William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910.
The WishWalter Pope (c. 16271714)
I
Let this be my fate: In a country town,
May I have a warm house, with a stone at the gate,
And a cleanly young girl to rub my bald pate.
Chorus.May I govern my passion with an absolute sway,
And grow wiser and better as my strength wears away,
Without gout or stone, by a gentle decay.
With an easy descent to a mead and a mill,
That when I’ve a mind I may hear my boy read,
In the mill if it rains, if it’s dry in the mead.
May I govern, etc.
With the ocean at distance, whereon I may look,
With a spacious plain, without hedge or stile,
And an easy pad-hag to ride out a mile.
May I govern, etc.
Of the best wits that reign’d in the ages before;
With roast mutton, rather than ven’son or teal,
And clean tho’ coarse linen at every meal.
May I govern, etc.
And remnants of Latin to welcome the Vicar,
With Monte-Fiascone or Burgundy wine,
To drink to the King’s health as oft as I dine.
May I govern, etc.
In neither extreme, or too mild or too stale;
In lieu of deserts, unwholesome and dear,
Let Lodi or Parmisan bring up the rear.
May I govern, etc.
May I be, nor against the law’s torrent a swimmer.
May I mind what I speak, what I write, and hear read,
But with matters of State never trouble my head.
May I govern, etc.
Whom soever they please set up and pull down.
I’ll pay the whole shilling imposed on my head,
Though I go without claret that night to my bed.
May I govern, etc.
As oft as new moons, or weeks in a year;
For why should I let a seditious word fall
Since my lambs in Utopia pay nothing at all.
May I govern, etc.
That the rich without shame cannot enter my door;
May they court my converse, may they take much delight,
My old stories to hear in a winter’s long night.
May I govern, etc.
To flatter ill men, be they never so high,
Nor misspend the few moments I steal from the grave,
In fawning and cringing like a dog or a slave.
May I govern, etc.
As to slight their acquaintance, and their old friends despise;
So low or so high may none of them be,
As to move either pity or envy in me.
May I govern, etc.
Jove’s store-house is empty, and can’t it supply;
So firm that no change of times, envy, or gain,
Or flattery, or woman, should have power to untie.
May I govern, etc.
Still may I be virtuous though I am poor;
My life then as useless, may I freely resign,
When no longer I relish true wit and good wine.
May I govern, etc.
To be blind, to be deaf, to know nothing at all;
But rather let death come before ’tis too late,
And while there’s some sap in it, may my tree fall.
May I govern, etc.
For priests or physicians till I am near to mine end,
That I have eat all my bread, and drank my last glass,
Let then come them, and set their seals to my pass.
May I govern, etc.
And when I am dead may the better sort say,
‘In the morning when sober, in the evening when mellow
He’s gone, and left not behind him his fellow.’
May I govern, etc.
And decently acted what part Fortune gave,
And put off my vest in a cheerful old age,
May a few honest fellows see me laid in my grave.
May I govern, etc.
With any inscription upon it, or none;
If a thousand years hence, Here lies W. P.
Shall be read on my tomb, what is it to me?
May I govern, etc.
Who in reading these lines any pleasure shall take,
May I leave a good fame, and a sweet-smelling name.
Chorus.May I govern my passion with an absolute sway,
And grow wiser and better as my strength wears away,
Without gout or stone, by a gentle decay.