Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON DR. RUNDEL; BISHOP OF DERRY, by JONATHAN SWIFT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON DR. RUNDEL; BISHOP OF DERRY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Make rundle bishop; fie, for shame!
Last Line: Your title had been so much better.
Subject(s): Clergy; Priests; Rabbis; Ministers; Bishops


Make Rundle bishop; fie, for shame!
An Arian to usurp the name!
A bishop in the isle of saints!
How will his brethren make complaints?
Dare any of the mitred host,
Confer on him the Holy Ghost;
In Mother Church to breed a variance,
By coupling orthodox with Arians?
Yet, were he heathen, Turk or Jew,
What is there in it strange or new?
For, let us hear the weak pretence,
His brethren find to take offence;
Of whom there are but four at most,
Who know there is an Holy Ghost:
The rest, who boast they have conferred it,
Like Paul's Ephesians, never heard it;
And, when they gave it, well 'tis known,
They gave what never was their own.
Rundle a bishop! well he may;
He's still a Christian more than they.
We know the subject of their quarrels;
The man has learning, sense and morals.
There is a reason still more weighty;
'Tis granted he believes a deity.
Has every circumstance to please us,
Though fools may doubt his faith in Jesus.
But why should he with that be loaded,
Now twenty years from court exploded?
And, is not this objection odd
From rogues who ne'er believed a God?
For liberty a champion stout,
Though not so gospel-ward devout.
While others hither sent to save us,
Came but to plunder and enslave us;
Nor ever owned a power divine,
But Mammon, and the German line.
Say, how did Rundle undermine 'em;
Who showed a better jus divinum?
From ancient canons would not vary,
But thrice refused episcopari.
Our bishop's predecessor, Magus,
Would offer all the sands of Tagus;
Or sell his children, house, and lands,
For that one gift to lay on hands:
But all his gold could not avail
To have the spirit set to sale.
Said surly Peter, 'Magus, prithee
Begone: thy money perish with thee.'
Were Peter now alive, perhaps
He might have found a score of chaps,
Could he but make his gift appear
In rents three thousand pounds a year.
Some fancy this promotion odd,
As not the handiwork of God;
Though even the bishops disappointed,
Must own it made by God's anointed.
And well we know, the congee regal
Is more secure, as well as legal,
Because our lawyers all agree,
That bishoprics are held in fee.
Dear Baldwin chaste, and witty Cross,
How sorely I lament your loss!
That such a pair of wealthy ninnies
Should slip your time of dropping guineas;
For, had you made the King your debtor,
Your title had been so much better.





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