Pars hominum geftit conducere publica: funt qui

• Cruftis et pomis viduas venentur avaras,

Excipiantque fenes, quos in vivaria mittant:

* Multis occulto crefcit res fenore. f verum

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Efto, aliis alios rebus ftudiisque teneri:
Iidem eadem poffunt horam durare probantes?

* Nullus in orbe finus Baiis praelucet amoenis,

Si dixit dives; lacus et mare fentit amorem
Feftinantis heri: cui fii vitiofa libido

Fecerit aufpicium; cras ferramenta Teanum

NOTES.

VER. 126. Their Country's wealth our mightier Mifers drain,] The undertakers for advancing Loans to the Public on the Funds. They have been commonly accused of making it a job. But in fo corrupt times, the fault is not always to be imputed to a Ministry it having been found, on trial, that the wifest and most virtuous citizen of this or any other age, with every requifite knowledge in fuch matters, and fupported by all the weight an honeft Admi

Their Country's wealth our mightier Mifers drain,
Or cross, to plunder Provinces, the Main;

The reft, fome farm the Poor-box, fome the Pews
Some keep Affemblies, and would keep the Stews;
Some d with fat Bucks on childlefs Dotards fawn; 130
Some win rich Widows by their Chine and Brawn;
While with the filent growth of ten per cent,
In dirt and darkness, hundreds ftink content.
Of all these ways, if each pursues his own,
Satire be kind, and let the wretch alone:
But fhow me one who has it in his pow'r,
To act confiftent with himself an hour.

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e

Sir Job & fail'd forth, the ev'ning bright and ftill, "No place on earth (he cry'd) like Greenwich hill !” h Up ftarts a Palace, lo, th' obedient base Shopes at its foot, the woods its fides embrace, The filver Thames reflects its marble face. Now let fome whimfy, or that Dev'l within Which guides all those who know not what they

}

i

135

mean,

But give the Knight (or give his Lady) fpleen; 145J

NOTES.

niftration could afford him, was, they fay, unable to abolifh this inveterate myftery of iniquity."

140

Fecerit aufpicium

which no modern imitation can reach.

VER. 143. Now let fome whimfy, etc.] This is very spirited, but much inferior to the elegance of the Original, Cui fi vitiofa Libido

Tolletis, fabri. lectus genialis in aula eft?

Nil ait effe prius, melius nil coelibe vita:

! Si non eft, jurat bene folis effe maritis.

P

k

Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nodo ?

Quid " pauper? ride: mutat coenacula, lectos,

Balnea, tonfores; conducto navigio aeque

Naufeat, ac locuples quem ducit priva triremis,

9 Si curatus inaequali tonfore capillos
Occurro; rides. fi forte fubucula pexae
Trita fubeft tunicae, vel fi toga diffidet impar;
Rides. quid, mea Cum pugnat fententia fecum ;
Quod petiit, fpernit; repetit quod nuper omifit;

Aeftuat, et vitae disconvenit ordine toto;

NOTES.

VER. 155. They change their weekly Barber, etc.] Thefe fix lines much more fpirited than the Original. In that, the inconftancy of temper in the common people is fati

"Away, away! take all your scaffolds down, "For Snug's the word: My dear! we'll live in Town." At am'rous Flavio is the ftocken thrown?

k

That very night he longs to lie alone.

1 The Fool whose Wife elopes fome.thrice a quarter, For matrimonial folace dies a martyr.

151

156

Did ever Proteus, Merlin, any witch,
Transform themselves fo ftrangely as the Rich?
Well, but the " Poor-The Poor have the fame itch;
They change their weekly Barber, weekly News,
Prefer a new Japanner to their shoes,
Discharge their Garrets, move their beds, and run
(They know not whither) in a Chaise and one;
They hire their fculler, and when once aboard,
Grow fick, and damn the climate-like a Lord. 160
You laugh, half Beau half Sloven if I ftand,
My wig all powder, and all snuff my band;
You laugh, if coat and breeches ftrangely vary,
White gloves, and linen worthy Lady Mary !
But when no Prelate's Lawn with hair-fhirt lin'd,
Is half fo incoherent as my Mind,

P

T

166

m

When (each opinion with the next at strife,
One s ebb and flow of follies all my life)

NOTES.

rized only in a fimple expofure of the cafe. Here the tidicule on the folly is heightened by a ridiculous reprefentation of each circumftance that is the object of it.

Diruit, aedificat, mutat quadrata rotundis ?

▾ Infanire putas folennia me, neque rides,

Nec medici credis, nec curatoris egere

W

A praetore dati; rerum * tutela mearum

Cum fis, et prave fectum ftomacheris ob unguem,

De te pendentis, te refpicientis amici.

Ad fummam, fapiens uno y minor eft Jove, dives,

Liber, honoratus, pulcher, rex denique regum ;

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