ON THE ENGLISH ROGUE. _What others writ, was ta’en upon the Score; Thou art in _Re_, what they but _feign’d_ before. They did but _lisp, or worse_, speak through the Nose: Thou hast pronounc’t, and liv’st in _Verse_ and _Prose_. _Guzman_, _Lazaro_, _Buscon_, and _Francion_, Till thou appear’dst did shine as at high Noon. Thy Book’s now extant; those that Judge of Wit, Say, They and _Rablais_ too fall short of it. How could’t be otherwise, since ’twas thy fate, To _practise_ what they did but _imitate_. We stand amaz’d at thy _Ephesian Fire_; Such _purchas’d Infamy_ all must admire._ N. D. [Illustration] ON THE ENSUING SUBJECT. _What more _Rogues still_? I thought our happy Times Were freed from such, as from _Rebellious Crimes_. But such will be: i’ th’ best of _Times_ we find The _worst of men_; the _Law_ can’t _lawless_ bind. It might be so, since Nature thought it fit To give some nought but _Lands_, to others _Wit_ But no _Estates_, bestowing such a mind That can’t within due _limits_ be confin’d. Hence _Depredations_, _Thefts_, nay worser facts, _Cheating_ & _Whoring_, with unheard-of acts: For _Swimming_ for their _Lives_, these _misrules_ think, ’Tis better _catch_ at any thing, then _sink_. Such was this _Rogue_, esteem’d the worst of men; Liv’d by his _Sword_, his _Pregnant Wit_, and _Pen_. In short, Pray pardon if I speak amiss; I never read so arch a _Rogue_ as _This_._ A. B. The Preface to the Reader.