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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=457216" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Ladle. A Tale</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Sceptics think 'twas long ago<br>Since gods came down <br>incognito</div><div style="margin:10px 0">To see who were their friends or foes,<br>And how our actions fell or rose;<br>That since they gave things their beginning,<br>And set this whirligig a-spinning,<br>Supine they in their heaven remain,<br>Exempt from passion and from pain,<br>And frankly leave us human elves<br>To cut and shuffle for ourselves;<br>To stand or walk, to rise or tumble,<br>As matter and as motion jumble.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The poets now, and painters, hold<br>This thesis both absurd and bold,<br>And your good-natured gods, they say,<br>Descend some twice or thrice a-day,<br>Else all these things we toil so hard in<br>Would not avail one single farthing;<br>For when the hero we rehearse<br>To grace his actions and our verse,<br>'Tis not by dint of human thought<br>That to his Latium he is brought;<br>Iris descends by Fate's commands<br>To guide his steps through foreign lands,<br>And Amphitrite clears his way<br>From rocks and quicksands in the sea.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And if you see him in a sketch<br>(Though drawn by Paulo or Carache)<br>He shows not half his force and strength<br>Strutting in armour and at length;<br>That he may make his proper figure<br>The piece must yet be four yards bigger;<br>The nymphs conduct him to the field,<br>One holds his sword, and one his shield,<br>Mars, standing by, asserts his quarrel,<br>And Fame flies after with a laurel.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">These points, I say, of speculation,<br>(As 'twere to save or sink the nation)<br>Men idly learned will dispute,<br>Assert, object, confirm, refute;<br>Each mighty angry, mighty right,<br>With equal arms sustains the fight,<br>Till now no umpire can agree 'em,<br>So both draw off and sing <br>Te Deum<br>.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Is it in equilibrio<br>If deities descend or no?<br>Then let th' affirmative prevail,<br>As requisite to form my Tale;<br>For by all parties 'tis confess'd<br>That those opinions are the best<br>Which in their nature most conduce<br>To present ends and private use.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Two gods came, therefore, from above,<br>One Mercury, the other Jove;<br>The humour was, it seems, to know<br>If all the favours they bestow<br>Could from our own perverseness ease us,<br>And if our wish enjoy'd would please us,<br>Discoursing largely on this theme,<br>O'er hills and dales their godships came,<br>Till well nigh tired, at almost night,<br>They thought it proper to alight.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Not here, that it as true as odd is,<br>That in disguise a god or goddess<br>Exerts no supernatural powers,<br>But acts on maxims much like ours.<br>They spied at last a country farm,<br>Where all was snug, and clean, and warm;<br>For woods before and hills behind<br>Secured it both from rain and wind:<br>Large oxen in the field were lowing,<br>Good grain was sow'd, good fruit was growing:<br>Of last year's corn in barns great store;<br>Fat turkeys gobbling at the door;<br>And Wealth in short, with Peace consented<br>That people here should live contented;<br>But did they in effect do so?<br>Have patience friend, and thou shalt know.<br>The honest farmer and his wife,<br>To years declined from prime of life,<br>Had struggled with the marriage noose,<br>As almost every couple does:<br>Sometimes my plague! sometimes my darling!<br>Kissing to-day, to-morrow snarling!<br>Jointly submitting to endure<br>That evil which admits no cure.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Our gods the outward gates unbarr'd;<br>Our farmer met 'em in the yard;<br>Thought they were folks that lost their way,<br>And ask'd them civilly to stay;<br>Told 'em for supper or for bed<br>They might go on and be worse sped. -</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So said, so done; the gods consent:<br>All three into the parlour went:<br>They compliment, they sit, they chat; <br>Fight o'er the wars, reform the state:<br>A thousand knotty points they clear,<br>Till supper and my wife appear.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Jove made his leg, and kiss'd the dame;<br>Obsequious Hermes did the same.<br>Jove kiss'd the farmer's wife, you say!<br>He did - but in an honest way:<br>Oh! not with half that warmth and life<br>With which he kiss'd Amphitryon's wife. -</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Well, then, things handsomely were served;<br>My mistress for the strangers carved.<br>How strong the beer, how good the meat,<br>How loud they laughed, how much they eat,<br>In epic sumptuous would appear,<br>Yet shall be pass'd in silence here;<br>For I should grieve to have it said<br>That, by a fine description led,<br>I made my episode too long,<br>Or tired my friend to grace my song.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The grace-cup served, the cloth away,<br>Jove thought it time to show his play.<br>Landlord and landlady, he cried,<br>Folly and jesting laid aside,<br>That ye thus hospitably live,<br>And strangers with good cheer receive,<br>Is mighty grateful to your betters<br>And make e'en gods themselves your debtors.<br>To give this thesis plainer proof,<br>You have to-night beneath your roof<br>A pair of gods: (nay, never wonder,)<br>This youth can fly and I can thunder.<br>I'm Jupiter, and he Mercurius,<br>My page, my son indeed, but spurious.<br>Form, then, three wishes, you and Madam,<br>And, sure as you already had 'em,<br>The things desired in half an hour<br>Shall all be here and in your power.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thank ye, great Gods, the woman says;<br>Oh! may your altars ever blaze!<br>A ladle for our silver dish<br>Is what I want, is what I wish. -<br>A ladle! cries the man, a ladle!<br>'Odzooks, Corsica, you have pray'd ill!<br>What should be great you turn to farce,<br>I wish the ladle in your a--.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">With equal grief and shame my Muse<br>The sequel of the tale pursues.<br>The ladle fell into the room,<br>And struck in old Corsica's bum.<br>Our couple weep two wishes past,<br>And kindly join to form the last;<br>To ease the woman's awkward pain,<br>And get the ladle out again.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Moral.<br>This commoner has worth and parts, <br>Is praised for arms, or loved for arts;<br>His head aches for a coronet,<br>And who is bless'd that is not great?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Some sense and more estate kind Heaven<br>To this well-lotted peer has given:<br>What then? he must have rule and sway,<br>And all is wrong till he's in play.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The miser must make up his plum,<br>And dares not touch the hoarded sum;<br>The sickly dotard wants a wife<br>To draw off his last dregs of life.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Against our peace we arm our will;<br>Amidst our plenty something still <br>For horses, houses, pictures, planting,<br>To thee, to me, to him, is wanting;<br>That cruel something unpossess'd,<br>Corrodes, and leavens all the rest:<br>That something if we could obtain<br>Would soon create a future pain;<br>And to the coffin from the cradle<br>'Tis all a wish and all a Ladle.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Matthew+Prior">Matthew Prior</a><div class=q>
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<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=457216" data-title="The Ladle. A Tale de Matthew Prior" data-description="The Sceptics think 'twas long ago
Since gods came down 
incognito

To see who were their friends or foes,
And how our actions fell or rose;
That since they gave things their beginning,
And set this whirligig a-spinning,
Supine they in their heaven..."></div>
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