1

EPILOGUE

TO THE

SATIRES.

Written in MDCCXXXVIII.

DIALOGUE 1.

FR. OT twice a twelve-month you appear in

Print,

And when it comes, the Court see nothing in't.

You don't, I hope, pretend to quit the trade,
Because you think your reputation made :
Like good ** of whom so much was faid,
That when his name was up, he laya-bed.
Come, come, refresh us with a livelier fong,
Or like ** you'll lie a-bed too long.

NOTES.

VER. 1. Not twice a twelve-month etc.] These two lines are from Horace; and the only lines that are so in the whole Poem; being meant to give a handle to that which follows in the character of an impertinent Cenfurer,

'Tis all from Horace; etc. P.

VER. 2. the Court fee nothing in't.) He chose this expression for the fake of its elegant and fatiric ambiguity. His writings abound in them.

You grow correct, that once, with Rapture writ,
And are, besides, too moral for a Wit.

Decay of Parts, alas! we all must feel
Why now, this moment, don't I see you steal?
'Tis all from Horace; Horace long before ye
Said, "Tories call'd him Whig, and Whigs a Tory;"
And taught his Romans, in much better metre,

--

5

"To laugh at Fools who put their trust in Peter." ro

But Horace, Sir, was delicate, was nice;

Bubo observes, he lash'd no fort of Vice :
Horace would say, Sir Billy ferv'd the Crown,
Blunt could do Bus'ness, H-ggins knew the Town;
In Sappho touch the Failing of the Sex,

15

In rev'rend Bishops note some small Neglects,
And own, the Spaniard did a waggish thing,
Who cropt our Ears, and sent them to the King.

VARIATIONS.

P. Sir, what I write, should be correctly writ.
F. Correct! 'tis what no genius can admit.

Besides, you grow too moral for a Wit.

NOTES.

VER. 12. Bubo observes,] Some guilty perfon very fond of making fuch an observation. P.

VER. 14. H-ggins) Formerly Jaylor of the Fleet prifon, enriched himself by many exactions, for which he was tried and expelled. P.

VER. 18. Who cropt our Ears,] Said to be executed by the Captain of a Spanish ship on one Jenkins a Captain of

His fly, polite, infinuating style
Could please at Court, and make AUGUSTUS smile:
An artful Manager, that crept between
His Friend and Shame, and was a kind of Screen.

But 'faith your very Friends will foon be fore;
Patriots there are, who wish you'd jest no more ---
And where's the Glory; 'twill be only thought

The Great man never offer'd you a groat.

21

25

Seen him I have, but in his happier hour

Of Social Pleasure, ill-exchang'd for Pow'r;

30

Seen him, uncumber'd with the Venal tribe,

Smile without Art, and win without a Bribe.

NOTES.

an English one.

He cut off his ears, and bid him carry

them to the King his master. P.

VER. 22. Screen.]

Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico

Tangit, et admissus circum præcordia ludit. Perf. P. Ibid. Screen.] A metaphor peculiarly appropriated to a

certain person in power.

P.

VER. 24. Patriots there are, &c.] This appellation was generally given to those in oppofition to the Court. Though fome of them (which our author hints at) had views too mean and interested to deserve that name.

P.

VER. 26. The Great man] A phrafe, by common use, appropriated to the first minifter. P.

VER. 31. Seen him, uncumber'd] These two verses were