His life, though long, to sickness pass'd unknown; With lenient arts extend a mother's breath, 410 Preserve him social, cheerful, and serene, A. Whether that blessing be denied or given, Thus far was right; the rest belongs to Heaven. * Arbuthnot had been Queen Anne's favourite physician. SATIRES AND EPISTLES OF HORACE IMITATED. Ludentis speciem dabit, et torquebitur.-HORACE. THE FIRST SATIRE OF THE SECOND BOOK OF HORACE IMITATED. TO MR. FORTESCUE.* P. THERE are, (I scarce can think it, but am told,) F. I'd write no more. 10 P. Not write? but then I think, And for my soul I cannot sleep a wink : * A barrister, afterwards a judge, and Master of the Rolls. Peter Walters. See Moral Essays, Ep. III., 1. 20, note. § Lord Hervey. See Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, p. 201, 1. 305, &c. I nod in company, I wake at night; F. You could not do a worse thing for your life. 19 P. What? like Sir Richard,* rumbling, rough, and fierce, With arms, and George, and Brunswick crowd the verse, Rend with tremendous sound your ears asunder, With gun, drum, trumpet, blunderbuss, and thunder? Or nobly wild, with Budgell's fire and force, 30 P. Alas! few verses touch their nicer ear; They scarce can bear their Laureate twice a year; And justly Cæsar scorns the poet's lays : It is to history he trusts for praise. F. Better be Cibber, I'll maintain it still, Than ridicule all taste, blaspheme quadrille, Abuse the city's best good men in metre, And laugh at peers that put their trust in Peter. E'en those you touch not, hate you. 39 P. What should ail them? F. A hundred smart in Timon || and in Balaam :T * Sir Richard Blackmore, Kt. See Dunciad, Book I., 1. 104. note. + See Dunciad, Book II., 1. 397, note. Caroline, Queen of George II. $ Princess Amelia, daughter of George II. See Moral Essays, Ep. IV., 1. 99, note. ¶ Ibid, Ep. III., line 342, &c. The fewer still you name, you wound the more ; Bond is but one, but Harpax is a score. * : P. Each mortal has his pleasure none deny Scarsdale his bottle, Darty + his ham-pie: Ridotta sips and dances, till she see The doubling lustres dance as fast as she; Floves the senate, Hockley-hole his brother, Like in all else as one egg to another. I love to pour out all myself, as plain As downright Shippen,§ or as old Montaigne : 50 60 The soul stood forth, nor kept a thought within; While Tories call me Whig, and Whigs a Tory. Thieves, supercargoes, sharpers, and directors. *Lord Scarsdale. 70 Darteneuf, paymaster of the Board of Works, a great epicure. Probably Henry Fox, first Lord Holland. § A Tory and Jacobite leader in the reigns of George I. and George II.; distinguished for his freedom of speech and love of liberty. |