John Milton. (1608–1674). Complete Poems.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| On the University Carrier |
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| (1631) |
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Who sickened in the time of his Vacancy, being forbid to go to London by reason of the Plague.
HERE lies old Hobson. Death hath broke his girt, | |
| And here, alas! hath laid him in the dirt; | |
| Or else, the ways being foul, twenty to one | |
| He’s here stuck in a slough, and overthrown. | |
| ’T was such a shifter that, if truth were known, | 5 |
| Death was half glad when he had got him down; | |
| For he had any time this ten years full | |
| Dodged with him betwixt Cambridge and The Bull. | |
| And surely Death could never have prevailed, | |
| Had not his weekly course of carriage failed; | 10 |
| But lately, finding him so long at home, | |
| And thinking now his journey’s end was come, | |
| And that he had ta’en up his latest Inn, | |
| In the kind office of a Chamberlin | |
| Showed him his room where he must lodge that night, | 15 |
| Pulled off his boots, and took away the light. | |
| If any ask for him, it shall be said, | |
| “Hobson has supped, and ’s newly gone to bed.” | |
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