When RakesRakes: “loose, disorderly, vicious, wild, gay, thoughtless” fellows, addicted to pleasure (Johnson). resist their Pow’r—if hapless you
Should chance to wander with the scow’ring Crew;scow’ring Crew: a group of lawless hooligans.
Though Fortune yield thee Captive, ne’er despair,
But seek the Constable’s consid’rate Ear;
He will reverse the Watchman’s harsh Decree,
Mov’d by the Rhet’rick of a Silver Fee.Silver Fee: a bribe.
Thus would you gain some fav’rite Courtier’s word;
Fee not the petty Clarks,petty Clarks: subordinate clerks who keep accounts and records. but bribe my lord.
Of Rakes
Now is the time that Rakes their Revells keep;
Kindlers of Riot, Enemies of Sleep.
His scatter’d Pence the flying *Gentlemen, who delighted to break Windows with Half-pence. Nicker flings,
And with the Copper Show’r the Casement rings.
Who has not heard the Scowrer’s Midnight Fame?
Who has not trembled at the Mohock’sMohock: member of a gang of aristocratic ruffians.
Name
Was there a Watchman took his hourly Rounds
Safe from their Blows, or new-invented Wounds?
I pass
I pass their desp’rate Deeds and Mischiefs done,
Where from
Snow-hill black steepy TorrentsTorrents: sudden streams caused by rain; tumultuous currents. From the Georgics: When shrivell’d herbs on with’ring stems decay, / The wary ploughman, on the mountain’s brow, / Undams his wat’ry stores, huge torrents flow, / Temp’ring the thirsty fever of the field. run;
How Matrons, hoop’d within the Hogshead’s Womb,Hogshead's Womb: the Mohocks were said to have put a woman into a hogshead (cask) and rolled her down a hill.
Were tumbled furious thence, the rolling Tomb
O’er the Stones thunders, bounds from Side to Side.
So Regulus,Regulus: the Roman general Marcus Atilius Regulus was captured by the Carthaginians, who sent him to Rome to secure peace. Instead, he urged the Senate to resist. When he returned to Carthage, the Carthaginians tortured him to death by cutting off his eyelids and putting him into a barrel of spikes in the sun. to save his Country dy’d.
Where a dim Gleam the paly Lantern throws
A necessary Caution in a dark Night.
O’er the mid’ Pavement; heapy Rubbish grows,
Or arched Vaults their gaping Jaws extend,
Or the dark Caves to Common-Shores
descend.
Oft by the Winds, extinct the Signal lies,
Or smother’d in the glimm’ring SocketSocket: the seating for a lamp . See Dryden’s translation of Georgics: “The nightly virgin sees / When sparkling lamps their sputt’ring light advance, / And in the sockets oily bubbles dance.”
dies,
Ere Night has half roll’d round her Ebon Throne;
In the wide Gulf the shatter’d Coach, o’erthrown,
Sinks with the snorting Steeds; the Reins are broke,
And from the crackling Axle flies the Spoke.
So