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

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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 PrizeFrom a wild Boar of monstrous Size: 10But Fame (quoth he) with all her Tongues,Who Lawyers, Ladies, Soldiers wrongs,Has, to my Disadvantage, toldAn 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: 20But 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 beFor what's said of my Verse and Me;Or shou'd my Friends Excuses frame,

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