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He has no fcull, 'tis well known

To thousands of beholders;

Nothing but a skin

Does keep his brains in

From running about his shoulders.

On both fides of his noddle

Are straps o' th' very fame leather ;
Ears are imply'd,

But they 're mere hide,

Or morfels of tripe, chuse ye

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whether.

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When he was whelp'd, for certain,
In divers feveral countries
The hogs and fwine

Did grunt and whine,
And the ravens croak'd upon trees.

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Ver. 13, 14.] This whimfical liberty our Author takes, of tranfpofing the words for the sake of a rhyme, though at the expence of the fenfe, is a new kind of poetic licence; and it is merry enough to obferve, that he literally does, what he jokingly charges upon other poets in another place;

But those that write in rhyme still make
The one verfe for the other's fake;

For one for fenfe, and one for rhyme,

I think, 's fufficient at one time.

Hud. p. II. c. i. v. 29.

And out o' th' top o' th' chimney

He vanifh'd, feen of none;
For they did wink,
Yet by the stink

Knew which way he was gone.

The country round about there
Became like to a wildern-

-nefs; for the fight

Of him did fright

Away men, women, and children.

Long did he there continue,

And all those parts much harmed,
Till a wife-woman, which
Some call a white witch,

Him into a hog-fty charmed.

There, when fhe had him fhut fast,

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With brimftone and with nitre

She fing'd the claws

Of his left paws,

With tip of his tail, and his right ear.

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And with her charms and ointments

She made him tame as a spaniel;

For the us'd to ride

On his back aftride,

Nor did he do her any ill.

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But,

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God fave the King and Parliament,
And eke the Prince's highness,

And quickly fend

The wars an end,

As here my fong has-Finis.

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Ver. 61. From this circumftance it appears, that this Ballad was wrote before the murder of the King, and that it is the earliest performance of Butler's that has yet been made public; and I think one may, without prejudice, affirm, that it does. no difcredit to his younger years.

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