EPISTLE II.

EAR Col'nel, COBHAM'S and your country's
Friend!

6

You love a Verse, take such as I can send. b A Frenchman comes, presents you with his Boy, Bows and begins-" This Lad, Sir, is of Blois : "Observe his shape how clean! his locks how curl'd! " My only fon, I'd have him see the world : " His French is pure; his Voice too-you shall hear. "Sir, he's your flave, for twenty pound a year. " Mere wax as yet, you fashion him with ease, "Your Barber, Cook, Upholst'rer, what you pleafe: " A perfect genius at an Opera-fong"To say too much, might do my honour wrong. "Take him with all his virtues, on my word; "His whole ambition was to serve a Lord;

II

"But, Sir, to you, with what would I not part? 15 "Tho' faith, I fear, 'twill break his Mother's heart. "Once (and but once) I caught him in a lye, " And then, unwhipp'd, he had the grace to cry: "The fault he has I fairly shall reveal,

66

(Cou'd you o'erlook but that) it is, to steal. 20

NOTES.

The numbers well express the unwillingness of parting with what one can ill spare.

*M

"Quivis ferret idem: semel hic cessavit, et (ut fit)
"In scalis latuit metuens pendentis habenae :
" Des nummos, excepta nihil te fi fuga laedit.
• Ille ferat pretium, poenae fecurus, opinor.
Prudens emisti vitiofum: dicta tibi est lex.
Insequeris tamen hunc, et lite moraris iniqua.
4 Dixi me pigrum proficisenti tibi, dixi
Talibus officiis prope mancum: ne mea saevus
Jurgares ad te quod epistola nulla veniret.
Quid tum profeci, mecum facientia jura

Si tamen attentas? quereris super hoc etiam, quod
Exspectata tibi non mittam carmina mendax.

• Luculli miles collecta viatica multis Aerumnis, lassus dum noctu stertit, ad assem Perdiderat: poft hoc vehemens lupus, et sibi et hofti

Iratus pariter, jejunis dentibus acer,

Praefidium regale loco dejecit, ut aiunt,

NOTES.

VER. 24. I think Sir Godfrey] An eminent Justice of Peace, who decided much in the manner of Sancho Pancha. P. Sir Godfrey Kneller.

VER. 33. In Anna's Wars, etc.) Many parts of this story are well told; but, on the whole, it is much inferior to the original.

:

:

If, after this, you took the graceless lad,
Cou'd you complain, my Friend, he prov'd so bad?
Faith, in such case, if you should profecute,
I think Sir Godfrey should decide the suit;
Who fent the Thief that stole the Cash, away,
And punish'd him that put it in his way.

25

* Confider then, and judge me in this light;
I told you when I went, I could not write;
You said the fame; and are you discontent
With Laws, to which you gave your own assent? 30
Nay worse, to ask for Verse at such a time!

D'ye think me good for nothing but to rhime?
• In ANNA's Wars, a Soldier poor and old
Had dearly earn'd a little purse of gold:
Tir'd with a tedious march, one luckless night, 35
He flept, poor dog! and loft it, to a doit.
This put the man in such a desp'rate mind,
Between revenge, and grief, and hunger join'd
Against the foe, himself, and all mankind,
He leap'd the trenches, scal'd a Caftle-wall,
Tore down a Standard, took the Fort and all.

NOTES.

}

49

VER. 37. This put the man, etc.) Greatly below the Original,

Poft hoc vehemens lupus, et fibi et hosti
Iratus pariter, jejunis dentibus acer.

The lat words are particularly elegant and humourous,

Summe munito, et multarum divite rerum.
Clarus ob id factum, donis ornatur honeftis,
Accipit et bis dena super sestertia nummum.
Forte fub hoc tempus caftellum evertere praetor
Nefcio quod cupiens, hortari coepit eundem
Verbis, quae timido quoque possent addere mentem:
I, bone, quo virtus tua te vocat: i pede fausto,
Grandia laturus meritorum praemia: quid stas?
Poft haec ille catus, quantumvis rufticus, " Ibit,
"Ibit eo, quo vis, qui zonam perdidit, inquit.
f Romae nutriri mihi contigit, atque doceri,
Iratus Graiis quantum nocuisset Achilles.
Adjecere bonae paulo plus artis Athenae:
Scilicet ut poffem curvo dignofcere rectum,
Atque inter filvas Academi quaerere verum.

NOTES.

VER. 43. Gave him much praise, and some reward befide.] For the sake of a stroke of fatire, he has here weakened that circumstance, on which the turn of the story depends. Horace avoided it, tho' the avaricious character of Lucullus was a tempting occafion to indulge his raillery.

VER. 51. Let him take castles who has ne'er a groat.] This has neither the force nor the justness of the original. Horace makes his Soldier say,

Ibit,

Ibit eo, quo vis, qui zonam perdidit.

for it was not his poverty, but his loss, that pushed him upon danger; many being equal to the first, who cannot

" Prodigious well;" his great Commander cry'd, Gave him much praise, and some reward beside. Next pleas'd his Excellence a town to batter; (Its name I know not, and it's no great matter) 45 "Go on, my Friend (he cry'd) see yonder walls! "Advance and conquer! go where glory calls! "More honours, more rewards, attend the brave."

Don't you remember what reply he gave ?
" D'ye think me, noble Gen'ral, such a Sot?
"Let him take castles who has ne'er a groat."

50

f Bred up at home, full early I begun

To read in Greek the wrath of Peleus' son.
Besides, my Father taught me from a lad,
The better art to know the good from bad :
(And little sure imported to remove,
To hunt for Truth in Maudlin's learned grove.)
But knottier points we knew not half so well,

Depriv'd us foon of our paternal Cell;

NOTES.

55

bear the other. What betray'd our poet into this inaccuracy of expression was it's suiting better with the application. But in a great writer we pardon nothing. And fuch an one should never forget, that the expression is not perfect, but when the ideas it conveys fit both the tale and the application: for so, they reflect a mutual light upon one another.

VER. 53. To read in Greek the wrath of Peleus' fon.] This circumftance has a happier application in the imitation than in the original; and properly introduces the 68th verse.