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

Decay of Parts, alas! we all must feel

--

5

steal?

Why now, this moment, don't I see you
'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." 10 But Horace, Sir, was delicate, was nice;

Bubo observes, he lash'd no fort of Vice :
Horace would say, Sir Billy serv'd the Crown,
Blunt could do Bus'ness, H-ggins knew the Town;
In Sappho touch the Failing of the Sex,

In rev'rend Bishops note some small Neglects,
And own, the Spaniard did a waggish thing,
Who cropt our Ears, and sent them to the King.

VARIATIONS.

P. Sir, what I write, should be correctly writ.
F. Correct! 'tis what no genius can admit.

Besides, you grow too moral for a Wit.

NOTES.

15

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

VER. 14. Higgins] Formerly Jaylar of the Fleet prifon, 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 ship on one Jenkins a Captain of

1

21

His fly, polite, infinuating style
Could pleafe at Court, and make AUGUSTUS smile:
An artful Manager, that crept between
His Friend and Shame, and was a kind of Screen.
But 'faith your very Friends will soon be fore;
Patriots there are, who wish you'd jest no more ---
And where's the Glory; 'twill be only thought
The Great man never offer'd you a groat.

25

A

Go fee Sir ROBERT --

P. See Sir ROBERT !--- hum --

And never laugh --- for all my life to come?
Seen him I have, but in his happier hour

Of Social Pleasure, ill-exchang'd før Pow'r;

30

Seen him, uncumber'd with the Venal tribe,

Smile without Art, and win without a Bribe.

NOTES.

an English one. He cut off his ears, and bid him carry them to the King his master. P.

VER. 22. Screen.]

Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico

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

VER. 24. Patriots there are, &c.] This appellation was generally given to those in opposition to the Court. Though fome of them (which our author hints at) had views too mean and interested to deserve that name.

P.

VER. 26. The Great man] A phrafe, by common use, appropriated to the first minifter. P.

VER. 31. Seen bim, uncumber'd] These two verses were

Would he oblige me? let me only find,
He does not think me what he thinks mankind.

Come, come, at all I laugh he laughs, no doubt; 35
The only diff'rence is, I dare laugh out.

F. Why yes: with Scripture still you may be free; A Horse-laugh, if you please, at Honesty;

A Joke on JEKYL, or fome odd Old Whig
Who never chang'd his Principle, or Wig:
A Patriot is a Fool in ev'ry age,
Whom all Lord Chamberlains allow the Stage :
These nothing hurts; they keep their Fashion still,
And wear their strange old Virtue, as they will.

40

45

If any ask you, " Who's the Man, so near "His Prince, that writes in Verse, and has his ear?" Why, answer, LYTTLETON, and I'll engage The worthy Youth shall ne'er be in a rage:

NOTES.

originally in the poem, though omitted in all the first editions. P.

VER. 37. Why yes: with Scripture fill you may be free ;] Thus the Man commonly called Mother Osborn, who was in the Minister's pay, and wrote Journals; for one Paper in behalf of Sir Robert, had frequently two against J. C.

VER. 39. A Joke on Jekyl,] Sir Joseph Jekyl, Mafter of the Rolls, a true Whig in his principles, and a man of the utmost probity. He sometimes voted against the Court, which drew upon him the laugh here described of ONE who bestowed it equally upon Religion and Honesty. He died a few months after the publication of this poem. P. VER. 43. These nothing hurts;] i. e. offends. VER. 47. Why, answer, Lyttleton,] George Lyttelton,

50

But were his Verses vile, his Whisper base,
You'd quickly find him in Lord Fanny's cafe.
Sejanus, Wolfe, hurt not honest FLEURY,
But well may put some Statesman in a fury.
Laugh then at any, but at Fools or Foes;
These you but anger, and you mend not those.
Laugh at your friends, and, if your Friends are fore,
So much the better, you may laugh the more.

56

To Vice and Folly to confine the jest,

Sets half the world, God knows, against the rest;

Did not the Sneer of more impartial men

60

At Sense and Virtue, balance all agen.
Judicious Wits spread wide the Ridicule,
And charitably comfort Knave and Fool.

P. Dear Sir, forgive the Prejudice of Youth:
Adieu Distinction, Satire, Warmth, and Truth!

NOTES.

Secretary to the Prince of Wales, diftinguished both for his writings and speeches in the spirit of Liberty. P.

VER. 51. Sejanus, Wolfey,] The one the wicked minister of Tiberius; the other, of Henry VIII. The writers against the Court usually bestowed these and other odious names on the Minister, without distinction, and in the most injurious manner. See Dial. II. 137. Р.

Ibid. Fleury,] Cardinal: and Minister to Louis XV. It was a Patriot fashion, at that time, to cry up his wisdom and honesty. P.

Come, harmless Characters that no one hit;
Come, Henley's Oratory, Osborn's Wit!
The Honey dropping from Favonio's tongue,
The Flow'rs of Bubo, and the Flow of Y-ng!
The gracious Due of Pulpit Eloquence,

65

:

And all the well-whipt Cream of Courtly Sense, 70 That First was H-vy's, F-'s next, and then

The S-te's, and then H-vy's once agen.

O come, that easy Ciceronian style,
So Latin, yet so English all the while,

As, tho' the Pride of Middleton and Bland,
All Boys may read, and Girls may understand!
Then might I fing, without the least offence,
And all I sung should be the Nation's Sense;
Or teach the melancholy Muse to mourn,
Hang the sad Verse on CAROLINA'S Urn,

75

80

NOTES.

VER. 66. Henley - Osborn,] See them in their places in the Dunciad. P.

VER. 69. The gracious Dew] Alludes to some court fermons, and florid panegyrical speeches; particularly one very full of puerilities and flatteries; which afterwards got into an address in ss in the same pretty style; and was laftly served up in an Epitaph, between Latin and English, published by its author. P.

VER. 76. All Boys may read, and Girls may understand!] i. e. full of school-book phrases and Anglicisms.

VER. 78. Nation's Sense ;) The cant of Politics at that time.

VER. 80. Carolina] Queen confort to King George II..