EPISTLE II.

D

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

You love a Verfe, take fuch as I can fend.

6

b A Frenchman comes, prefents 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 fee the world:
"His French is pure; his Voice too-you fhall hear.
"Sir, he's your flave, for twenty pound a year.
"Mere wax as yet, you fashion him with ease,
"Your Barber, Cook, Upholft'rer, what you pleafe:
"A perfect genius at an Opera-fong-

"To fay too much, might do my honour wrong.
"Take him with all his virtues, on my word;
"His whole ambition was to ferve 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 fteal. 20

NOTES.

The numbers well exprefs the unwillingness of parting with what one can ill fpare.

* M

Quivis ferret idem: femel hic ceffavit, et (ut fit) "In fcalis latuit metuens pendentis habenae:

"Des nummos, excepta nihil te fi fuga laedit.

Ille ferat pretium, poenae fecurus, opinor.
Prudens emifti vitiofum: dicta tibi eft lex.
Infequeris tamen hunc, et lite moraris iniqua.
d Dixi me pigrum proficisenti tibi, dixi
Talibus officiis prope mancum; ne mea faevus
Jurgares ad te quod epistola nulla veniret.

Quid tum profeci, mecum facientia jura

Si tamen attentas? quereris fuper hoc etiam, quod
Exfpectata tibi non mittam carmina mendax.

с

• Luculli miles collecta viatica multis

Aerumnis, laffus dum noctu ftertit, ad affem

Perdiderat poft hoc vehemens lupus, et fibi 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 ftory are well told; but, on the whole, it is much inferior to the original.

с

If, after this, you took the graceless lad,

Cou'd you complain, my Friend, he prov'd fo bad?
Faith, in fuch cafe, if you fhould profecute,

I think Sir Godfrey should decide the fuit;

Who fent the Thief that stole the Cash, away, 25
And punish'd him that put it in his way.

• Confider then, and judge me in this light;
I told you when I went, I could not write;
You faid the fame; and are you discontent

With Laws, to which you gave your own affent? 30
Nay worse, to ask for Verse at such a time!
D'ye think me good for nothing but to rhime?

e 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,
He flept, poor dog! and loft it, to a doit.

This put the man in such a despʼrate mind,
Between revenge, and grief, and hunger join'd
Against the foe, himself, and all mankind,
He leap'd the trenches, fcal'd a Caftle-wall,
Tore down a Standard, took the Fort and all.

35

}

40

NOTES.

VER. 37. This put the man, etc.] Greatly below the Oxiginal,

Poft hoc vehemens lupus, et fibi et hofti

Iratus pariter, jejunis dentibus acer.

The laf words are particularly elegant and humourous,

Summe munito, et multarum divite rerum.
Clarus ob id factum, donis ornatur honeftis,
Accipit et bis dena fuper feftertia nummûm.
Forte fub hoc tempus caftellum evertere praetor
Nefcio quod cupiens, hortari coepit eundem
Verbis, quae timido quoque poffent addere mentem :
I, bone, quo virtus tua te vocat: i pede faufto,
Grandia laturus meritorum praemia: quid ftas?
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 nocuiffet 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 praife, and fome reward befide.] For the fake of a stroke of fatire, he has here weakened that circumitance, 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 juftness of the original. Horace makes his Soldier say,

Ibit,

Ibit eo, quo vis, qui zonam perdidit.

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

"Prodigious well;" his great Commander cry'd,
Gave him much praife, and fome reward befide.
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) fee 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, fuch a Sot?
"Let him take caftles who has ne'er a groat.'
f Bred up at home, full early I begun
To read in Greek the wrath of Peleus' fon.
Befides, my Father taught me from a lad,
The better art to know the good from bad:

(And little fure imported to remove,

To hunt for Truth in Maudlin's learned grove.)
But knottier points we knew not half fo well,
Depriv'd us foon of our paternal Cell;

NOTES.

50

55

bear the other. What betray'd our poet into this inaccuracy of expreffion was it's fuiting better with the application. But in a great writer we pardon nothing. And fuch an one should never forget, that the expreffion is not perfect, but when the ideas it conveys fit both the tale and the application: for fo, 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 verfe.