Page images
PDF
EPUB

If honest S*z take scandal at a Spark,

[ocr errors][merged small]

a

Faith I fhall give the answer Reynard gave: "I cannot like, dread Sir, your Royal Cave: "Because I fee, by all the tracks about,

115

"Full many a Beast goes in, but none come out." Adieu to Virtue, if you're once a Slave:

Send her to Court, you fend her to her grave.

Well, if a King's a Lion, at the leaft

b

The People are a many-headed Beaft:

Can they direct what measures to pursue,

[ocr errors]

120

Who know themselves fo little what to do?
Alike in nothing but one Luft of Gold,

Just half the land would buy, and half be fold:

125

NOTES.

fon why the People should not be followed is because Bellua multorum eft capitum. nam quid fequar, aut quem ? they are fo divers in their purfuits (fays Horace) that one cannot follow this man without being condemned by that. The imitator fays, they all go on one common principle, the luft of gold. This inaccuracy, tho' Horace has a little of it, yet he has however artfully disguised it, by speaking of the various objects of this one Paffion, avarice, as of fo many various paffions,

Pars hominum geftit conducere publica: funt qui, etc.
Cruftis et pomis

Multis occulto, etc.

but his imitator has unwarily drawn them to a point, by the introductory addition of the lines above,

Alike in nothing, etc.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

h

Si dixit dives; 1 lacus et mare fentit amorem

i

Feftinantis heri: cui fi vitiofa libido

Fecerit aufpicium; cras ferramenta Teanum

NOTES.

VER. 126. Their Country's wealth our mightier Mifers drain,] The undertakers for advancing Loans to the Public on the Funds. They have been commonly accused of making it a job. But in fo corrupt times, the fault is not always to be imputed to a Ministry: it having been found, on trial, that the wifeft and most virtuous citizen of this or any other age, with every requifite knowledge in fuch matters, and fupported by all the weight an honeft Admi

[ocr errors]

Their Country's wealth our mightier Mifers drain, Or cross, to plunder Provinces, the Main;

a

The reft, fome farm the Poor-box, fome the Pews;
Some keep Affemblies, and would keep the Stews;
Some with fat Bucks on childlefs Dotards fawn; 130
Some win rich Widows by their Chine and Brawn;
While with the filent growth of ten per cent,
In dirt and darkness, hundreds stink content.
Of all these ways, if each purfues his own,

f

Satire be kind, and let the wretch alone :
But show me one who has it in his pow'r,

To act confiftent with himself an hour.

135

Sir Job & fail'd forth, the ev'ning bright and ftill, "No place on earth (he cry'd) like Greenwich hill !” b Up ftarts a Palace, lo, th' obedient base Slopes at its foot, the woods its fides embrace, The filver Thames reflects its marble face.

i

140

Now let some whimfy, or that Dev'l within Which guides all those who know not what they

mean,

But give the Knight (or give his Lady) fpleen; 145

NOTES.

nistration could afford him, was, they fay, unable to abolifh this inveterate mystery of iniquity.

VER. 143. Now let fome whimfy, etc.] This is very spirited, but much inferior to the elegance of the Original, Cui fi vitiofa Libida

Fecerit aufpicium

which no modern imitation can reach.

[ocr errors]

Tolletis, fabri. * lectus genialis in aula eft?

Nil ait effe prius, melius nil coelibe vita :

! Si non eft, jurat bene folis effe maritis.

[ocr errors][merged small]

n

°

Quid " pauper? ride: mutat coenacula, lectos,

P

Balnea, tonfores; conducto navigio aeque

Naufeat, ac locuples quem ducit priva triremis.

a Si curatus inaequali tonfore capillos

Occurro; rides. fi forte fubucula pexae

Trita fubeft tunicae, vel fi toga diffidet impar;

[ocr errors]

Rides. quid, mea Cum pugnat fententia fecum ;

Quod petiit, fpernit; repetit quod nuper omifit;

$ Aeftuat, et vitae difconvenit ordine toto;

NOTES.

VER. 155. They change their weekly Barber, etc.] Thefe fix lines much more fpirited than the Original. In that, the inconftancy of temper in the common people is fati

"Away, away! take all your fcaffolds down,

"For Snug's the word: My dear! we'll live in Town."

k

At am'rous Flavio is the * ftocken thrown?

That very night he longs to lie alone.

1 The Fool whofe Wife elopes fome thrice a quarter, For matrimonial folace dies a martyr.

Did ever Proteus, Merlin, any witch,

Transform themselves fo ftrangely as the Rich?

n

151

Well, but the Poor-The Poor have the fame itch; They change their weekly Barber, weekly News, Prefer a new Japanner to their fhoes, 156 Discharge their Garrets, move their beds, and run (They know not whither) in a Chaife and one;

P

They hire their fculler, and when once aboard,
Grow fick, and damn the climate-like a Lord. 160
You laugh, half Beau half Sloven if I stand,
My wig all powder, and all fnuff my band;
You laugh, if coat and breeches ftrangely vary,
White gloves, and linen worthy Lady Mary!

I

But when no Prelate's Lawn with hair-shirt lin❜d,
Is half fo incoherent as my Mind,

When (each opinion with the next at ftrife,
One s ebb and flow of follies all my life)

NOTES.

166

rized only in a fimple exposure of the cafe. Here the ri dicule on the folly is heightened by a ridiculous reprefentation of each circumftance that is the object of it.

« PreviousContinue »