- The Careless Good Fellow
- A pox of this fooling, and plotting of late,
- What a pother, and stir has it kept in the state?
- Let the rabble run mad with suspicions, and fears,
- Let them scuffle, and jar, till they go by the ears:
- Their grievances never shall trouble my pate,
- So I can enjoy my dear bottle at quiet.
- What coxcombs were those, who would barter their ease
- And their necks for a toy, a thin wafer and mass?
- At old Tyburn they never had needed to swing,
- Had they been but true subjects to drink, and their king;
- A friend, and a bottle is all my design;
- He has no room for treason, that's top-full of wine.
- I mind not the members and makers of laws,
- Let them sit or prorogue, as his majesty please:
- Let them damn us to woollen, I'll never repine
- At my lodging, when dead, so alive I have wine:
- Yet oft in my drink I can hardly forbear
- To curse them for making my claret so dear.
- I mind not grave asses, who idly debate
- About right and succession, the trifles of state;
- We've a good king already: and he deserves laughter
- That will trouble his head with who shall come after:
- Come, here's to his health, and I wish he may be
- As free from all care, and all trouble, as we.
- What care I how leagues with the Hollander go?
- Or intrigues betwixt Sidney, and Monsieur D'Avaux?
- What concerns it my drinking, if Cassel be sold,
- If the conqueror take it by storming, or gold?
- Good Bordeaux alone is the place that I mind,
- And when the fleet's coming, I pray for a wind.
- The bully of France, that aspires to renown
- By dull cutting of throats, and vent'ring his own;
- Let him fight and be damn'd, and make matches and treat,
- To afford the news-mongers, and coffee-house chat:
- He's but a brave wretch, while I am more free,
- More safe, and a thousand times happier than he.
- Come he, or the Pope, or the Devil to boot,
- Or come faggot, and stake; I care not a groat;
- Never think that in Smithfield I porters will heat:
- No, I swear, Mr. Fox, pray excuse me for that.
- I'll drink in defiance of gibbet, and halter,
- This is the profession, that never will alter.
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