ON The English Rogue.
Reading edition
What others writ, was ta’en upon the Score;
Thou art in Re, what they but feign’d before.
They did but lisp, or worse, speak through the Nose:
Thou hast pronounc’t, and liv’st in Verse and Prose.
Guzman, Lazaro, Buscon, and Francion,
Till thou appear’dst did shine as at high Noon.
Thy Book’s now extant; those that Judge of Wit,
Say, They and Rablais too fall short of it.
How could’t be otherwise, since ’twas thy fate,
To practise what they did but imitate.
We stand amaz’d at thy Ephesian Fire;
Such purchas’d Infamy all must admire.
N. D.
