Hayman inv.et del.

CGrignion Sculp

O Sacred Weapon, left for Truth's Defence.
Sole Dread of Folly, Vice and Insolence!
To all but Heaven-directed Hands denied,

The Muse may give thee, but the Gods must guide.

Bp: 2 to 4 Satires

EPILOGUE

TO THE

SATIRE S.

Written in MDCC XXXVIII.

DIALOGUE I

FR.NOT

TOT twice a twelve-month you appear in Print,

And when it comes, the Court fee nothing in't.

VARIATIONS.

After 2. in the MS.

You don't, I hope, pretend to quit the 'trade,
Because you think your reputation made:
Like good of whom fo much was faid,
That when his name was up, he lay a-bed.
Come, come, refresh us with a livelier song,
Or like ** you'll lie a-bed too long.

NOTES.

VER. 1. Not twice a twelve-month etc.] Thefe two lines are from Horace; and the only lines that are fo in the whole Poem; being meant to give a handle to that which follows in the character of an impertinent Censurer,

'Tis all from Horace; etc. P.

VER. 2. the Court fee nothing in't.] He chofe this expreffion for the fake of its elegant and fatiric ambiguity. His writings abound in them.

You grow correct, that once with Rapture writ,
And are, befides, too moral for a Wit.

Decay of Parts, alas! we all must feel -

--

Why now,
this moment, don't I fee you fteal?
'Tis all from Horace; Horace long before

ye

Said, "Tories call'd him Whig, and Whigs a Tory;" And taught his Romans, in much better metre, "To laugh at Fools who put their trust in Peter."

But Horace, Sir, was delicate, was nice; Bubo obferves, he lash'd no fort of Vice:

I I

Horace would fay, Sir Billy ferv'd the Crown, Blunt could do Bus'nefs, H-ggins knew the Town i

VARIATION S.

P. Sir, what I write, fhould be correctly writ.
F. Correct! 'tis what no genius can admit.
Befides, you grow too moral for a Wit.

NOTES.

VER. 9. And taught his Romans, in much better metre, "Ta laugh at Fools who put their truft in Peter."] The general turn of the thought is from Boileau,

Avant lui, Juvénal avoit dit en Latin,

Qu'on eft affis à l'aife aux fermons de Cotin.

But the irony in the first line, and the fatirical equivoque in the fecond, mark them for his own. His making the objector fay, that Horace excelled him in writing verfe, is pleafant. And the ambiguity of putting their trust in Peter, infinuates that Horace and he had frequently laughed at that fpecific folly, arifing from indolence, which still difpofes men to intruft their spiritual and temporal concerns to the abfolute difpofal of any fanctified or unfanctified cheat, bearing the name of PETER.

VER. 12. Bubo obferves,] Some guilty perfon very fond of making fuch an obfervation.

P.

In Sappho zuch de Falings of the 3x.
In rev'rend ihres me imal Ni
And own, the Spaniard did a way hom
Who cropt our Ears, and fer them to the King.
His fy, polite, kinuting fre

15

Could please & Court, ad mike Aroustesinile: An artful Manager, tha crept

21

His Friend and Shame, and was a kind of SereZZ. But 'faith your very Friends will foon be fore; Patrists there are, who with you'd jeit no more And where's the Glory? 'twill be only thought 25 The Great man never offer'd you a groat.

Go fee Sir ROBERT-

NOTES.

VER. 14. H-ggins] Formerly Jaylor of the Fleet prison, enriched himself by many exactions, for which he was tried and expelled.

P.

VER. 18. Who cropt our Ears,] Said to be executed by the Captain of a Spanish fhip on one Jenkins a Captain of an Englifh one. He cut off his ears, and bid him carry them to the King his master.

VER. 22. Screen.]

Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico

P.

Tangit, et admiffus circum præcordia ludit Perf. P. Ibid. Screen.] A metaphor peculiarly appropriated to a certain perfon in power.

P.

VER. 24. Patriots there are, &c.] This appellation was ge nerally given to thofe in, oppofition to the Court. Though fome of them (which our author hints at) had views too mean and interested to deserve that name. VER. 26. The Great man] A phrafe, by common ufe, appropriated to the first minifter,

P.