297. Now like a maiden queen fhe will behold, The filver Thames, her own domeftic flood, 299. The wealthy Tagus, and the wealthier Rhine, 300. The venturous merchant who defign'd more far, Charm'd with the splendour of this northern ftar, Our powerful navy fhall no longer meet, 302. And while this fam'd emporium we prepare, Already we have conquer'd half the war, And the lefs dangerous part is left behind: 304. Thus 304. Thus to the eastern wealth through ftorms we go, But now, the Cape once doubled, fear no more; A conftant trade-wind will fecurely blow, And gently lay us on the spicy fhore. An ESSAY upon SATIR E. By Mr. DRYDEN, and the Earl of MULGRAVE. 1679. WOW dull, and how infenfible a beaft HO man, who yet would lord it o'er the reft? Philofophers and poets vainly strove In every age the lumpish mass to move: But those were pedants, when compar'd with these, Myfterious morals gently to convey In charming numbers; fo that as men grew To laugh at their vain deeds, and vainer thoughts. To each deferving its peculiar praife. Some did all folly with juft fharpness blame, As men aim righteft when they shoot in jeft. H In In other things they justly are preferr'd; In fuch a fatire all would feek a fhare, 1 Sir Thomas Armstrong had been knighted by king Charles II. for fome fervices received from him during the pretectorship, he having been fent over to his majefty, when in Holland, with a fum of money, raifed among fome of his faithful fubjects, for his royal ufe. He afterwards bore a lieutenant-colonel's commiffion in the firft troop of horfe-guards, and was appointed gentleman of horse to the King. Being a man of a loofe immoral character; and of no fixed principles, either in religion or politics, he joined in the RyehoufePlot, and then efcaped into Holland. He was at length feized at Leyden, brought over to England, and condemned to die by judge Jefferies, who treated him in a very unbecoming manner, hanged at Tyburn on the twentieth of June, 1684. He was No No common coxcomb must be mention'd here: Of fuch a wretched rabble who would write? Who would not be as filly as Dunbar ? As dull as Monmouth, rather than Sir Carr 2? With whom each rhiming fool keeps fuch a pother, In loyal libels we have often told him, At 2 Sir Carr Scrope was the son of Sir Adrian Scrope, a Lincolnshire knight, and bred at Oxford, where he took a master's degree in 1664; and in 1666 he was created a baronet. He was intimate with 'the most celebrated geniufes of king Charles's court, and had a pretty turn for poetry. He died at his houfe in Weftminster, in the latter end of the year 1680. 3 Sir John Earnely was bred to the law: he was chancellor of the exchequer in the year 1686, and made one of the lords commiffioners of the treasury, in the room of the lord-treasurer Hyde, earl of Rochefter. Robert, the first earl of Ailefbury, was the fon of Thomas Bruce, earl of Elgin in Scotland, and created by king Charles lord H 2 Bruce At council fet as foils on 4 Danby's fcore, To make that great false jewel fhine the more; But there's no meddling with such naufeous men ; 5 First, let's behold the merriest man alive Shew him but mirth, and bait that mirth with wit; Though he left all mankind to be destroy'd. So cat transform'd fat gravely and demure, Till mouse appear'd, and thought himself secure; And from her friend did just as oddly fly. Bruce in England. In 1685 he fucceeded the earl of Arlington as lord-chamberlain of the king's houshold, and died a few months afterwards. 4 Thomas, earl of Danby, ancestor to the present duke of Leeds, same out of York fhire, and was very zealous in forwarding the restoration; for which special service he was made treasurer of the navy, then a privy-counsellor, and in 1673, lord high-treasurer of England. He died in the year 1712, aged eighty-one. 5 Firft let's behold the merrieft man alive. This character is fo ftrongly and fo juftly marked, that it is impoffible to mistake its being intended for Anthony Ashley Cooper, earl of Shaftesbury: "A man of little fteadiness, but fuch uncommon talents, that he acquired great weight with every party he espoused: 6 as Nokes and Lee. Two celebrated comedians in Charles the IId's reign. Reaching |