Fr. Why, yes with scripture still you may free; A horselaugh, if you please, at honesty ; Whom all lord chamberlains allow the stage: If any ask you, 'Who's the man so near His prince, that writes in verse, and has his ear?' Why, answer, Lyttelton! and I'll engage The worthy youth shall ne'er be in a rage; But were his verses vile, his whisper base, You'd quickly find him in lord Fanny's case. Sejanus, Wolsey, hurt not honest Fleury, But well may put some statesmen in a fury. Laugh then at any but at fools or foes; Sets half the world, God knows, against the rest, 7 Sir Joseph Jekyl, Master of the Rolls, a true whig, and a man of perfect probity: he sometimes voted against the court. P. Dear sir, forgive the prejudice of youth: Adieu distinction, satire, warmth, and truth! Come, harmless characters that no one hit; Come, Henley's oratory, Osborne's wit!8 The honey dropping from Favonio's tongue, The flowers of Bubo, and the flow of Young!9 The gracious dew of pulpit eloquence, And all the well whipt cream of courtly sense; The first was H**vy's, F**'s next, and then The S**te's, and then H**vy's once again. O come! that easy Ciceronian style, So Latin, yet so English all the while, As, though the pride of Middleton and Bland,1 All boys may read, and girls may understand! Then might I sing without the least offence, And all I sung should be the nation's sense; Or teach the melancholy muse to mourn, Hang the sad verse on Carolina's urn, And hail her passage to the realms of rest, All parts perform'd, and all her children blest!? So-Satire is no more- -I feel it die No gazetteer more innocent than I— And let, a God's name! every fool and knave Be grac'd through life, and flatter'd in his grave. F. Why so? if satire knows its time and place, 6 * See note p. 5, and note on Dunciad, B. ii. v. 312. • See notes and 2 p. 102. 1 Dr. Middleton, the well known author of the Life of Cicero; Dr. Bland, Master of Eton College. 2 See Memoir prefixed to these volumes, p. cxiii. You still may lash the greatest-in disgrace; All tears are wip'd for ever from all eyes; P. Good heaven forbid that I should blast their glory, Who know how like whig ministers to tory, And when three sovereigns died could scarce be vext, Considering what a gracious prince was next. 3 Selkirk. Ye gods! shall Cibber's son, without rebuke, Shall Ward draw contracts with a statesman's skill? Is it for Bond or Peter7 (paltry things) Το To pay their debts, or keep their faith, like kings? If Blount dispatch'd himself, he play'd the man, And so mayst thou, illustrious Passeran !9 But shall a printer,1 weary of his life, Learn from their books to hang himself and wife? • Charles Blount, author of The Oracles of Reason, &c. 9 A nobleman of Piedmont, author of A Philosophical Discourse on Death, who was banished from his country for his impieties. 1732. Richard Smith: see Gentleman's Magazine for April, ? An eloquent preacher, and author of a Defence of Christianity against Tindal. 3 Mrs. Drummond, famous in her day. Outdo Landaff in doctrine-yea, in life : Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame, She's still the same belov'd, contented thing. • See Memoir prefixed to these volumes, p. cxi. |