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Anne Kingsmill Finch - Mercury And The Elephant
Work rating: Low

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, 
And beg the Criticks not to blame 
(Since from a Female Hand it came) 
Defects in Judgment, or in Wit; 
They`d but reply - Then has she Writ! 

  Our Vanity we more betray, 
In asking what the World will say, 
Than if, in trivial Things like these, 
We wait on the Event with ease; 
Nor make long Prefaces, to show 
What Men are not concern`d to know: 
For still untouch`d how we succeed, 
`Tis for themselves, not us, they Read; 
Whilst that proceeding to requite, 
We own (who in the Muse delight) 
`Tis for our Selves, not them, we Write. 
Betray`d by Solitude to try 
Amusements, which the Prosp`rous fly; 


And only to the Press repair, 
To fix our scatter`d Papers there; 
Tho` whilst our Labours are preserv`d, 
The Printers may, indeed, be starv`d.
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