[Page 326]
PANACEA:
Or, The Grand RESTORATIVE.
1 WELCOME to Baiae's streams, ye sons of spleen,
2 Who rove from spa to spa — to shift the scene.
3 While round the steaming fount you idly throng,
4 Come, learn a wholsome secret from my song.
5 Ye fair, whose roses feel th' approaching frost,
6 And drops supply the place of spirits lost:
7 Ye 'squires, who rack'd with gouts, at heav'n repine,
8 Condemn'd to water for excess in wine:
9 Ye portly cits, so corpulent and full,
10 Who eat and drink 'till appetite grows dull:
[Page 327]11 For whets and bitters then unstring the purse,
12 Whilst nature more opprest grows worse and worse:
13 Dupes to the craft of pill-prescribing leaches:
14 You nod or laugh at what the parson preaches:
15 Hear then a rhyming quack, — who spurns your wealth,
16 And gratis gives a sure receipt for health.
17 No more thus vainly roam o'er sea and land,
18 When lo! a sovereign remedy at hand:
19 'Tis Temperance — stale cant! — 'Tis Fasting then;
20 Heaven's antidote against the sins of men.
21 Foul luxury's the cause of all your pain:
22 To scour th' obstructed glands, abstain! abstain!
23 Fast and take rest, ye candidates for sleep,
24 Who from high food tormenting vigils keep:
25 Fast and be fat — thou starveling in a gown:
26 Ye bloated, fast — 'twill surely bring you down.
27 Ye nymphs that pine o'er chocolate and rolls,
28 Hence take fresh bloom, fresh vigour to your souls.
29 Fast and fear not — you'll need no drop nor pill:
30 Hunger may starve, excess is sure to kill.
About this text
Author: Richard Graves
Themes:
illness; injury; drugs; food; drink
Genres:
heroic couplet; satire
References:
DMI 26717
Text view / Document view
Source edition
Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. IV. London: printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1763 [1st ed. 1758], pp. 326-327. 6v.: music; 8⁰. (ESTC T131163; OTA K104099.004) (Page images digitized by the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive from a copy in the archive's library.)
Editorial principles
The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.
Other works by Richard Graves
- The CABINET. Or, Verses on Roman Medals. ()
- The HEROINES, or Modern Memoirs, ()
- The INVISIBLE. ()
- AN INVITATION TO THE FEATHERED RACE, MDCCLXIII. WRITTEN AT CLAVERTON, NEAR BATH. ()
- ON THE ANCIENT CITY OF BATH. WRITTEN ON THE FINISHING THE CIRCUS. ()
- The PARTING. Written some Years after Marriage. ()
- The Pepper-box and Salt-seller. A FABLE. ()
- To Lady FANE on her Grotto at Basilden. 1746. ()
- UNDER AN HOUR-GLASS, IN A GROTTO NEAR THE WATER AT CLAVERTON. ()
- Written near BATH. 1755. ()