Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/141

 MERCURY AND THE ELEPHANT A Prefatory Fable

As Merc'ry travell'd thro' a Wood (Whose Errands are more Fleet than Good) An Elephant before him lay, That much encumber'd had the Way: The Messenger, who's still in haste, Wou'd fain have bow'd, and so have past; When up arose th' unweildy Brute, And wou'd repeat a late Dispute, In which (he said) he'd gain'd the Prize From a wild Boar of monstrous Size: But Fame (quoth he) with all her Tongues, Who Lawyers, Ladies, Soldiers wrongs, Has, to my Disadvantage, told An Action throughly Bright and Bold ; Has said, that I foul Play had us'd, And with my Weight th' Opposer bruis'd; Had laid my Trunk about his Brawn, Before his Tushes cou'd be drawn ; Had stunn'd him with a hideous Roar, And twenty-thousand Scandals more: But I defy the Talk of Men, Or Voice of Brutes in ev'ry Den; Th' impartial Skies are all my Care, And how it stands Recorded there. Amongst you Gods, pray, What is thought?
 * Quoth Mercury— Then have you Fought!
 * Solicitous thus shou'd I be

For what's said of my Verse and Me ; Or shou'd my Friends Excuses frame, 3