Explore "Richard Roe and John Doe" by Robert Graves on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Richard Roe wished himself _Solomon_ / Made cuckold, you should know, by one John Doe; / _Solomon's_ neck was firm enough to bear / Some score of antlers more than Roe could wear.
Richard Roe wished himself _Alexander_, / Being robbed of house and land by the same hand; / Ten thousand acres or a principal town / Would have cost _Alexander_ scarce a frown.
Richard Roe wished himself _Job_ the prophet, / Sunk past reclaim in stinking rags and shame; / _Job's_ plight was utterly bad, his own even worse, / He found no God to call on or to curse.
He wished himself _Job_, _Solomon_, _Alexander_, / For cunning, patience, power to overthrow / His tyrant, but with heart gone so far rotten / That most of all he wished himself John Doe.