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P. Yet lef me flap this bug with gilded wings,

This painted child of dirt, that stinks and ftings; 310
Whose buzz the witty and the fair annoys,

Yet wit ne'er taftes, and beauty ne'er enjoys:
So well-bred fpaniels civilly delight

In mumbling of the game they dare not bite.
Eternal fmiles his emptiness betray,

As fhallow ftreams run dinapling all the way.
Whether in florid impotence he speaks,

315

And, as the prompter breathes, the puppet fqueaks; Or at the ear of Eve, familiar Toad,

Half froth, half venom, fpits himself abroad,

320

In puns, or politics, or tales, or lies,

Or fpite, or fmut, or rhymes, or blafphemies.
His wit all fee-faw, between that and this,

Now high, now low, now mafter up, now mifs,
And he himself one vile Antithefis.
Amphibious thing! that, acting either part,
The trifling head! or the corrupted heart,
Fop at the toilet, flatterer at the board,
Now trips a Lady, and now ftruts a Lord.
Eve's tempter thus the Rabbins have expreft,
A Cherub's face, a reptile all the reft.
Beauty that shocks you, parts that none
will truft,
Wit that can creep, and pride that licks the duft.
Not Fortune's worshiper, nor Fashion's fool,

Not Lucre's madman, nor Ambition's tool,
Not proud, nor fervile; be one Poet's Praife,
That, if he pleas'd, he pleas'd by manly ways:

325

339

335

That

340

345

That Flattery, even to Kings, he held a shame,
And thought a Lie in verse or prose the same,
That not in Fancy's maze he wander'd long,
But ftoop'd to Truth, and moraliz'd his fong:
That not for Fame, but Virtue's better end,
He ftood the furious foe, the timid friend,
The damning critic, half-approving wit,
The coxcomb hit, or fearing to be hit;
Laugh'd at the lofs of friends he never had,
The dull, the proud, the wicked, and the mad ;
The diftant threats of vengeance on his head,
The blow unfelt, the tear he never shed;
The tale reviv'd, the lie fo oft o'erthrown,
Th' imputed trash, and dulness not his own;
The morals blacken'd when the writings 'fcape,
The libel'd perfon, and the pictur'd shape;
Abuse, on all he lov'd, or lov'd him, spread,
A friend in exile, or a father dead;

ftate:

The whisper, that, to greatness still too near,
Perhaps, yet vibrates on his Sovereign's ear-
Welcome for thee, fair Virtue! all the past:
For thee, fair Virtue! welcome ev'n the last!
A. But why infult the poor, affront the great?
P. A knave's a knave, to me, in every
Alike my scorn, if he fucceed or fail,
Sporus at court, or Japhet in a jail,
A hireling fcribler, or a hireling peer,
Knight of the poft corrupt, or of the shire;
If on a Pillory, or near a Throne,
He gain his Prince's ear, or lofe his own.

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355

360

365

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Yet foft by nature, more a dupe than wit,
Sappho can tell you how this man was bit :
This dreaded Sat'rift Dennis will confefs
Foe to his pride, but friend to his distress:
So humble, he has knock'd at Tibbald's door,
Has drunk with Cibber, nay has rhym'd for Moor.
Full ten years flander'd, did he once reply?

370

Three thousand funs went down on Welfted's lie. 375
To please a Mistress one afpers'd his life;

He lash'd him not, but let her be his wife:
Let Budgell charge low Grubstreet on his quill,
And write whate'er he pleas'd, except his Will;
Let the two Curlls of town and Court, abuse
His father, mother, body, foul, and muse.
Yet why? that Father held it for a rule,
It was a fin to call our neighbour fool:

That harmless Mother thought no wife a whore :
Hear this, and fpare his family, James Moore!
Unfpotted names, and memorable long!

If there be force in Virtue, or in Song.

Of gentle blood (part shed in Honour's caufe, While yet in Britain Honour had applause)

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385

Each

Ver. 368. in the MS.

VARIATION.

Once, and but once, his heedlefs youth was bit,
And lik'd that dangerous thing, a female wit;
Safe as he thought, though all the prudent chid;
He writ no Libels, but my Lady did :
Great odds in amorous or poetic game,

Where Woman's is the fin, and Man's the fhame.

Each parent fprung-A. What fortune, pray? - P.
Their own,

And better got, than Beftia's from the throne.
Born to no Pride, inheriting no Strife,

Nor marrying Discord in a noble wife,
Stranger to civil and religious rage,

390

The good man walk'd innoxious through his age. 395
No Courts he faw, no fuits would ever try,
Nor dar'd an Oath, nor hazarded a Lie.
Unlearn'd, he knew no schoolman's fubtile art,

No language, but the language of the heart.
By Nature honest, by Experience wife,
Healthy by temperance, and by exercise;

His life, though long, to sickness past unknown,
His death was inftant, and without a groan.

O grant me thus to live, and thus to die!

Who fprung from Kings shall know less joy than I.
O Friend! may each domestic blifs be thine!

Be no unpleafing Melancholy mine:

Me, let the tender office long engage,

To rock the cradle of repofing Age,

With lenient arts extend a Mother's breath,

Make Languor fmile, and smooth the bed of Death,

VARIATION.

After ver. 405. in the MS.

400

410

Explore

And of myself, too, fomething muft I fay ?
Take then this verfe, the trifle of a day.
And if it live, it lives but to commend
The man whose heart has ne'er forgot a friend,
Or head, an Author; Critic, yet polite,
And friend to Learning, yet too wife to write.

Explore the thought, explain the asking eye,
And keep a while one parent from the sky!
On cares like these if length of days attend,
May Heaven, to blefs thofe days, preferve my friend,
Preferve him focial, chearful, and ferene,

And just as rich as when he ferv'd a Queen.
A. Whether that bleffing be deny'd or given,
Thus far was right, the rest belongs to Heaven.

SATIRES

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