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Rend with tremendous sound your ears asunder,

With gun, drum, trumpet, blunderbuss, and thunder?

Or nobly wild, with Budgel's fire and force,
Paint angels trembling round his falling horse?
F. I Then all your Muse's softer art display,
Let Carolina smooth the tuneful lay;
Lull with Amelia's liquid name the Nine,
And sweetly flow thro' all the royal line.

P. 2 Alas! few verses touch their nicer ear:

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They scarce can bear the Laureate twice a-year;
And justly Cæsar scorns the poet's lays:

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It is to history he trusts for praise.

F. 3 Better be Cibber, I'll maintain it still, Than ridicule all taste, blaspheme Quadrille, Abuse the City's best good men in metre,

And laugh at peers that put their trust in Peter.

Agmina, nec fracta pereuntes cuspide Gallos,
Aut labentis equo describat vulnera Parthi.

T. Attamen et justum poteras et scribere fortem, Scipiadam ut sapiens Lucilius.

H. Haud mihi deero,
Cum res ipsa feret: 2 nisi dextro tempore, Flacci
Verba per attentam non ibunt Cæsaris aurem;
Cui male si palpere, recalcitrat undique tutus,

T. 3 Quanto rectius hoc, quam tristi lædere versu Pantolabum scurram, Nomentanumve nepotem?

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Ev'n those you touch not, hate yɔu.

P. What should ail 'em?

F. A hundred smart in Timon and in Balaam: The fewer still you name, you wound the more; Bond is but one, but Harpax is a score.

P. 2 Each mortal has his pleasure: none deny Scarsdale his bottle, Darty his ham-pie;

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Ridotta sips and dances, till she see

The doubling lustres dance as fast as she;

3 F--- loves the senate, Hockley-hole his brother, Like in all else, as one egg to another.

* I love to pour out all myself as plain

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As downright Shippen, or as old Montaigne:

In them, as certain to be lov'd as seen,

The soul stood forth, nor kept a thought within;
In me what spots (for spots I have) appear,
Will prove, at least, the medium must be clear.

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In this impartial glass, my Muse intends
Fair to expose myself, my foes, my friends;

. Cum sibi quisque timet, quanquam est intactus, et odit.

2 Quid faciam? saltat Milonius, ut semel icto

Accessit fervor capiti, numerusque lucernis.

3 Castor gaudet equis; ovo prognatus eodem,
Pugnis. quot capitum vivunt, totidem studiorum
Millia. 4 me pedibus delectat claudere verba,
Lucili ritu, nostrum melioris utroque.

Publish the present age; but where my text
Is vice too high, reserve it for the next:
My foes shall wish my life a longer date,
And ev'ry friend the less lament my fate.

My head and heart thus flowing thro' my quill,

1 Verseman or Proseman, term me which you will, Papist or Protestant, or both between,

Like good Erasmus, in an honest mean,

In moderation placing all my glory,

While Tories call me Whig, and Whigs a Tory. 2 Satire's my weapon, but I'm too discreet

To run a-muck, and tilt at all I meet;

3

I only wear it in a land of Hectors,

Thieves, supercargoes, sharpers, and directors.

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Ille velut fidis arcana sodalibus olim

Credebat libris; neque, si male gesserat, usquam,
Decurrens alio, neque si bene: quo fit ut omnis
Votiva pateat veluti descripta tabella

Vita senis. sequor hunc, 1 Lucanus an Appulus,

anceps:

[Nam Venusinus arat finem sub utrumque colonus,
Missus ad hoc, pulsis (vetus est ut fama) Sabellis,
Quo ne per vacuum Romano incurreret hostis;
Sive quod Appula gens, seu quod Lucania bellum
Incuteret violenta.] 2 sed hic stylus haud petit ultro
Quemquam animantem, et me veluti custodiet ensis
Vagina tectus, quem cur distringere coner,

3 Tutus ab infestis latronibus? O pater et rex

'Save but our army! and let Jove incrust
Swords, pikes, and guns, with everlasting rust!
2 Peace is my dear delight---not Fleury's more;
But touch me, and no minister so sore.
Whoe'er offends, at some unlucky time
3 Slides into verse, and hitches in a rhyme,
Sacred to ridicule his whole life long,
And the sad burthen of some merry song.

4 Slander, or poison, dread from Delia's rage;
Hard words, or hanging, if your judge be Page:
From furious Sappho scarce a milder fate,
P-x'd by her love, or libell'd by her hate.

5 Its proper pow'r to hurt each creature feels;

Bulls aim their horns, and asses lift their heels; 'Tis a bear's talent not to kick, but hug;

And no man wonders he's not stung by pug.

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85

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1 Jupiter, ut pereat positum rubigine telum,
Nec quisquam noceat 2 cupido mihi pacis! at ille,
Qui me commorit, (melius non tangere, clamo)
3 Flebit, et insignis tota cantabitur Urbe.

4 Servius iratus leges minitatur et urnam;
Canidia Albuti, quibus est inimica, venenum;
Grande malum Turius, si quis se judice certet.
5 Ut, quo quisque valet, suspectos terreat, utque
Imperet hoc natura potens, sic collige mecum.
Denté lupus, cornu taurus petit, unde nisi intus
Folume III.

F

I So drink with Walters, or with Chartres eat,
They'll never poison you, they'll only cheat.

2 Then, learned Sir! (to cut the matter short)
Whate'er my fate, or well, or ill, at court,
Whether old age, with faint, but cheerful ray,
Attends to gild the ev'ning of my day,
Or Death's black wing already be display'd,
To wrap me in the universal shade;

Whether the darken'd room to muse invite,
Or whiten'd wall provoke the skew'r to write;
In durance, exile, Bedlam, or the Mint,

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3 Like Lee, or Budgell, I will rhyme and print.

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F. 4 Alas! young man, your days can ne'er be long: In flow'r of age you perish for a song!

Plums and directors, Shylock and his wife,

Will club their testers now to take your life.

Monstratum? Scævæ vivacem crede nepoti
Matrem, nil faciet sceleris pia dextera: (mirum!
Ut neque calce lupus quemquam, neque dente petit
bos.)

Sed mala tollet anum vitiato melle cicuta.

2 Ne longum faciam, seu me tranquilla senectus Expectat, seu mors atris circumvolat alis;

Dives, inops, Romæ, seu fors ita jusserit, exul; 3 Quisquis erit vitæ, scribam, color.

T. 4O puer, ut sis

Vitalis metuo; et majorum ne quis amicus
Frigore te feriat.