<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=420382" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Quidnunckis</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">How vain are mortal man's endeavours?<br>(Said, at dame Elleot's, master Travers)<br>Good Orleans dead! in truth 'tis hard:<br>Oh! may all statesmen die prepar'd!<br>I do foresee (and for foreseeing<br>He equals any man in being)<br>The army ne'er can be disbanded.<br>--I with the king was safely landed.<br>Ah friends! great changes threat the land!<br>All France and England at a stand!<br>There's Meroweis--mark! strange work!<br>And there's the Czar, and there's the Turk--<br>The Pope--An India-merchant by<br>Cut short the speech with this reply:<br>All at a stand? you see great changes?<br>Ah, sir! you never saw the Ganges:<br>There dwells the nation of Quidnunckis<br>(So Monomotapa calls monkeys<br>On either bank from bough to bough,<br>They meet and chat (as we may now):<br>Whispers go round, they grin, they shrug,<br>They bow, they snarl, they scratch, they hug;<br>And, just as chance or whim provoke them,<br>They either bite their friends, or stroke them.<br>There have I seen some active prig,<br>To show his parts, bestride a twig:<br>Lord! how the chatt'ring tribe admire!<br>Not that he's wiser, but he's higher:<br>All long to try the vent'rous thing,<br>(For power is but to have one's swing).<br>From side to side he springs, he spurns,<br>And bangs his foes and friends by turns.<br>Thus as in giddy freaks he bounces,<br>Crack goes the twig, and in he flounces!<br>Down the swift stream the wretch is borne;<br>Never, ah never, to return!<br>Zounds! what a fall had our dear brother!<br>Morbleu! cries one; and damme, t'other.<br>The nation gives a general screech;<br>None cocks his tail, none claws his breech;<br>Each trembles for the public weal,<br>And for a while forgets to steal.<br>Awhile all eyes intent and steady<br>Pursue him whirling down the eddy:<br>But, out of mind when out of view,<br>Some other mounts the twig anew;<br>And business on each monkey shore<br>Runs the same track it ran before.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=John+Gay">John Gay</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=420382" data-title="The Quidnunckis de John Gay" data-description="How vain are mortal man's endeavours? (Said, at dame Elleot's, master Travers) Good Orleans dead! in truth 'tis hard: Oh! may all statesmen die prepar'd! I do foresee (and for foreseeing He equals any man in being) The army ne'er can be disbanded...."></div> </div> </div>

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