Explore "An Epigram. Addressed to the Gentlemen Reflected on in the Rosciad, a Poem, by the Author" by Oliver Goldsmith on Textopian.
Worried with debts and past all hopes of bail, His pen he prostitutes t' avoid a gaol.
ROSCOM.
LET not the _hungry_ Bavius' angry stroke / Awake resentment, or your rage provoke; / But pitying his distress, let virtue shine, / And giving each your bounty, _let him dine_; / For thus retain'd, as learned counsel can, / Each case, however bad, he'll new japan; / And by a quick transition, plainly show / 'Twas no defect of yours, but _pocket low_, / That caused his _putrid kennel_ to o'erflow.