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297.

Now like a maiden queen fhe will behold,
From her high turrets, hourly fuitors come:
The Eaft with incenfe, and the Weft with gold,
Will ftand like fuppliants to receive her doom.
298.

The filver Thames, her own domeftic flood,
Shall bear her veffels like a sweeping train;
And often wind, as of his mistress proud,
With longing eyes to meet her face again.

299.

The wealthy Tagus, and the wealthier Rhine,
The glory of their towns no more shall boast,
And Seyne, that would with Belgian rivers join,
Shall find her luftre ftain'd, and traffic loft.

300.

The venturous merchant who defign'd more far,
And touches on our hofpitable fhore,

Charm'd with the splendour of this northern ftar,
Shall here unlade him, and depart no more.
301.

Our powerful navy fhall no longer meet,
The wealth of France or Holland to invade:
The beauty of this town without a fleet,
From all the world fhall vindicate her trade.

302.

And while this fam'd emporium we prepare,
The British ocean fhall such triumphs boast,
That thofe, who now disdain our trade to share,
Shall rob like pirates on our wealthy coaft.
303.

Already we have conquer'd half the war,

And the lefs dangerous part is left behind:
Our trouble now is but to make them dare,
And not fo
great to vanquish as to find.

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,
Who know not only to inftruct but please.
Poets alone found the delightful way,

Myfterious morals gently to convey

In charming numbers; fo that as men grew
Pleas'd with their poems; they grew wifer too.
Satire has always fhone among the rest,
And is the boldest way, if not the best,
To tell men freely of their fouleft faults;

To laugh at their vain deeds, and vainer thoughts.
In fatire too the wife took different ways,

To each deferving its peculiar praife.

Some did all folly with juft fharpness blame,
Whilft others laugh'd and scorn'd them into fhame.
But of thefe two, the laft fucceeded beft,

As men aim righteft when they shoot in jeft.
Yet, if we may prefume to blame our guides,
And cenfure thofe, who cenfure all befides;
VOL. I.

H

In

In other things they justly are preferr'd;
In this alone methinks the ancients err'd;
Against the groffeft follies they declaim;
Hard they purfue, but hunt ignoble game.
Nothing is easier than fuch blots to hit,
And 'tis the talent of each vulgar wit:
Befides 'tis labour loft; for who would preach
Morals to Armstrong 1, or dull Afton teach?
'Tis being devout at play, wife at a ball,
Or bringing wit and friendship to Whitehall.
But with fharp eyes thofe nicer faults to find,
Which lie obfcurely in the wifeft mind;
That little fpeck which all the reft does spoil,
To wash off that would be a noble toil;
Beyond the loose writ libels of this age,
Or the forc'd fcenes of our declining stage;
Above all cenfure too, each little wit
Will be fo glad to see the greater hit;
Who judging better, though concern'd the moft,
Of fuch correction will have caufe to boast.

In fuch a fatire all would feek a fhare,
And every fool will fancy he is there.
Old ftory-tellers too muft pine and die,
To fee their antiquated wit laid by;
Like her, who mifs'd her name in a lampoon,
And grieved to find herself decay'd fo foon.

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:
Not the dull train of dancing fparks appear;
Nor fluttering officers who never fight;

Of fuch a wretched rabble who would write?
Much lefs half wits: that's more against our rules;
For they are fops, the other are but fools.

Who would not be as filly as Dunbar ?

As dull as Monmouth, rather than Sir Carr 2?
The cunning courtier fhould be flighted too,
Who with dull knavery makes fo much ado;
Till the fhrewd fool, by thriving too too fast,
Like Efop's fox becomes a prey at last.
Nor fhall the royal miftreffes be nam'd,
Too ugly, or too easy to be blam'd;

With whom each rhiming fool keeps fuch a pother,
They are as common that way as the other:
Yet fauntering Charles between his beastly brace,
Meets with diffembling ftill in either place,
Affected humour, or a painted face.

In loyal libels we have often told him,
How one has jilted him, the other fold him:
How that affects to laugh, how this to weep;
But who can rail fo long as he can fleep?
Was ever prince by two at once misled,
Falfe, foolish, old, ill-natur'd, and ill-bred?
Earnely 3 and Ailefbury, with all that race
Of bufy blockheads, fhall have here no place;

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;
Who all that while was thought exceeding wife,
Only for taking pains and telling lies.

But there's no meddling with such naufeous men ;
Their very names have tired my lazy pen:
'Tis time to quit their company, and chufe
Some fitter fubject for a fharper mufe.

5 First, let's behold the merriest man alive
Against his careless genius vainly strive;
Quit his dear eafe, fome deep defign to lay,
'Gainft a fet time, and then forget the day:
Yet he will laugh at his best friends, and be
Just as good company as 6 Nokes and Lee.
But when he aims at reafon or at rule,
He turns himself the beft to ridicule.
Let him at business ne'er fo earnest fit,

Shew him but mirth, and bait that mirth with wit;
That fhadow of a jeft shall be enjoy'd,

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;
But foon the lady had him in her eye,

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

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