VERSES IN REPLY TO AN INVITATION TO
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This _is_ a poem! This _is_ a copy of verses!’ YOUR mandate I got,You may all go to pot;Had your senses been right,You’d have sent before night;As I hope to be saved, 5I put off being shaved;For I could not make bold,While the matter was cold,To meddle in suds,Or to put on my duds; 10So tell Horneck and Nesbitt,And Baker and his bit,And Kauffmann beside,And the Jessamy Bride,With the rest of the crew, 15The Reynoldses two,Little Comedy’s face,And the Captain in lace,(By-the-bye you may tell him,I have something to sell him; 20Of use I insist,When he comes to enlist.Your worships must knowThat a few days ago,An order went out, 25For the foot guards so stoutTo wear tails in high taste,Twelve inches at least:Now I’ve got him a scaleTo measure each tail, 30To lengthen a short tail,And a long one to curtail.)—Yet how can I when vext,Thus stray from my text?Tell each other to rue 35Your Devonshire crew,For sending so lateTo one of my state.But ’tis Reynolds’s wayFrom wisdom to stray, 40And Angelica’s whimTo be frolick like him,But, alas! Your good worships, how could they be wiser,When both have been spoil’d in to-day’s _Advertiser_?
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