The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 2 by Alexander Pope
page 56 of 478 (11%)
page 56 of 478 (11%)
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Blest paper-credit! last and best supply!
That lends corruption lighter wings to fly! 40 Gold imp'd by thee, can compass hardest things, Can pocket states, can fetch or carry kings; A single leaf shall waft an army o'er, Or ship off senates[24] to a distant shore; A leaf, like Sibyl's, scatter to and fro Our fates and fortunes, as the winds shall blow: Pregnant with thousands flits the scrap unseen, And silent sells a king, or buys a queen, Oh! that such bulky bribes as all might see, Still, as of old, encumber'd villainy! 50 Could France or Rome divert our brave designs, With all their brandies, or with all their wines? What could they more than knights and squires confound, Or water all the quorum ten miles round? A statesman's slumbers how this speech would spoil! 'Sir, Spain has sent a thousand jars of oil; Huge bales of British cloth blockade the door; A hundred oxen at your levee roar.' Poor avarice one torment more would find; Nor could profusion squander all in kind. 60 Astride his cheese, Sir Morgan might we meet; And Worldly crying coals[25] from street to street, Whom, with a wig so wild, and mien so mazed, Pity mistakes for some poor tradesman crazed. Had Colepepper's[26] whole wealth been hops and hogs, Could he himself have sent it to the dogs? |
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