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the Simple Peasant. [1]

MATTHEW.
Gossip, you’ll like to hear, no doubt!
A learned work has just come out–
Messias is the name ’twill bear;
The man has travelled through the air,
And on the sun-beplastered roads
Has lost shoe-leather by whole loads,–
Has seen the heavens lie open wide,
And hell has traversed with whole hide.
The thought has just occurred to me
That one so skilled as he must be
May tell us how our flax and wheat arise.
What say you?–Shall I try to ascertain?

LUKE.
You fool, to think that any one so wise
About mere flax and corn would rack his brain.

FOOTNOTE:
[1] A pointless satire upon Klopstock and his Messias.