The
device is that anciently called "contrary to expectation," but
apparently borrowed by Goldsmith from some French poem. Here is a
specimen.
"Ye Muses, pour the pitying tear,
For Pollio snatched away;
O, had he lived another year
He had not died to-day."...
He gives another on Madam Blaize--
"Good people all with one accord
Lament for Madam Blaize,
Who never wanted a good word
From those who spoke her praise."
The Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog terminates in a stroke taken from
the old epigram of Demodocus--
"Good people all, of everysort,
Give ear unto my song,
And if you find it wondrous short,
It cannot hold you long.
"In Islington there was a man,
Of whom the world might say,
That still a godly race he ran,
Whene'er he went to pray.
"A kind and gentle heart he had,
To comfort friends and foes,
The naked every day he clad,
When he put on his clothes.
"And in this town a dog was found,
As many dogs there be,
Both mongrel, puppy, whelps, and hound,
And curs of low degree.
"This dog and man at first were friends,
But when a pique began,
The dog to gain some private ends,
Went mad, and bit the man.
"Around from all the neighbouring streets
The wondering neighbours ran,
And swore the dog had lost his wits,
To bite so good a man.
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