III., and taken down by George IV. in 1825, to make way for the present royal palace.] WH First sought a poet's fortune in the town, 5 10 So some coarse country wench, almost decay'd, Thought wondrous honest, though of mean degree, In a translated suit, then tries the town, And in four months a batter'd harridan. Now nothing left, but wither'd, pale, and shrunk, 25 [When first published in the Miscellanies the piece had the following note attached:-"He requested, by public advertisements, the aid of the ingenious to make up a Miscellany in 1713." Ambrose Philips seems to be the person satirized. On the accession of George I., when the Whigs obtained power, Philips was put into the commission of the peace, and appointed a Commissioner of the Lottery. He afterwards went to Ireland with Dr. Boulter, Primate of Ireland, and was made Registrar of the Prerogative Court at Dublin. The "borrowed play" was the "Distrest Mother," from Racine, which was highly successful. The allusion to "simplicity" is no doubt intended to refer to Philips's Pastorals, and that to the "translated suit" to his Persian Tales, translated for Tonson. The next piece, "Umbra," refers also to Philips, or to James Moore Smythe, the "phantom Moore" of the Dunciad. As Philips was a regular frequenter of Button's Coffee-house, and intimate with Steele, Addison, Tickell, &c., he was most likely the party.] CLOSE UMBRA. to the best-known author Umbra sits, 5 10 Says Addison to Steele, ""Tis time to go;" E'en sits him down and writes to honest Tickell. 15 SANDYS' GHOST; OR A PROPER NEW BALLAD ON THE NEW OVID'S METAMORPHOSIS: AS IT WAS INTENDED TO BE TRANSLATED BY PERSONS OF QUALITY. [The last literary labour of Sir Samuel Garth, before his death in 1718, was engaging several " ingenious gentlemen," as he calls them, to undertake a translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Among these were Mainwaring, Croxall, Ozell, Vernon, Harvey, Leonard Welsted, &c. Garth himself translated the fourteenth book and part of the fifteenth, besides contributing a preface.] YE Lords and Commons, men of wit, And pleasure about town; Read this ere you translate one bit Of books of high renown. Beware of Latin authors all! Nor think your verses sterling, For not the desk with silver nails, Nor standish well japann'd, avails To writing of good sense. Hear how a ghost in dead of night, With saucer eyes of fire. In woful wise did sore affright Rare imp of Phoebus, hopeful youth! Like puppy tame that uses To fetch and carry, in his mouth, The works of all the Muses. Ah! why did he write poetry, To rhyming and the devil? A desk he had of curious work, Now as he scratch'd to fetch up thought, With whiskers, band, and pantaloon, Ho, Master Sam, quoth Sandys' sprite, I hear the beat of Jacob's drums,2 Poor Ovid finds no quarter! See first the merry P comes 3 In haste without his garter. Then lords and lordlings, 'squires and knights, Wits, witlings, prigs, and peers; Garth at St. James's, and at White's, Beats up for volunteers. What Fenton will not do, nor Gay, Nor Congreve, Rowe, nor Stanyan, 1 [Sandys (whom Dryden terms "the best versifier of the last age") pub lished his translation of Ovid in 1627.] 2 [Jacob Tonson, the publisher.] 8 [The Earl of Pembroke.] 4 [Tom Burnet.] If Justice Philips' costive head They shall like Persian tales be read, Let W-rw-k's muse with Ash-t join,5 And P- pe translate with Jervas. L- - himself, that lively lord,7 Shall join with F- 8 in one accord, A metamorphosis more strange Than all his books can vapour; "To what (quoth 'squire) shall Ovid change?" 5 [Lord Warwick and Dr. Ashurst.] 6 Pope. 7 Lord Lansdowne. [Philip Frowde, a dramatic writer and fine scholar, a friend of Addison's.] 9 [Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Some of Lady Mary's Town Eclogues were published in 1716.] |