On Stephen Duck

The Thresher, and Favourite Poet

A QUIBBLING EPIGRAM. 1730

The thresher Duck could o'er the queen prevail,
The proverb says, "no fence against a flail."
From threshing corn he turns to thresh his brains;
For which her majesty allows him grains:
Though 'tis confest, that those, who ever saw
His poems, think them all not worth a straw!
Thrice happy Duck, employ'd in threshing stubble,
Thy toil is lessen'd, and thy profits double.

[Footnote 1: Who was appointed by Queen Caroline librarian to a small
collection of books in a building called Merlin's Cave, in the Royal
Gardens of Richmond.
"How shall we fill a library with wit,
When Merlin's cave is half unfurnish'd yet?"
POPE, Imitations of Horace, ii, Ep. 1.—W. E. B.]