Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 7.djvu/154

142 My life is now a burden grown To others, ere it be my own. Ye formal weepers for the sick, In your last offices be quick; And spare my absent friends the grief To hear, yet give me no relief; Expir'd to day, intomb'd to morrow. When known, will save a double sorrow.

BITCH that was full pregnant grown, By all the dogs and curs in town, Finding her ripen'd time was come, Her litter teeming from her womb, Went here and there, and every where, To find an easy place to lay-her. At length to Musick's house she came, And begg'd like one both blind and lame; "My only friend, my dear," said she, "You see 'tis mere necessity, Hath sent me to your house to whelp: I die if you refuse your help." With fawning whine, and rueful tone, With artful sigh and feigned groan, With