Page:The Battle of the Books, and Other Short Pieces.djvu/88

 Tell Tom he draws a farce in vain, Before he looks in nature's glass; Puns cannot form a witty scene, Nor pedantry for humour pass.

To make men act as senseless wood, And chatter in a mystic strain, Is a mere force on flesh and blood, And shows some error in the brain.

He that would thus refine on thee, And turn thy stage into a school, The jest of Punch will ever be, And stand confessed the greater fool.

CADENUS AND VANESSA.

Written Anno 1713.

shepherds and the nymphs were seen Pleading before the Cyprian Queen. The counsel for the fair began Accusing the false creature, man. The brief with weighty crimes was charged, On which the pleader much enlarged: That Cupid now has lost his art,