Page:Homer's Battle of the Frogs and Mice - Parnell (1717).djvu/38

 which had its Sides artfully turn'd, and carv'd so as to bear a Resemblance to the Heads of snarling Mastiffs. In this was born, as led in Triumph, a tall Image of Deformity, whose Head was bald, and wound about with Nettles for a Chaplet. The Tongue lay lolling out, to shew a Contempt of Mankind, and was fork'd at the End, to confess its Love to Detraction. The Hands were manacled behind, and the Fingers arm'd with long Nails, to cut deep through the Margins of Authors. Its Vesture was of the Paper of Nilus, bearing inscrib'd upon its Breast in Capital Letters, ZOILUS the HOMERO-MASTIX; and all the rest of it was scrawl'd with various Monsters of that River, as Emblems of those Productions with which that Critick us'd to fill his Papers. When they had reach'd the Temple, where the King and his Court were already plac'd to behold them from its Galleries, the Image of was hung upon a Gibbet, there erected for it, with such loud Acclamations as witness'd the Peoples Satisfaction. This being finish'd, the Hours knock'd at the Gates, which flew open, and discover'd the Statue of magnificently seated, with the Pictures of those Cities which contended for his Birth, rang'd in Order around him. Then they who represented the Deities in the Procession, laying aside their Ensigns of Divinity, usher'd in the Men of Learning with a Sound of Voices, and their