MERCURY and the ELEPHANT. A Prefatory FABLE. Anne Finch (née Kingsmill), countess of Winchilsea Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
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Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T94539 pp. 274-5 K076314.000 Winchilsea, Anne Kingsmill Finch, Countess of, 1661-1720. Miscellany poems, on several occasions: Written by the Right Honble Anne, Countess of Winchilsea. London printed for J. B. and sold by Benj. Tooke, William Taylor, and James Round 1713 pp. 1-4. [8],390p. ; 8⁰.

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MERCURY and the ELEPHANT . A Prefatory FABLE . AS Merc'ry travell'd thro' a Wood , ( Whose Errands are more Fleet than Good ) An Elephant before him lay , That much encumber'd had the Way : The Messenger , who's still in haste , Wou'd fain have bow'd , and so have past ; When up arose th' unweildy Brute , And wou'd repeat a late Dispute , In which ( he said ) he'd gain'd the Prize From a wild Boar of monstrous Size : But Fame ( quoth he ) with all her Tongues , Who Lawyers , Ladies , Soldiers wrongs , Has , to my Disadvantage , told An Action throughly Bright and Bold ; Has said , that I foul Play had us'd , And with my Weight th' Opposer bruis'd ; Had laid my Trunk about his Brawn , Before his Tushes cou'd be drawn ; Had stunn'd him with a hideous Roar , And twenty-thousand Scandals more : But I defy the Talk of Men , Or Voice of Brutes in ev'ry Den ; Th' impartial Skies are all my Care , And how it stands Recorded there . Amongst you Gods , pray , What is thought ? Quoth Mercury — Then have you Fought ! Solicitous thus shou'd I be For what's said of my Verse and Me ; Or shou'd my Friends Excuses frame , And beg the Criticks not to blame ( Since from a Female Hand it came ) Defects in Judgment , or in Wit ; They'd but reply — Then has she Writ ! Our Vanity we more betray , In asking what the World will say , Than if , in trivial Things like these , We wait on the Event with ease ; Nor make long Prefaces , to show What Men are not concern'd to know : For still untouch'd how we succeed , 'Tis for themselves , not us , they Read ; Whilst that proceeding to requite , We own ( who in the Muse delight ) 'Tis for our Selves , not them , we Write . Betray'd by Solitude to try Amusements , which the Prosp'rous fly ; And only to the Press repair , To fix our scatter'd Papers there ; Tho' whilst our Labours are preserv'd , The Printers may , indeed , be starv'd .