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SATIRA PRIMA.

HORATIUS. TREBATIUS.

HORATIUS.

*SUNT quibus in Satira videar nimis acer, et ultra Legem tendere opus; fine nervis altera, quidquid Compofui, pars effe putat, fimilesque meorum

b

Mille die verfus deduci poffe.
Quid faciam? praefcribe.

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VER. 3. Scarce to wife Peter. Chartres] It has been commonly obferved of the English, that a Rogue never gocs to the Gallows without the pity of the Spectators, and their parting curfes on the rigour of the Laws that brought him thither: and this has been as commonly ascribed to the good nature of the people. But it is a miftake. The true caufe is their hatred and envy of power. Their compaffion for Dunces and Scoundrels (when expofed by great writers to public contempt, either in justice to the age, or in vindication of their own Characters) has the fame fource. They cover their envy to a fuperior genius, in lamenting the feverity of his Pen.

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P.

S

ATIRE L

To Mr. FORTESCUE.

THE

HERE are (I scarce can think it, but am told)

There are, to whom my Satire feems too bold:
Scarce to wife Peter complaifant enough,
And something faid of Chartres much too rough.
↳ The lines are weak, another's pleas'd to say,
Lord Fanny fpins a thousand fuch a day.
Tim'rous by nature, of the Rich in awe,
c I come to Council learned in the Law:

You'll give me, like a friend both fage and free,
Advice; and (as you ufe) without a Fee.

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P. Not write? but then I think,

And for my foul I cannot fleep a wink.

NOTES.

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VER. 7. Tim'rous by nature, of the Rich in awe,] The delicacy of this does not fo much lie in the ironical application of it to himself, as in its feriously characterifing the Person for whose advice he applies.

VER. 12. Not write? &c.] He has omitted the most humourous part of the answer,

Peream male, fi non

Optimum erat,

and has left the grace, by not imitating the concifenefs, of verum nequeo dormire.

T. f Ter un&ti

Tranfnanto Tiberim, fomno quibus eft opus alto;
Irriguumve mero fub noctem corpus habento.

h

8 Aut, fi tantus amor fcribendi te rapit, aude CAESARIS invicti res dicere, multa laborum Praemia laturus.

i

H. Cupidum, pater optime, vires

Deficiunt: neque enim quivis horrentia pilis
Agmina, nec fracta pereuntes cufpide Gallos,

Aut labentis equo describat vulnera Parthi.

k

T. Attamen et juftum poteras et fcribere fortem, Scipiadam ut fapiens Lucilius.

1

H. Haud mihi deero,

Cum res ipfa feret: nifi dextro tempore, Flacci

NOTES.

For conciseness, when it is clear (as in this place) gives the highest grace to elegance of expreffion.-But what follows is as much above the Original, as this falls fhort of it.

VER. 20. Hartshorn] This was intended as a pleasantry on the novelty of the prescription.

VER. 28. falling Horfe?] The horse on which his Majesty charged at the battle of Oudenard; when the Pre

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