Dura sed emovere loco me tempora grato;
Civilisque rudem belli tulit aeftus in arma,

Caefaris Augusti non responsura lacertis.
Unde fimul primum me dimisere Philippi,
Decisis humilem pennis, inopemque paterni
Et laris et fundi, paupertas impulit audax
Ut versus facerem: fed, quod non defit, habentem,
Quae poterunt unquam fatis expurgare cicutae,
Ni melius dormire putem, quam scribere versus ?
* Singula de nobis anni praedantur euntes;
Eripuere jocos, venerem, convivia, ludum;
Tendunt extorquere poemata. quid faciam vis?

h Denique non omnes eadem mirantur amantque.

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

Convict a Papist he, and I a Poet.

But (thanks to Homer) fince I live and thrive,

Indebted to no Prince or Peer alive,

:

Sure I'should want the care of ten Monroes,

70

:

:

:

:

If I would fcribble, rather than repose.

• Years foll'wing years, steal something 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 snatch my rhime?
If ev'ry wheel of that unweary'd Mill

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

75

But after all, what wou'd you have me do? ৪০ When out of twenty I can please not two;

NOTES.

VER. 70. Monroes,) Dr. Monroe, Physician to Bedlam-Hospital. P.

VER. 73. At last they steal us from ourselves arvay;] i. e. Time changes all our paffions, appetites, and inclinations.

Carmine tu gaudes: hic delectatur iambis;

Ille Bioneis fermonibus, et sale nigro.

Tres mihi convivae prope dissentire videntur,

Poscentes vario multum diversa palato.

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

alter:

Quod petis, id sane est invisum acidumque duobus.
i Praeter caetera me Romaene poemata censes
Scribere poffe, inter tot curas totque labores?
Hic sponsum vocat, hic auditum scripta, relictis
Omnibus officiis: cubat hic in colle Quirini,
Hic extremo in Aventino; visendus uterque.
Intervalla vides humane commoda. " Verum
"Purae funt plateae, nihil ut meditantibus obstet."
Festinat calidus mulis gerulisque redemtor:

Torquet nunc lapidem, nunc ingens machina tignum:

NOTES.

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

When this Heroics only deigns to praise,
Sharp Satire that, and that Pindaric lays?
One likes the Pheasant's wing, and one the leg;
The vulgar boil, the learned roaft an egg;
Hard task! to hit the palate of such guests,
When Oldfield loves, what Dartineuf detests.

85

i But grant I may relapse, for want of grace, Again to rhime; can London be the place? Who there his Muse, or self, or foul attends, In crouds, and courts, law, business, feafts, and

friends?

My counsel sends 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 Bloomsb'ry square- 95
Before the Lords at twelve my Cause comes on-
There'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 so 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 ablest head.

100

Tristia robustis luctantur funera plauftris:

Hac rabiofa fugit canis, hac lutulenta ruit fus.

* I nunc, et versus tecum meditare canoros.

Scriptorum chorus omnis amat nemus, et fugit urbes,

Rite cliens Bacchi, somno gaudentis et umbra.

Tu me inter strepitus nocturnos atque diurnos
Vis canere, et contracta sequi vestigia vatum ?

Ingenium, fibi quod vacuas desumsit Athenas,

Et studiis annos feptem dedit, insenuitque

Libris et curis, statua taciturnius exit

Plerumque, et risu populum quatit: hic ego rerum

Fluctibus in mediis, et tempestatibus urbis,

}

NOTES.

VER. 104. Have you not seen, etc.] The fatirical pleasantry of this image, and the humourous manner of representing it, raises 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.