Comparisons Are Odious
Doctor John Franklin, Fellow and Master of Sidney College, Cambridge, 1730, “a very fat, rosy-complexioned man,” dying soon after he was made Dean of Ely, and being succeeded by Dr. Ellis, “a meagre, weasel-faced, swarthy, black man,” the Fenman of Ely, says (Cole) in allusion thereto, out of vexation at being so soon called upon for recognition money, made the following humorous distitch:—
“The Devil took our Dean,
And pick’d his bones clean;
Then clapt him on a board,
And sent him back again.”