Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 8.djvu/200



ITH singing of ballads, and crying of news, With whitening of buckles, and blacking of shoes, Did Hartley set out, both shoeless and shirtless, And moneyless too, but not very dirtless; Two pence he had gotten by begging, that's all; One bought him a brush, and one a black ball; For clouts at a loss he could not be much, The clothes on his back as being but such; Thus vamp'd and accoutred, with clouts, ball, and brush, He gallantly ventur'd his fortune to push: Vespasian thus, being bespatter'd with dirt, Was omen'd to be Rome's emperor for 't. But as a wise fiddler is noted you know, To have a good couple of strings to one bow; So Hartley judiciously thought it too little, To live by the sweat of his hands and his spittle: He finds out another profession as fit, And straight he becomes a retailer of wit. One