Is there a parson much bemused in beer,

A maudlin poetess, a rhyming peer,

A clerk foredoom'd his father's soul to cross,

Who pens a stanza when he should engross?

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot. Prologue to the Satires. Line 15.

Oh for a forty-parson power!

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Don Juan. Canto x. Stanza 34.

In arguing too, the parson own'd his skill,

For e'en though vanquish'd he could argue still;

While words of learned length and thundering sound

Amaz'd the gazing rustics rang'd around;

And still they gaz'd, and still the wonder grew

That one small head could carry all he knew.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Deserted Village. Line 209.

There goes the parson, O illustrious spark!

And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.

William Cowper (1731-1800): On observing some Names of Little Note.