Social Commentaries

Of a formall Minister

by Sir John Harington 1560–1612

From The Most Elegant and Witty Epigrams (1618), Book 2

Social Commentaries

A Minister, affecting singularitie,
And preaching in the Pulpit of his theame,
Borne with the current of the common streame,
Extolling faith and hope, forgetting charitie.
For while he was most busie in his Text,
He spyde a woman talking with her next,
And straight e crid to her, Dame, leaue thy babbling
Wherewith the good poore woman shrewdly vext,
Could hold no longer, but fell flat to squabbling:
Beshrew thy naked heart, she doth reply.
Who babbled in this place more? thou, or I?

✦ ✦ ✦

Book 2, Epigram 39

MLA

Harington, John. “Of a formall Minister.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/harington/99/.

Chicago

Harington, John. “Of a formall Minister.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/harington/99/.

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