Glen Collection of printed music > Printed music > Wit and mirth, or, Pills to purge melancholy > Volume 3

Pleasant and Divertive. 17
IF I live to grow old (for I find I go down)
Let this be my Fate, in a fair Country Town ;
Let me have a warm House, with a Stone at the Gate,
And a cleanly young Girl to rub my bald Pate :
May I govern my Passion with an absolute sway,
And grow wiser and better, as my Strength wears
away ;
Without Gout, or Stone, by a gentle decay.
In a Country Town by a murmuring Brook,
With the Ocean at distance whereon I may look ;
With a spacious Plain without Hedge or Stile,
And an easie Pad-Nag, to ride out a Mile :
May /govern, &c.
With Horace, and Petrarch, and two or three more,
Of the best Wits that liv'd in the Ages before \
With a Dish of Roast Mutton, not Venison nor Teal,
And clean (tho' course) Linnen at every Meal :
May /govern, &c.
With a Pudding on Sundays, and stouthumming Liquor,
And remnants of Latin to welcome our Vicar ;
With a hidden reserve of Burgundy Wine,
To Drink the King's Health in as oft as I Dine :
May /govern, &c.
When the days are grown short, and it Freezes & Snows,
May I have a Coal-fire as high as my Nose;
A Fire (which once stirr'd up with a Prong)
Will keep the Room temperate all the Night long :
May /govern, &c.
With a Courage undaunted may I Face my last day,
And when I am Dead may the better sort say;
In the Morning when sober, in the Evening when mellow,
He's gone, and left not behind him his Fellow :
For he governed his Passion with an absolute sway,
■And grew wiser and better as his strength wore away ;
Without Gout, or Stone, by a gentle decay.
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