in these our Days so soft a Clown,
Brav’d by the Bully’s Oaths or threat’ning Frown?
I need not strict enjoin the Pocket’s Care,
When from the crowded Play thou lead’st the Fair;
Who has not here, or Watch, or Snuff-Box lost,
Or Handkerchiefs that India’s Shuttle boast?
An Admonition to Virtue.
O! may thy Virtue guard thee through the Roads
Of
Drury’s mazy Courts and dark Abodes,
The Harlots’ guileful Paths, who nightly stand,
Where
Katherine-street
descends into the
Strand.Drury ... Harlots ... Strand: the lines recall the gathering of the dunces in Pope’s Dunciad, in the disreputable district where Katherine Street leads from the stroll in Drury Lane:
Amid that area wide they took their stand,
Where the tall may-pole once o’er-look'd the Strand;
But now (so ANNE and Piety ordain)
A Church collects the saints of Drury-lane. (Book II, ll. 27–30) Say, vagrant Muse, their Wiles and subtilsubtil: cunning. Arts, To lure the Strangers’ unsuspecting Hearts; So shall our Youth on healthful Sinews tread, And City Cheeks grow warm with rural Red.
Amid that area wide they took their stand,
Where the tall may-pole once o’er-look'd the Strand;
But now (so ANNE and Piety ordain)
A Church collects the saints of Drury-lane. (Book II, ll. 27–30) Say, vagrant Muse, their Wiles and subtilsubtil: cunning. Arts, To lure the Strangers’ unsuspecting Hearts; So shall our Youth on healthful Sinews tread, And City Cheeks grow warm with rural Red.
How to know a Whore.
’Tis She who nightly strolls with saunt’ring Pace;
No stubborn StaysStays: an undergarment stiffened with strips of whale bone. her yielding Shape embrace:
Beneath