MIRA's WILL. Mary Leapor Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T127827 p. 413 K101776.000 Leapor, Mrs. (Mary), 1722-1746. Poems upon several occasions: By Mrs. Leapor of Brackley in Northamptonshire. London printed: and sold by J. Roberts 1748 pp. 8-10. 15,[5],282p. ; 8⁰.

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MIRA's WILL . IMPRIMIS — My departed Shade I trust To Heav'n — My Body to the silent Dust ; My Name to publick Censure I submit , To be dispos'd of as the World thinks fit ; My Vice and Folly let Oblivion close , The World already is o'erstock'd with those ; My Wit I give , as Misers give their Store , To those who think they had enough before . Bestow my Patience to compose the Lives Of slighted Virgins and neglected Wives ; To modish Lovers I resign my Truth , My cool Reflexion to unthinking Youth ; And some Good-nature give ( 'tis my Desire ) To surly Husbands , as their Needs require ; And first discharge my Funeral — and then To the small Poets I bequeath my Pen . Let a small Sprig ( true Emblem of my Rhyme ) Of blasted Laurel on my Hearse recline ; Let some grave Wight , that struggles for Renown , By chanting Dirges through a Market-Town , With gentle Step precede the solemn Train ; A broken Flute upon his Arm shall lean . Six comick Poets may the Corse surround , And All Free-holders , if they can be found : Then follow next the melancholy Throng , As shrewd Instructors , who themselves are wrong . The Virtuoso , rich in Sun-dry'd Weeds , The Politician , whom no Mortal heeds , The silent Lawyer , chamber'd all the Day , And the stern Soldier that receives no Pay . But stay — the Mourners shou'd be first our Care , Let the freed Prentice lead the Miser's Heir ; Let the young Relict wipe her mournful Eye , And widow'd Husbands o'er their Garlick cry . All this let my Executors fulfil , And rest assur'd that this is Mira's Will , Who was , when she these Legacies design'd , In Body healthy , and compos'd in Mind .