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,
That hereto was so civil;
And sell his soul for vanity,
To rhyming and the Devil?

A desk he had of curious work,
With glittering studs about;
Within the same did Sandys lurk,
Though Ovid lay without.

Now as he scratch'd to fetch up thought,
Forth popp'd the sprite so thin;
And from the key-hole bolted out,
All upright as a pin.

With whiskers, band, and pantaloon,
And ruff composed most duly;
This 'squire he dropp'd his pen full soon,
While as the light burnt bluely.

"Ho! Master Sam," quoth Sandys' sprite,

"Write on, nor let me scare ye; Forsooth, if rhymes fall in not right, To Budgell seek, or Carey.'

"I hear the beat of Jacob's drums,'

Poor Ovid finds no quarter!
See first the
merry P3 comes
In haste, without his garter.

1 Eustace Budgell and Walter Carey (Umbra).

2 The volume was published by Jacob Tonson.

3 Probably Thomas, eighth Earl of

Pembroke, K.G., for whom see Moral
Essay iv. 8. The Collection of Trans-
lations was afterwards dedicated to the
Countess of Pembroke.

"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,'
Tom B-t' or Tom D'Urfey may,
John Dunton,' Steele, or any one.

2

4

"If Justice Philips' costive head

Some frigid rhymes disburses;

They shall like Persian Tales be read,'
And glad both babes and nurses."

"Let W-rw-k's muse with Ash—t' join,
And Ozell's with Lord Hervey's:
Tickell and Addison combine,

And P-pe translate with Jervas."

"L" himself, that lively lord,
Who bows to every lady,
Shall join with F

in one accord,

And be like Tate and Brady.

7 Mr. Carruthers says "Dr. Ash. urst." I do not find any contemporary author of that name, nor does the name appear in Garth's collection.

8 Ozell translated the Transformation of Hyacinth, and of the Cerastæ and Propatides in Book the Tenth.

9 Addison translated the Second and Third Books. He alludes also to the old grievance about the translation of the Iliad.

10 Jervas the painter translated "Don Quixote."

11 Mr. Carruthers suggests Lansdowne, but this name would make an inharmonious verse.

12 Perhaps Frowde, who appears from Pope's "Farewell to London" to have been of a serious disposition.

To what' (quoth 'squire) shall Ovid change ?'

Quoth Sandys: "To waste paper."

SONG, BY A PERSON OF QUALITY.'

WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1733.

I.

FLUTT'RING spread thy purple pinions,
Gentle Cupid, o'er my heart;
I a slave in thy dominions;
Nature must give way to art.