Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/168
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The Poems of Anne
As Baucis and Philemon spent their lives,
Of husbands he, the happyest she, of wives,60
When throo' the painted meads, their way they sought,
Harmlesse in act, and unperplext in thought,
Lett us my Dafnis, rural joys persue,
And Courts, or Camps, not ev'n in fancy view.
So, lett us throo' the Groves, my Dafnis stray,
And so, the pleasures of the feilds, survey.
THE GOUTE AND SPIDER
A Fable
Imitated from Monsr. de la Fontaine And Inscribed to Mr. Finch
After his first Fitt of that Distemper
When from th' Infernal pitt two Furies rose One foe to Flies and one to Mans repose Seeking aboue to find a place secure Since Hell the Goute nor Spider cou'd indure On a rich Pallace at the first they light Where pleas'd Arachne dazzl'd with the sight In a conspiccuous corner of a Room The hanging Frett work makes her active Loom. From leaf to leaf with every line does trace, Admires the strange convenience of the place 10Nor can belieue those Cealings e're were made To other end than to promote her Trade Where prou'd and prosper'd in her finish'd work The hungry Fiend does in close Ambush lurk Untill some silly Insect shall repay What from her Bowells she has spun that day. The wiser Gout (for that's a thinking ill) Observing how the splended chambers fill With visitors such as abound below Who from Hypocrites and Gallen grow 20