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

Decay of Parts, alas! we all must feel --

5

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

Bubo obferves, he lafh'd no fort of Vice:
Horace would fay, Sir Billy ferv'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 fent them to the King.

VARIATIONS.

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

NOTES.

15

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

VER. 14. H-ggins] 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 fhip on one Jenkins a Captain of

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 foon be fore; Patriots there are, who wish you'd jeft no more --And where's the Glory; 'twill be only thought The Great man never offer'd you a groat.

Go fee Sir ROBERT

P. See Sir ROBERT !--- hum

And never laugh for all

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life to come?
Seen him I have, but in his happier hour
Of Social Pleasure, ill-exchang'd for Pow'r ;
Seen him, uncumber'd with the Venal tribe,
Smile without Art, and win without a Bribe.

an English one.

NOTES.

21

25

30

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 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 generally 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. P.

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

VER. 31. Seen him, 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 ftrange old Virtue, as they will.

40

45

If any ask you, "Who's the Man, so near "His Prince, that writes in Verfe, and has his ear?" Why, anfwer, 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 edi

tions. P.

VER. 37. Why yes: with Scripture fill you may be free ;] Thus the Man commonly called Mather Ofborn, 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. R. 39. A Joke on Jekyl] Sir Jofeph Jekyl, Mafter of the Rolls, a true Whig in his principles, and a man of the utmost probity. He fometimes voted against the Court, which drew upon him the laugh here defcribed of ONE who bestowed it equally upon Religion and Honefty. He died a few months after the publication of this poem. P、 VER. 43. Thefe nothing burts ;] i. e. offends.

VER. 47. Why, anfwer, Lyttleton,] George Lyttelton,

But were his Verfes vile, his Whisper base,
You'd quickly find him in Lord Fanny's cafe.
Sejanus, Wolfey, hurt not honest FLEURY,
But well may put fome Statesman in a fury.
Laugh then at any, but at Fools or Foes;

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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.

To Vice and Folly to confine the jeft,

Sets half the world, God knows, against the rest;
Did not the Sneer of more impartial men

At Senfe 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.

56

бо

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

VER. 51. Sejanus, Wolfey.] The one the wicked minifter of Tiberius; the other, of Henry VIII. The writers against the Court ufually beftowed thefe and other odious names on the Minifter, without diftinction, and in the most injurious manner. See Dial. II. 137. P.

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

Come, harmless Characters that no one hit;
Come, Henley's Oratory, Ofborn'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,

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And all the well-whipt Cream of Courtly Senfe, 70
That First was H-vy's, F—'s next, and then
The S-te's, and then H-yy's once agen.
O come, that eafy Ciceronian style,

So Latin, yet fo English all the while,

As, tho' the Pride of Middleton and Bland,

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All Boys may read, and Girls may understand!

Then might I fing, without the leaft offence,
And all I fung fhould be the Nation's Sense;
Or teach the melancholy Muse to mourn,
Hang the fad Verse on CAROLINA's Urn,

NOTES.

80

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

VER. 69. The gracious Dew] Alludes to fome court fermons, and florid panegyrical ipeeches; particularly one very full of puerilities and flatteries; which afterwards got into an addrefs in the fame pretty ftyle; and was laftly ferved up in an Epitaph, between Latin and English, published by its author. P.

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

VER. 78. Nation's Senfe;] The cant of Politics at that time.

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

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