Why do we grieve that friends fhould dye? No lofs more easy to supply. One year is past; a different scene! No further mention of the dean, Who now, alas, no more is mist, 245 250 255 Some country 'fquire to Lintot* goes, Inquires for Swift in verfe and profe. Says Lintot, "I have heard the name; "He dy'd a year ago. The fame.” He searches all the shop in vain : "Sir, you may find them in Duck-lane+; "I fent them, with a load of books, "Laft Monday, to the pastry-cooks. "To fancy they could live a year! "I find you're but a ftranger here. "The dean was famous in his time, 260 "And had a kind of knack at rhime: "His way of writing now is past: "The town has got a better taste. * "Bernard Lintot, a bookfeller. See Pope's Dunciad and Letters." + Aftreet where old books were formerly fold. "I keep no antiquated stuff; "But fpick and fspan I have enough. 265 "Pray, do but give me leave to fhew 'em. "Here's Colley Cibber's birth-day poem. "This ode you never yet have seen By Stephen Duck upon the queen. 270 "Then here's a letter finely pen'd Against the Craftsman and his friend: "It clearly fhews, that all reflection "On ministers is difaffection. "Next, here's fir Robert's vindication, 275 "And Mr. Henley's † last oration. "The hawkers have not got them yet; "Your honour please to buy a fett?” Suppose me dead; and then suppose A club affembled at the Rofe ; Where, from difcourfe of this and that, the fubject of their chat. grow 'The dean, if we believe report, I Was never ill receiv'd at court. Altho', ironically grave, 280 285 He sham'd the fool and lash'd the knave. "Sir, I have heard another story; "He was a moft confounded tory, * A miferable poet (originally a thatcher) patronised by the court. + Commonly called Orator Henley, a fort of clerical buffcon. "And grew, or he is much bely'd, Can we the drapier e'er forget? Is not our nation in his debt? "Twas he that writ the Drapier's letters. "He fhould have left them for his betters; "We had a hundred abler men, "Nor need depend upon his pen. "Say what you will about his reading, "You never can defend his breeding: "Who, in his fatyrs running riot, "Could never leave the world in quiet; 295 Attacking, when he took the whim, 301 "Court, city, camp ;-all one to him.— 306 "But why wou'd he, except he slobber'd, "Offend our patriot, great fir Robert? "Whose councils aid the fov'reign pow'r "To fave the nation ev'ry hour. "What scenes of evil he unravels "In fatyrs, libels, lying travels! "Not fparing his own clergy-cloth, "But eats into it like a moth!” Perhaps I may allow the dean 310 Had too much fatyr in his vein, And feem'd determin'd not to starve it, Because no age could more deserve it. Vice, if it e'er can be abafh'd Must be or ridicul'd or lash'd. 315 If you refent it, who's to blame? He neither knew you nor your name. 320 325 His friendships, ftill to few confin'd, To talk with wits in dirty fhoes; And fcorn the tools with stars and garters So often seen careffing Chartres. He kept with princes due decorum, 335 Yet never flood in awe before 'em ; But follow'd David's leffon juft; In princes never put his truft: And, would you make him truly four, 340 "Alas, poor dean! his only scope "Was to be held a misanthrope. "This into gen'ral odium drew him; Which, if he lik❜d, much good may do him. "His zeal was not to lafh our crimes, 345 350 A few, in verfe; but moft, in profe.- 355 "Some high-flown pamphlets, I fuppofe : "All fcribbled in the worst of times, "To palliate his friend Oxford's crimes, 66 To praise queen Anne, nay more, defend her, "As never fav'ring the pretender :- 360 "Or libels yet conceal'd from fight, Against the court to fhew his spight :"Perhaps his travels, part the third; "A lye at ev'ry fecond word "Offenfive to a loyal ear : 365 "But-not one fermon, you may fwear."As for his works, in verse or profe, I own myself no judge of those; Nor can I tell what criticks thought 'em; But this I know, all people bought 'em; 370 As with a moral view defign'd, To please and to reform mankind: |