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Death's doings : consisting of numerous original compositions, in prose and verse, the friendly contributions of various writers
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159

THE ANTIQUARY.

" There's a lean fellow beats all conquerors."

Decker's Old Fortunatus.

The Antiquary, wrapt in busy dreamsOf old world things, the dead alive he seems,—The living record of the time gone by,—The chronicle of the first century :His eye faint glimmering 'neath o'erhanging brow,Bespeaks entire forgetfulness of " now :"To modern lore he makes but small pretence,And drops the present for the preterite tense.Ask of his garb 1 —He wears the same cut coatDryden might wear when Dryden lived and wrote.His politics?—To state and country true;Beyond, he knows or cares no more than you.His mansion's chequered walls attract the eye,And round his roof ancestral ravens fly.Within—but none save he that now may knowThe wealth of that prodigious raree-show;