And when it comes, the Court fee nothing in't.
You grow correct, that once with Rapture writ,
And are, befides, too moral for a Wit.

After ver. 2. in the MS.

You don't, I hope, pretend to quit the trade,
Because you think your reputation made:
Like good of whom so much was said,
That when his name was up, he lay a bed.
Come, come, refresh us with a livelier fong,
Or like ** you'll lie a bed too long.

VER. 1. Not twice a twelve month, &c.] These two lines are from Horace; and the only lines that are fo in the whole Poem; being meant to give a handle to that which follows in the Character of an impertinent Cenfurer,

'Tis all from Horace ; &c,

Decay of Parts, alas! we all must feel

5

Why now, this moment, don't I fee you fteal?
"Tis all from Horace; Horace long before yè
Said, "Tories call'd him Whig, and Whigs a Tory;"
And taught his Romans, in much better metre,
"To laugh at Fools who put their truft in Peter."

But Horace, Sir, was delicate, was nice;'
Bubo obferves, he lafh'd no fort of Vice:
Horace would fay, Sir Billy ferv'd the Crown,
Blunt could de Bus'nofs, H-ggins knew the Town;
In Sappho touch the Failings of the Sex,

In rev'rend Bishops note fome small Neglects,
And own, the Spaniard did a waggifh thing

Who cropt our Ears, and fent them to the King.
His fly, polite, infinuating style

Could please at Court, and make AUGUSTUS finile:
An artful Manager, that crept between

His Friend and Shame, and was a kind of Screen.

P. Sir, what I write, fhould be correctly writ.
F. Correct! 'tis what no genius can admit
Befides, you grow tuo moral for a Wit.

21

VER. 14. B-ggins] Formerly Jaylor of the Fleet prifɔn, enrich'3 himself by many exactions, for which he was tried and expelled.

VER. 18. Who cropt our Ears,] Said to be executed by the Captain of a Spanish fhip. on one Junkins, a Captain of an English one. He cut off his ears, and bid him carry them to the King his master.

VFR. 22. Screen.]

Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico
Tangit, et admiflus circum praecordia ludit.

Perf

But 'faith your very Friends will foon be fore:

Patriots there are, who wish you'd jeft no more→ And where's the Glory! 'twill be only thought 25 The Great man never offer'd you a groat,

Go fee Sir ROBERT

P. See Sir ROBERT!-hum

And never laugh-for all my life to come?
Seen him I have but in his happier hour

Of Social Pleafore, ill-exchang'd for Pow'r ;
Seen him, uncumber'd with the Venal tribe,
Smile without Art, and win without a Bribe.
Would he oblige me? let me only find,

He does not think me what he thinks mankind.
Come, come, at all I laugh he laughs, no doubt;
The only diff'rence is, I dare laugh out.

30

35

F. Why yes with Scripture ftill you may be free;

A Horfe-laugh, if you pleafe, at Honefty;

A Joke on JEKYL, or fome odd Old Whig
Who never chang'd his Principle, or Wig:
A Patriot is a Fool in ev'ry age,

Whom all Lord Chamberlains allow the Stage:
These nothing hurts: they keep their Fafhion ftill,
And wear their strange old Virtue, as they will.

40

VER. 39. A Joke on Jekyl] Sir Jofeph Jekyl, Master of the Rolls, a true Whig in his principles, and a man of the utmost probity. He fometimes voted against the Court, which drew upon him the laugh here defèribed of ONE who bestowed it equally upon Rel gion and Honefty. He died a few months after the publication of this poem.

If any ask

you, "Who's the Man, fo near

45

"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 Verses vile, his Whisper base,
You'd quickly find him in Lord Fanny's cafe.
Sejanus, Wolfey, hurt not honeft FLEURY,
But well may put fome Statesmen in a fury.
Laugh then at any, but at Fools or Foes;
Thefe you but anger, and you mend not thofe.

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 jest,

Sets half the world, God knows, against the reft;
Did not the Sneer of more impartial men

At Senfe 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 Distinction, Satire, Warmth, and Truth ?

50

54:

60

VER. 47. Why, answer, Lyttelton.] George Lyttelton, Secretary to the Prince of Wales, diftinguifhed both for his writings and speeches in the spirit of Liberty.

VER. 51. Sejanus, Wolfey,] The one, the Wicked minifter of Tiberius: the other, of Henry VIII. The writers against the Court ufually beftowed thefe and other odious names on the Minifter, without diftinction, and in the most injurious See Dial. 11. ver. 137.

manner.

Ibid. Fleury,] Cardinal; and M'nifter to Louis XV. It was a Patriot-fashion, at that time, to cry up his wisdom and honesty.

Come, harmless Characters that no one hit;
Come, Henly's Oratory, Ofborn's Wit!
The Honey dropping from Favonio's tongue,
The Flow'rs of Bubo, and the Flow of Y-ng!
The gracious Dew of Pulpit Eloquence,

65

And all the well-whipt Cream of Courtly Senfe

70

That First was H-vy's, F-'s next, and then

The S-te's, and then H-vy's once agen.

O come, that easy Ciceronian style,

So Latin, yet fo English all the while,

As, tho' the pride of Middleton and Bland,

75

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 Sense;
Or teach the melancholly 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-

80

No Gazetteer more innocent than I

And let, a God's-name, ev'ry Fool and Knave

85

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 Disgrace:

For Merit will by turns forfake them all;

Would you know when? exactly when they fall. 90

VER. 66. Henly Osborn.] See them in their places in the Dunciad.