No More Learning

The horses I mean of Wool-Church and Channg,
Who told many truths worth any man's hearing,
Since Viner and Osborn did buy and provide *em*
For the two mighty monarchs who now do

bestride 'em.
The stately brass stallion^ and the white marble

steed.
The night came together, by all 'tis agreed ;
When both kings were weary of sitting all day,
They stole off, incognito, each his own way ;
And then the two jades, after mutual salutes,
Not only discoursed, but fell to disputes.

* The statue at Charing-Cro»s was erected by the Lord
Danby; that at Wool-Church by Sir Robert Viner, thea
lord-mayor.



17



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2C>d TlIC POEMS



THE DIALOGUE.
Quoth the marble horse,

WOOL-CHURCH.

It would make a 8tone speak,
To see a lord-mayor and a Lombard-street break,*
Thy founder and mine to cheat one another,
When both knaves agreed to be e^ch other's
brother, —

Here Charing broke forth, and thus he went on :

CHARING.

My brass is provoked as much as thy stone.
To see church and state bow down to a whore,
And the king's chief-minister holding the door ;
The money of widows and orphans employed,
And the bankers quite broke to maintain the
whore's pride.

* Alluding to the failure of the bankers.



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OF MARVKLL. 259

WOOL-CHURCH.

To see Dei GrcUia writ on the throne,
And the king's wiclced. life saj, God there is
none.

CHARING.
That he should be styled Defender of the Faith,
Who believes not a word what the word of God
saith.

WOOL-CHURCH.

That the Duke should turn papist, and that church

defy,
For which his own father a martyr did die.

CHARING.

Though he changed his religion, I hope he 's . so

civil
Not to think his own father is gone to the Devil.

WOOL-CHURCH.

That bondage and beggary should be in a nation
By a cursed House of Commons, and a blessed
Restoration.

CHARING.

To see a white staff make a beggar a lord.
And scarce a wise man at a long council-board.



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260 THE rOEMS



WOOL-CHURCH.

That the Bank should be seized, yet the 'Chequer

6o poor,
(Lord have mercy ! ) and a cross might be set on

the door.

CHARING.

That a million and half should be the revenue,
Yet the King of his debts pay no man a
penny.