Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham

On Mr Thomas Killigrew’s Return From Venice, and Mr William Murrey’s From Scotland

1 Our resident Tom,
    From Venice is come,
And hath left the statesman behind him;
    Talks at the same pitch,
    Is as wise, is as rich;
And just where you left him, you find him.

2 But who says he was not
    A man of much plot,
May repent that false accusation;
    Having plotted and penn’d
    Six plays, to attend
The farce of his negotiation.

3 Before you were told
    How Satan1 the old
Came here with a beard to his middle;
    Though he changed face and name,
    Old Will was the same,
At the noise of a can and a fiddle.

4 These statesmen, you believe,
    Send straight for the shrieve,
For he is one too, or would be;
    But he drinks no wine,
    Which is a shrewd sign
That all’s not so well as it should be.

5 These three, when they drink,
    How little do they think
Of banishment, debts, or dying?
    Not old with their years,
    Nor cold with their fears;
But their angry stars still defying.

6 Mirth makes them not mad,
    Nor sobriety sad;
But of that they are seldom in danger;
    At Paris, at Rome,
    At the Hague, they’re at home;
The good fellow is no where a stranger.

Notes

1 ‘Satan’: Mr. W. Murrey.