ut or wit or fear. }
The _Pharasees_ they curse, as Sons of _Cham,_
And all dissenting _Jews_ to Hell they damn.
_Shimei_ the Poet Laureate of that Age,
The falling Glory of the _Jewish_ Stage,
Who scourg'd the Priest, and ridicul'd the Plot,
Like common men must not be quite forgot.
Sweet was the Muse that did his wit inspire,
Had he not let his hackney Muse to hire:
But variously his knowing Muse could sing,
Could _Doeg_ praise, and could blaspheme the King:
The bad make good, good bad, and bad make worse,
Bless in Heroicks, and in Satyrs curse.
_Shimei_ to _Zabed_'s praise could tune his Muse,
And Princely _Azaria_ could abuse.
_Zimri_ we know he had no cause to praise,
Because he dub'd him with the name of _Bays_.
Revenge on him did bitter Venome shed,
Because he tore the Lawrel from his head;
Because he durst with his proud Wit engage,
And brought his Follies on the publick Stage.
Tell me, _Apollo_, for I can't divine,
Why Wives he curs'd, and prais'd the Concubine;
Unless it were that he had led his life
With a teeming Matron ere _she_ was a Wife:
Or that it best with his dear Muse did sute,
Who was for hire a very Prostitute.
The rising Sun this Poets God did seem,
Which made him tune's old Harp to praise _Eliakim_.
_Bibbai_, whose name won't in Oblivion rot,
For his great pains to hide the _Baalites_ Plot,
Must be remembred here: A Scribe was he,
Who daily damn'd in Prose the _Pharisee_.
With the Sectarian _Jews_ he kept great stir;
Did almost all, but his dear self, abhor.
What his Religion was, no one could tell;
And it was thought he knew himself not well:
Yet Conscience did pretend, and did abuse,
Under the notion of Sectarian _Jews_,
All that he thought, or all that did but seem
Foes to _Baal_'s Rites, _Eliakim_, and him.
He was a man of a pernicious Wit
For railing, biting, and for mischief fit:
He never slept, yet ever in a Dream;
Religion, Law, and State, was all his Theam.
On these he wrote in _Earnest_ and in _Jeast_,
Till he grew mad, and turn'd into a Beast,
_Zattue_ his Zanie was, Buffoon, and Fool,
Who turn'd Religion into Ridicule:
Jeer'd at the Plot, did _Sanhedrims_ abuse,
Mock'd Magistrates, damn'd all Sects of the _Jews_.
Of little Manners, and of lesser Brains;
Yet to embroil the State, took wondrous pains.
In jeasting still his little Talent lay;
At _Hushai_ scoft in's witless grinning way.

These with the rest, of every size and sort, }
Strove to be thought