I think I should have made a decent spouse,

If I had never proved the soft condition;

I think I should have made monastic vows

But for my own peculiar superstition:

'Gainst rhyme I never should have knocked my brows,

Nor broken my own head, nor that of Priscian,[744]Nor worn the motley mantle of a poet,

If some one had not told me to forego it.[745]