First come, first served, he cries; and I, in spite Of your great lordships, will maintain my right; Though born a slave, though my torn ears are bored,[71] 'Tis not the birth, 'tis money makes the lord. The rents of five fair houses I receive; What greater honours can the purple give? The poor patrician is reduced to keep, In melancholy walks, a grazier's sheep: Not Pallus nor Licinius[72] had my treasure; Then let the sacred tribunes wait my leisure. Once a poor rogue, 'tis true, I trod the street, And trudged to Rome upon my naked feet: Gold is the greatest God; though yet we see No temples raised to money's majesty; No altars fuming to her power divine, Such as to valour, peace, and virtue shine, And faith, and concord; where the stork on high[73] } Seems to salute her infant progeny, } Presaging pious love with her auspicious cry.-- } But since our knights and senators account, To what their sordid begging vails amount, Judge what a wretched share the poor attends, Whose whole subsistence on those alms depends! Their household fire, their raiment, and their food, Prevented by those harpies;[74] when a wood Of litters thick besiege the donor's gate, And begging lords and teeming ladies wait The promised dole; nay, some have learned the trick To beg for absent persons; feign them sick, Close mewed in their sedans, for fear of air; } And for their wives produce an empty chair. } This is my spouse; dispatch her with her share; } 'Tis Galla.--Let her ladyship but peep.-- No, sir, 'tis pity to disturb her sleep.[75] Such fine employments our whole days divide: The salutations of the morning tide Call up the sun; those ended, to the hall We wait the patron, hear the lawyers bawl; Then to the statues; where amidst the race } Of conquering Rome, some Arab shows his face, } Inscribed with titles, and profanes the place;[76] } Fit to be pissed against, and somewhat more. The great man, home conducted, shuts his door. Old clients, wearied out with fruitless care, Dismiss their hopes of eating, and despair; Though much against the grain, forced to retire, Buy roots for supper, and provide a fire. Meantime his lordship lolls within at ease, Pampering his paunch with foreign rarities; Both sea and land are ransacked for the feast, And his own gut the sole invited guest. Such plate, such tables, dishes dressed so well, That whole estates are swallowed at a meal. Even parasites are banished from his board; (At once a sordid and luxurious lord;) Prodigious throat, for which whole boars are drest; (A creature formed to furnish out a feast.)