No More Learning

I asked if he eat flesh, and he, that was
So hungry, that though ready to say mass,
Would break his fast before, said he was sick.
And the ordinance was only politic.
Nor was I longer to invite him scant,
Happy at once to make him Protestant
And silent. Nothing now dinner stayed.
But till he had himself a body made,
I mean till he were dressed ; for else so thin
He stands, as if he only fed had been
With consecmted wafers, and the host
Hath sure more flesh and blood than he can boast.
This basso-relievo of a man.
Who, as a camel tall, yet easily can
The needle's eye thread without any stitch,
(His only impossible is to be rich,)
Lest his too subtle body, growing rare,
Should leave his soul to wander in tlie air,
He therefore circumscribes himself in rliymes.
And swaddled in's own papers sewn times,
Wears a close jacket of poetic buff.
With which he doth his third dirnonsiun stuff.
Thus armed underneath, he over ail
Does make a primitive Sotana fail.



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OP MARVELL. 181

And above that yet casts an antique cloak,
Worn at the first council of Antioch,
Which by the Jews long hid, and disesteemed,
He heard of by tradition, and redeemed.
But were he not in this black habit decked,
This half transparent man would soon reflect
Each colour that he past by, and be seen.
As the chameleon, yellow, blue, or green.

He dressed, and ready to disfumish now
His chamber, whose compactness did allow
No empty place for complimenting doubt,
But who came last is forced first to go out ;
I meet one on the stairs who made me stand,
Stopping the passage, and did him demand ;
I answered, " he is here.
Sir, but you see
You cannot pass to him but thorough me. '*
He thought himself affronted, and replied,
" I, whom the palace never has denied.
Will make the way here;" I said, "Sir,

you'll do
Me a great favour, for I seek to go. "
He, gathering fury, still made sign to draw.
But himself closed in a scabbard saw
As narrow as his sword's ; and I that was
Delighted, said, " there can no body pass
Except by penetration hither where
To make a crowd, nor can three persons here
Consist but in one substance. " Then, to fit
Our peace, the priest said 1 too had some wit ;



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182 THK POEMS

To prov% I said, ** the place doth us inrite.
By its own nairowDess, Sir, to unite. **
He atked me pardon ; and to make me waj
Went down, as I him foUowed to obey.
Bat the propitiatory priest had straight
Obliged OS, when below, to celebrate
Together oor atonement ; so increased
Betwixt OS two, the dinner to a feast.

Let it soffice that we could eat in peace,
And that both poems did, and quarrel cease
During the table, though my new made friend
Did, as he threatened, ere 'twere long intend
To be both witty and valiant ; I loath.
Said 'twas too late, he was already both.

But now, alas I my first tormentor came,
Who, satisfied with eating, but not tame,
Turns to recite : though judges most severe,
After the assizes' dinner, mild appear,
And on full stomach do condemn hut few.
Yet he more strict my sentence dotli renew,
And draws out of the black box of his breast
Ten quire of paper, in which he was dressed.
Yet that which was a greater cruelty,
Than Nero's poem, he calls charity :
And so the Pelican, at his door hung,
Picks out the tender bosom to its* young.

Of all his poems there he stain Is ungirt,
Save only two foul copies for his shirt ;



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OF MARVELL. 183

Yet these he promises as soon as clean :
But how I loathed to see my neighbour glean
Those papers, which he peeled from within
Like white flakes rising from a leper's skin !