To the Duke de Noailles

Vain the concern which you express,
That uncall'd Alard will possess
Your house and coach, both day and night,
And that Macbeth was haunted less
By Banquo's restless sprite.

With fifteen thousand pounds a-year,
Do you complain, you can not bear
An ill, you may so soon retrieve?
Good Alard, faith, is modester
By much, than you believe.

Lend him but fifty louis-d'or;
And you shall never see him more:
Take the advice; probatum est.
Why do the gods indulge our store,
But to secure our rest?