O pueri, nituiftis, ut huc novus incola venit?

с

NOTES.

VER. 156. And, what's more rare, a Poet fhall fay Grace] The pleafantry of this line confifts in the fuppofed rarity of a Poet's having a table of his own; or a sense of gratitude for the bleffings he receives. But it contains,

2

To Hounflow-heath I point and Banfted-down, Thence comes your mutton, and thefe chicks my

150

own:

a From yon old walnut-tree a show'r fhall fall;
And grapes, long ling'ring on my only wall,
And figs from ftandard and espalier join;
The dev'l is in you if you cannot dine:
Then 'chearful healths (your Mistress shall have place),
And, what's more rare, a Poet shall say Grace. 156
Fortune not much of humbling me can boaft;
Tho' double tax'd, how little have I loft?
My Life's amusements have been just the same,
Before, and after Standing Armies came.
My lands are fold, my father's house is gone;
I'll hire another's; is not that my own,

с

160

165

And yours, my friends? thro' whose free-opening gate None comes too early, none departs too late; (For I, who hold fage Homer's rule the beft, Welcome the coming, speed the going guest.) "Pray heav'n it laft! (cries SWIFT!) as you go on; "I wish to God this house had been your own: "Pity! to build, without a fon or wife :

Why, you'll enjoy it only all your life." Well, if the use be mine, can it concern one, Whether the name belong to Pope or Vernon?

170

NOTES.

too, a fober reproof of People of Condition, for their unmanly and brutal difufe of fo natural a duty.

Nam & propriae telluris herum natura neque illum,

d

Nec me, nec quemquam ftatuit. nos expulit ille';

Illum aut nequities aut vafri infcitia juris,

e

Poftremum expellet certe vivacier beres.

Nunc ager Umbreni fub nomine, nuper Ofelli

Dictus erat: nulli proprius; fed cedit in ufum

Nunc mihi, nunc alii, quocirca vivite fortes,

i

Fortiaque adverfis opponite pectora rebus.

NOTES.

VER. 183. proud Buckingham's etc.] Villers Duke of Buckingham. P.

VER. 185. Let lands and houfes etc.] The turn of his

e

What's Property? dear Swift! you see it alter
From
you to me, from me to Peter Walter ;
Or, in a mortgage, prove a Lawyer's share;
Or, in a jointure, vanish from the heir;
Or in pure f equity (the cafe not clear)
The Chanc'ry takes your rents for twenty year:
At beft, it falls to fome ungracious fon,
Who cries, "My father's damn'd, and all's my own.
h Shades, that to BACON could retreat afford,
Become the portion of a booby Lord;

181

And Hemfley, once proud Buckingham's delight,
Slides to a Scriv❜ner or a city Knight,

* Let lands and houses have what Lords they will, Let Us be fix'd, and our own mafters ftill.

175

NOTES.

imitation, in the concluding part, obliged him to diverfify the fentiment. They are equally noble: but Horace's is expreffed with the greater force.