462 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



Benjamin Bolus, though in trade, 

 (Which oftentimes will genius fetter) 



Read works of fancy it is said ; 

 And cultivated the Belles Lettres. 



And why should this be thought so odd ? 



Can't men have taste who cure a phthisic ? 

 Of poetry though patron God, 



Apollo patronizes physic. 



Bolus loved verse ; — and took so much delight ia't, 

 That his prescriptions he resolved to write in't. 



No opportunity he e'er let pass 

 Of writing the directions on his labels, 

 In dapper couplets like Gay's fables ; 



Or, rather, like the lines in Hudibras. 



Apothecaries rhyme! and where's the treason? 



'Tis simply honest dealing — not a fault. 

 When patients swallow physic without reason, 



Is it not fair to give a little salt? 



He had a patient lying at death's door. 



Some three miles from the town — it might be four; 

 To whom, one evening, Bolus sent an article, 

 In Pharmacy, that's called cathartical. 

 And, on the label of the stuff. 



He wrote this verse ; 

 Which one would think was clear enough, 

 And terse : — 

 ■ "When taken," 

 " To be well shaken." 



Next morning, early, Bolus rose ; 

 And to the patient's house he goes — 



Upon his pad, 

 Who a vile trick of stumbling had : 

 It was indeed a very sorry hack ; — 



But that's of course : 



For what's expected from a horse. 

 With an apothecary on his back ? 

 Bolus arrived ; and gave a doubtful tap ; — 

 Between a single and a double rap. — ■ 



