Classic Poem

Maid (reads with an affected Tone Mrs. Phoebe Clinket's Lines writ upon the Deluge ).

Swell'd with a Dropsy, sickly Nature lies,
And melting in a Diabetes, dies.

Clinket (composing further on the same theme)

" The roaring Seas o'er the tall Woods have broke,
And Whales now perch upon the sturdy Oak."

Roaring? Stay. Rumbling, roaring, rustling. No; raging seas.

" The raging Seas o'er the tall Woods have broke,
Now perch, thou Whale, upon the sturdy Oak."

Sturdy Oak? No; steady, strong, strapping, stiff. Stiff? No, stiff is too short.

" What Feast for Fish! Oh too luxurious Treat!
When hungry Dolphins feed on Butchers Meat.

Further fragments from Mrs. Clinket's Play The Universal Deluge , or The Tragedy of Deucalion and Pyrrha .

Tho' Heav'n wrings all the Sponges of the Sky,
And pours down Clouds, at once each Cloud a Sea.
Not the Spring-Tides —

Why do the Stays
Taper my Waste, but for thy circling Arms?

Fossile (reads a letter to his wife)

Verses on Mrs. Susanna Townley . in the front Box dress'd in Green.

In You the Beautys of the Spring are seen,
Your Cheeks are Roses, and your Dress is Green.

Mrs. Townley (concealing Plotwell under her petticoat from Fossile)

Thus Venus , when approaching Foes assail,
Shields her Aeneas with a Silken Veil.

Plotwell (dress'd like a Mummy)

Thus trav'ling far from his Egyptian Tomb
Thy Antony salutes his Cleopatra .

Mrs. Townley . Thus Cleopatra , in desiring Arms,

Receives her Antony —

Underplot (concealed in an alligator, crawling forward and embracing Mrs. Townley)

Thus Jove within the Serpent 's scaly Folds,
Twin'd round the Macedonian Queen.