Volume 1 — ON STEPHEN DUCK
Reading edition
THE THRESHER, AND FAVOURITE POET
A QUIBBLING EPIGRAM. 1730 The thresher Duck[1] could o'er the queen prevail, The proverb says, "no fence against a flail." From threshing corn he turns to thresh his brains; For which her majesty allows him grains: Though 'tis confest, that those, who ever saw His poems, think them all not worth a straw! Thrice happy Duck, employ'd in threshing stubble, Thy toil is lessen'd, and thy profits double. [Footnote 1: Who was appointed by Queen Caroline librarian to a small collection of books in a building called Merlin's Cave, in the Royal Gardens of Richmond. "How shall we fill a library with wit, When Merlin's cave is half unfurnish'd yet?" POPE, Imitations of Horace, ii, Ep. 1.—W. E. B.]