A patriot is a fool in ev'ry age,

Whom all lord chamberlains allow the ftage:
These nothing hurts; they keep their fashion ftill,
And wear their strange old virtue, as they will.

If any afk you, "Who's the man, fo near

"His prince, that writes in verfe, and has his ear?" Why, anfwer, LYTTELTON *, and I'll engage

The worthy youth fhall ne'er be in a rage;
But were his verfes vile, his whisper base,
You'd quickly find him in Lord Fanny's case.
§ Sejanus, Wolfey, hurt not honest FLEURY†,
But well may put some statesmen in a fury.

Laugh then at any, but at fools or foes;
Thefe 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 reft;
Did not the fneer of more impartial men
At fenfe and virtue balance all agen.
Judicious wits fpread wide the ridicule,
And charitably comfort knave and fool.

P. Dear Sir, forgive the prejudice of youth:
Adieu diftinction, fatire, warmth, and truth !
Come, harmlefs 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 Yng!

45

50

54

60

65

George Lyttelton, fecretary to the Prince of Wales, diftinguished both for his writings and speeches in the spirit of liberty.

§ The one the wicked minister of Tiberius, the other, of Henry VIII. The writers against the court usually bestowed thefe and other odious names on the minister, without distinction, and in the most injurious manner. See Dial. 2. ver. 137.

+ Cardinal, and minister to Louis XV. time, to cry up his wifdom and honesty.

See them in their places in the Dunciad.

It was a patriot-fashion, at that

The

The gracious dew* of pulpit eloquence,

And all the well-whipt cream of courtly fenfe,
That firft was H-vy's, F-'s next, and then
The S-te's, and then H-vy's once agen.
O come, that eafy, Ciceronian ftyle,
So Latin, yet fo 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 fung fhould be the nation's fenfe ;
Or teach the melancholy mufe to mourn,
Hang the fad verfe on CAROLINA's §urn,
And hail her paffage to the realms of reft,
All parts perform'd, and all her children bleft!
So-Satire is no more-I feel it die-
No Gazetteer more innocent than I

And let, a God's name, ev'ry fool and knave
Be grac'd thro' life, and flatter'd in his grave.

F. Why fo? if Satire knows its time and place,
You ftill may lafh the greatest in difgrace:
For merit will by turns forfake them all;
Would you know when exactly when they fall.
But let all fatire in all changes fpare
Immortal S-k, and grave D-—re †.
Silent and foft, as faints remove to Heav'n,
All tyes diffolv'd and ev'ry fin forgiv'n,
Thefe may fome gentle minifterial wing
Receive, and place for ever near a king!

Alludes to fome court fermons, and florid panegyrical fpeeches; parti. cularly one very full of puerilities and flatteries; which afterwards got into an addrefs in the fame pretty ftyle; and was lafly ferved up in an epitaph, between Latin and English, published by its author.

$ Queen confort of king George II. She died in 1737. Her death gave occafion, as is observed above, to many indifcreet and mean performances unworthy of her memory, whofe laft moments manifefted the utmost courage and refolution.

A title given that lord by king James II. He was of the bedchamber to king William he was fo to king George I. he was fo to k ng George H. This lord was very skilful in all the forms of the house, in which he dif charged himself with great gravity.

VOL. II.

There,

There, where no passion, pride, or shame transport,
Lull'd with the sweet Nepenthe of a court;

There, where no father's, brother's, friend's difgrace
Once break their reft, or ftir them from their place :
But paft the fenfe of human miferies,

All tears are wip'd for ever from all eyes;

No check is known to blush, no heart to throb,

ΙΟΙ

Save when they lofe a question, or a job.

P. Good Heav'n forbid, that I should blaft their glory, Who know how like whig minifters to tory,

And when three fov'reigns dy'd, could fcarce be vext,
Confid'ring what a gracious prince was next.
Have I, in filent wonder, feen fuch things
As pride in flaves, and avarice in kings;
And at a peer, or peerefs, fhall I fret,
Who ftarves a fifter, or forfwears a debt?
Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boast;
But fhall the dignity of Vice be lost ?

Ye gods! fhall Cibber's fon, without rebuke,
Swear like a lord, or Rich § outwhore a duke?
A fav'rite's porter with his mafter vie,

106

110

115

Be brib'd as often, and as often lie?

Shall Ward draw contracts with a ftatefman's fkill?

Or Japhet pocket, like his grace, a will?
Is it for Bond or Peter, (paltry things)

To pay their debts, or keep their faith like kings ?
If Blount + dispatch'd himself, he play'd the man,
And fo may'ft thou, illuftrious Pafferan!

*The flyle of addresses on an acceffion.

§ Two players: look for them in the Dunciad.

I 20

Author of an impious foolish book called the Oracles of Region, who being in love with a near kinfwoman of his, and rejected, gave himself a stab in the arm, as pretending to kill himfelf; of the confequence of which he really died.

Author of another book of the fame ftamp, called, Aphilofophical Difcourfe on Death, being a defence of fuicide. He was a nobleman of Piedmont, banished from his country for his impieties, and lived in the utmost misery, yet feared to practise his own precepts.-This unhappy man at last died a penitent.

But

But shall a printer *, weary of his life,

Learn, from their books, to hang himself and wife ?

This, this, my friend, I cannot, muft not bear ;
Vice thus abus'd, demands a nation's care:
This calls the church to deprecate our fin,
And hurls the thunder of the laws on gin §.
Let modeft FOSTER, if he will, excell
Ten metropolitans in preaching well;
A fimple quaker, or a quaker's wife,
Outdo Landaffe + in doctrine,—yea in life :
Let humble ALLEN, with an aukward shame,
Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.
Virtue may chufe the high or low degree,
'Tis juft alike to Virtue, and to me;
Dwell in a monk, or light upon a king,
She's ftill the fame belov'd, contented thing.
Vice is undone, if she forgets her birth,
And stoops from angels to the dregs of earth :
But 'tis the fall degrades her to a whore :

Let greatness own her, and she's mean no more,
Her birth, her beauty, crouds and courts confess,
Chafte matrons praife her, and grave bifhops blefs;
In golden chains the willing world fhe draws,
And hers the Gofpel is, and hers the laws,
Mounts the tribunal, lifts her fearlet head,
And fees pale Virtue carted in her ftead.
Low! at the wheels of her triumphal car,

Old England's genius, rough with many a fear,
Dragg'd in the duft! his arms hang idly round,
His flag inverted trails along the ground!
Our youth, all liv'ry'd o'er with foreign gold,
Before her dance: behind her, crawl the old !

125

130

135

140

150

155

* A fact that happened in London a few years paft. The unhappy man left behind him a paper justifying his action by the reafonings of fome of thefe authors.

SA fpirituous liquor, the exorbitant use of which had almost destroyed the lowest rank of the people, till it was reftrained by an act of parliament in 1736.

A poor b'fhoprick in Wales, as poorly fupplied.
O 2

See

See thronging millions to the Pagod run,
And offer country, parent, wife, or fon!
Hear her black trumpet thro' the land proclaim,
That NOT TO BE CORRUPTED IS THE SHAME.
In foldier, churchman, patriot, man in pow'r,
'Tis av'rice all, ambition is no more !
See, all our nobles begging to be flaves!
See, all our fools afpiring to be knaves!

160

The wit of cheats, the courage of a whore,

165

Are what ten thousand envy and adore:

All, all look up, with reverential awe,

At crimes that 'fcape, or triumph o'er the law: While truth, worth, wifdom, daily they decry"Nothing is facred now but villainy."

170

Yet may this verfe (if fuch a verse remain) Show there was one who held it in difdäin.