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Reaching above our nature does no good;

We must fall back to our old flesh and blood;
As by our little Machiavel we find
That nimbleft creature of the busy kind,

His limbs are crippled, and his body shakes;
Yet his hard mind which all this bustle makes,
No pity of its poor companion takes.
What gravity can hold from laughing out,
To fee him drag his feeble legs about,
Like hounds ill-coupled? Jowler lugs him ftill
Through hedges, ditches, and through all that's ill.
'Twere crime in any man but him alone,
To use a body fo, though 'tis one's own:
Yet this false comfort never gives him o'er,
That whilst he creeps his vigorous thoughts can foar:
Alas! that foaring to those few that know,
Is but a bufy groveling here below.

So men in rapture think they mount the sky,
Whilft on the ground th' intranced wretches lie:
So modern fops have fancied they could fly.
As the new 7 earl with parts deserving praise,
And wit enough to laugh at his own ways;
Yet lofes all foft days and fenfual nights,
Kind nature checks, and kinder fortune flights;
Striving against his quiet all he can,

For the fine notion of a bufy man.

7 As the new earl with parts deferving praise,
And wit enough to laugh at his own ways,

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Yet lofes all, &c. This character was well known to be drawn for Arthur earl of Effex, fon to the lord Capel, who was put to death by the regicides; but wherefore he fhould be called the new earl, I cannot fee, fince, we find in Collins's peerage, that he was created earl of Effex in the year 1661, eighteen years before the publication of this piece. He was very fond of the lieutenancy of Ireland, which he had held from July 1672, to 1677. He was taken into cuftody and committed to the Tower, for being concerned in the RyehoufePlot; and he was found in his apartment there, with his throat cut from ear to ear, on the very morning of lord Raffel's execution.

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And what is that at beft, but one, whose mind
Is made to tire himself and all mankind?

For Ireland he would go; faith, let him reign;
For if fome odd fantastic lord would fain
Carry in trunks, and all my drudgery do,
I'll not only pay him, but admire him too.
But is there any other beast that lives,
Who his own harm fo wittingly contrives?
Will any dog that has his teeth and ftones,
Refinedly leave his bitches and his bones,
To turn a wheel? and bark to be employ'd,
While Venus is by rival dogs enjoy'd?

Yet this fond man, to get a ftatesman's name,
Forfeits his friends, his freedom, and his fame.

Tho' fatire nicely writ with humour ftings
But those who merit praife in other things;
Yet we muft needs this one exception make,
And break our rules for S filly Tropos' fake;
Who was too much defpis'd to be accus'd,
And therefore fcarce deferves to be abus'd;
Rais'd only by his mercenary tongue,
For railing fmoothly, and for reasoning wrong.
As boys on holy-days let loose to play,
Lay waggish traps for girls that pass that way;
Then fhout to fee in dirt and deep diftrefs
Some filly cit in flower'd foolish dress:
So have I mighty fatisfaction found,
To fee his tinfel reafon on the ground:

To fee the florid fool defpis'd, and know it,
By fome who fearce have words enough to fhow it:
For fenfe fits filent, and condemns for weaker
The finer, nay fometimes the wittiest speaker:

8

for filly Tropos fake, &c. Sir William ScroggS is meant by Tropos. He was lord chief juftice of the King's Bench, and a violent profecutor of the perfons fuppofed to be concerned in the Popish plot,

But

But 'tis prodigious fo much eloquence
Should be acquired by fuch little fenfe;
For words and wit did anciently agree,
And Tully was no fool, though this man be:
At bar abufive, on the bench unable,

Knave on the woolfack, fop at council-table,
These are the grievances of fuch fools as would
Be rather wife than honeft, great than good.

Some other kind of wits must be made known,
Whofe harmlefs errors hurt themselves alone;
Excefs of luxury they think can please,
And laziness call loving of their ease:
To live diffolv'd in pleasures ftill they feign,
Tho' their whole life's but intermitting pain:
So much of furfeits, head-aches, claps are feen,
We scarce perceive the little time between :
Well-meaning men who make this grofs mistake,
And pleasure lofe only for pleasure's fake;
Each pleasure has its price, and when we pay
Too much of pain, we fquander life away,

Thus Dorfet, purring like a thoughtful cat,
Married, but wifer pufs ne'er thought of that:
And first he worried her with railing rhime,
Like Pembroke's maftives at his kindeft time;
Then for one night fold all his flavish life,
A teeming widow, but a barren wife;
Swell'd by contact of such a fullom toad,
He lugg'd about the matrimonial load;
Till fortune, blindly kind as well as he,
Has ill reftor'd him to his liberty;

Which he would ufe in his old fueaking way,
Drinking all night and dozing all the day;
Dull as 9 Ned Howard, whom his brifker times
Had fam'd for dullness in malicious rhimes.

Dull as Ned Harvard, whom his brifker times
Had fum'd for dullness in malicious rhymes.
H 4

Mulgrave

Edward

Mulgrave had much ado to 'fcape the fnare,
Though learn'd in all thofe arts that cheat the fair:
For after all his vulgar marriage-mocks,
With beauty dazzled, Numps was in the ftocks;
Deluded parents dry'd their weeping eyes,
To fee him catch his tartar for his prize:
Th' impatient town waited the wish'd-for change,
And cuckolds fmil'd in hopes of sweet revenge;
Till Petworth plot made us with forrow see,
As his eftate, his perfon too was free:

Him no foft thoughts, no gratitude could move;
To gold he fled from beauty and from love;
Yet failing there he keeps his freedom ftill,
Forc'd to live happily against his will:
'Tis not his fault, if too much wealth and pow'r
Break not his boasted quiet every hour.

1 And little Sid. for fimile renown'd,
Pleasure has always fought but never found:
Though all his thoughts on wine and women fall,
His are fo bad, fure he ne'er thinks at all.
The flesh he lives upon is rank and ftrong,
His meat and miftreffes are kept too long.
But fure we all mistake this pious man,
Who mortifies his perfon all he can:

Edward Howard, Efq; a gentleman of the Berkshire family, confequently related to Sir Robert Howard. He wrote four plays, but none of them fucceeded on the ftage, nor procured him any reputa tion. He also published an epic poem, called the British Princes, for which he was feverely ridiculed by all the wits of his age: lord Rochefter, lord Dorfet, Mr. Waller, the duke of Buckingham, Dr. Spratt, lord Vaughan, published lampoons upon it.

And little Sid. for fimile renown'd,

Pleafure has always jought but never found.

This Sidney, brother of Algernoon Sidney and the earl of Leicester, was rather a man of pleasure than of business; his talents were great, but his indolence was greater; his appearance was graceful; he was a favourite with the ladies, had a turn for intrigue, and was of a difpofition exactly fitted to Charles's court, eafy, affable, and infinuating; free from any guile, and a friend to mankind.

What

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What we uncharitably take for fin,
Are only rules of this odd capuchin;
For never hermit under grave pretence,
Has liv'd more contrary to common fense;
And 'tis a miracle we may suppose,

No naftiness offends his fkilful nofe;
Which from all ftink can with peculiar art
Extract perfume and effence from a f---t:
Expecting fupper is his great delight;

He toils all day but to be drunk at night:
Then o'er his cups this night-bird chirping fits,
Till he takes 2 Hewet and Jack Hall for wits.
Rochefter I defpife for want of wit,

Though thought to have a tail and cloven feet';
For while he mifchief means to all mankind,
Himself alone the ill effects does find:
And fo like witches juftly fuffers fhame,
Whose harmless malice is fo much the fame.
False are his words, affected is his wit;
So often he does aim, fo feldom hit;
To every face he cringes while he speaks,
But when the back is turn'd the head he breaks:
Mean in each action, lewd in every limb,
Manners themselves are mischievous in him:
A proof that chance alone makes every creature,
A very 3 Killigrew without good nature.

For

Sir George

2 Till be takes Hervet and Jack Hall for wits, &c. Hewet, a man of quality, famous for gallantry, and often named in the State Poems. Sir George Etherege intended for him the celebrated character of Sir Fopling Flutter. Jack Hall, a courtier, who I take to be the fame with Uzza in the second part of Abfalom and Achitophel.

3 A very Killigrew without gond nature. Thomas Killigrew, of whom we hear daily fo many pleafant ftories related, was brother to Sir William Killigrew, vice-chamberlain to King Charles the IId's Queen; had been fome time page of honour to King Charles I. and was, after the reíloration, many years matter of the revels, and groom

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