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Dura fed emovere loco me tempora grato ;

Civilifque rudem belli tulit aeftus in arma,

Caefaris Augufti non refponfura lacertis.
Unde fimul primum me dimifere Philippi,
Decifis humilem pennis, inopemque paterni

Et laris et fundi, paupertas impulit audax

Ut verfus facerem: fed, quod non defit, habentem, Quae poterunt unquam fatis expurgare cicutae,

Ni melius dormire putem, quam fcribere verfus ?
* Singula de nobis anni praedantur euntes;

Eripuere jocos, venerem, convivia, ludum;
Tendunt extorquere poemata. quid faciam vis?

h Denique non omnes eadem mirantur amantque.

NOTES.

VER. 69. Indebted to no Prince or Peer alive,] For it would be very hard upon Authors, if the fubfcribing for a Book, which does honour to one's Age and Country, and confequently reflects back part of it on the Subferi. bers, fhould be efteemed a debt or obligation.

And certain Laws, by fuff'rers thought unjust,
Deny'd all pofts of profit or of truft:

Hopes after hopes of pious Papifts fail'd,

60

While mighty WILLIAM'S thund'ring arm prevail'd.
For Right Hereditary tax'd and fin'd,

He stuck to poverty with peace of mind;

65

:

And me, the Mufes help'd to undergo it;

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Convict a Papift he, and I a Poet.

But (thanks to Homer) fince 1 live and thrive,
Indebted to no Prince or Peer alive,

Sure I'fhould want the care of ten Monroes,

If I would fcribble, rather than repose.

70

• Years foll'wing years, fteal fomething ev'ry day. At last they steal us from ourselves away;

In one our Frolics, one Amusements end,
In one a Mistress drops, in one a Friend:
This fubtle Thief of life, this paltry Time,
What will it leave me, if it fnatch my rhime?

If ev'ry wheel of that unweary'd Mill

That turn'd ten thousand verses, now stands ftill.

75

↳ But after all, what wou'd you have me do? 80 When out of twenty I can please not two;

NOTES.

VER. 70. Monroes,] Dr. Monroe, Phyfician to Bedlam-Hofpital. P.

VER.

ER. 73. At last they feal us from ourselves away ;] i. e. Time changes all our paffions, appetites, and inclinations.

Carmine tu gaudes: hic delectatur iambis ;

Ille Bioneis fermonibus, et fale nigro.

Tres mihi convivae prope diffentire videntur,

Poscentes vario multum diverfa palato.

Quid dem? quid non dem? renuis quod tu, jubet

alter:

Quod petis, id fane eft invifum acidumque duobus.
i Praeter caetera me Romaene poemata cenfes
Scribere poffe, inter tot curas tótque labores?
Hic fponfum vocat, hic auditum scripta, relictis
Omnibus officiis: cubat hic in colle Quirini,

Hic extremo in Aventino; vifendus uterque.
<< Verum

Intervalla vides humane commoda.

"Purae funt plateae, nihil ut meditantibus obftet."

Feftinat calidus mulis gerulifque redemtor:

Torquet nunc lapidem, nunc ingens machina tignum :

NOTES.

VER. 87. Oldfield-Dartineuf] Two celebrated Gluttons. This inftance adds a beauty to the whole paffage,

When this Heroics only deigns to praise,

Sharp Satire that, and that Pindaric lays?

One likes the Pheafant's wing, and one the leg;
The vulgar boil, the learned roaft an egg;
Hard tafk! to hit the palate of such guefts,
When Oldfield loves, what Dartineuf detefts.
i But grant I may relapse, for want of grace,
Again to rhime; can London be the place?
Who there his Mufe, or felf, or foul attends,

85

90

In crouds, and courts, law, bufinefs, feasts, and

friends?

My counsel fends to execute a deed:

A Poet begs me, I will hear him read:

In Palace-yard at nine you'll find me there

At ten for certain, Sir, in Bloomfb'ry square- 95 Before the Lords at twelve my Cause comes onThere's a Rehearsal, Sir, exact at one.

"Oh but a Wit can study in the streets,

"And raise his mind above the mob he meets."
Not quite fo well however as one ought;

A hackney coach may chance to spoil a thought;
And then a nodding beam, or pig of lead,
God knows, may hurt the very ableft head.

NOTES.

100

as intimating that the demand for verfe is only a species of luxury.

Triftia robuftis luctantur funera plauftris :

Hac rabiofa fugit canis, hac lutulenta ruit fus.

k I nunc, et verfus tecum meditare canoros.

Scriptorum chorus omnis amat nemus, et fugit urbes,

Rite cliens Bacchi, fomno gaudentis et umbra.

Tu me inter ftrepitus nocturnos atque diurnos

Vis canere, et contracta sequi vestigia vatum ?

1Ingenium, fibi quod vacuas defumfit Athenas,

Et ftudiis annos feptem dedit, infenuitque

Libris et curis, ftatua taciturnius exit

Plerumque, et rifu populum quatit: hic ego rerum Fluctibus in mediis, et tempeftatibus urbis,

NOTES.

VER. 104. Have you not seen, etc.] The fatirical pleafantry of this image, and the humourous manner of representing it, raifes the imitation, in this place, far above the original.

VER. 113. Would drink and doze, etc.] This has not the delicacy, or elegant ambiguity of,

Rite cliens Bacchi, fomno gaudentis et umbra,

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