1 6 8 The hero William, and the martyr Charles, BOOK II. EPISTLE 11. Ludentis speciem dabit, et torquebitur. Hor. “ No lord's anointed, but a Russian bear." Dear col'nel, Cobham's and your country's friend ! Not with such · majesty, such bold relief, You love a verse, take such as I can send. The forms august, of king, or conquering chief, "A Frenchman comes, presents you with his boy, E'er swell’d on marble; as in verse have shin'd Bows, and begins" This lad, sir, is of Blois : (In polish'd verse) the manners and the mind. Observe his shape how clean! his locks hor curl'd! Oh! could I mount on the Mæonian wing, Your 3 arms, your actions, your repose to sing ; My only son ; I'd have him see the world : His French is pure; his voice too-you shall Whato seas you travers'd, and what fields you hear, fought! Your country's peace, how oft, how dearly bought! Sir, he's your slave, for twenty pound a year. Mere wax as yet, you fashion him with ease, How barbarous rage subsided at your word, Your barber, cook, upholsterer, what you please : And nations wonder'd while they dropp'd the A perfect genius at an opera songsword! To say too much might do my honour wrong. How, when you nodded, o'er the land and deep, Take him with all his virtues, on my word; • Peace stole her wing, and wrapp'd the world in His whole ambition was to serve a lord : sleep; But, sir, to you, with what would I not part? Till Earth's extremes your mediation own, Though faith, I fear, 'twill break his mother's heart And’ Asia's tyrants tremble at your throne- Once (and but once) I caught him in a lie, But * verse, alas ! your majesty disdains; And then, unwhipp'd, he had the grace to cry : And I'm not us'd to panegyrie strains : The fault he has I fairly shall reveal, The zeal of' fools offends at any time, (Could you o'crlook but that) it is, to steal.” But most of all, the zeal of fools in rhyme. ? If, after this, you took the graceful lad, Besides a fate attends on all I write, Could you complain, my friend, he prov'd so bad ? That when I aim at praise, they say 10 I bite. Faith, in such case, if you should prosecute, A vile" encomiuin doubly ridicules: I think sir Godfrey should decide the suit; There's nothing blackens like the ink of fools. Who sent the thief that stole the cash away, If true, a "? woful likeness; and if lies, And punish'd him tliat put it in his way. “ Praise undeserv'd is scandal in disguise:" Consider then, and judge me in this light; Well may he "blush, who gives it, or receives; I told you when I went, I could not write; And when I flatter, let my dirty leaves You said the same; and are you discontent (Like journals, odes, and such forgotten things With laws to which you gave your own assent? As Eusden, Philips, Settle, writ of kings) Nay worse, to ask for verse at such a time! 1* Clothe spice, line trunks, or, fluttering in a row, D've think me good for nothing but to rhyme ? Befringe the rails of Bedlam and Soho. * In Anna's wars, a soldier poor and old Had dearly earn'd a little purse of gold : Ad libros et ad hæc Musarum dona vocares; EPISTOLA II. Bæotum in crasso jurares aëre natum. (At neque dedecorant'tua de se judicia, atque Flore, bono claroque fidelis amice Neroni, Muncra quæ multa dantis cum laude tulerunt, "Si quis forte velit puerum tibi vendere natum. Dilecti tibi Virgilius Varjusque poetæ ;] Tibure vel Gabiis, et tecum sic agat: “ Hic et Nec magis expressi 2 vultus per ahenea signa, Candidus, et talos a vertice pulcher ad inos, Quam per vatis opus mores aniınique virorum l'iet eritque tuus nummorum millibus octo; Clarorum apparent. nec sermones ego mallem Verna ministeriis ad nutus aptus heriles; Repentes per humum, quam res componere Litterulis Grecis imbutus, idoneus arti gestas, Cuilibet : argilla quidvis imitaberis uda : Terrarumque * situs et flumina dicere, et arces Quin etiam canet indoctum, sed dulce bibenti. Montibus impositas, et "barbara regna, tuisque Multa fidem promissa levant, mbi plenius æquo Auspiciis totum confecta duella per orbem, Laudat venales, qui vult extrudere, merces. Claustraque 'custodem pacis cohibentia Janum, Res urget me nulla : meo sum pauper in ære.. Et å formidatuni Parthis, te principe, Romam: Nemo hoc mangonum faceret tibi : non temere a Si quantum cuperem, possem quoque. sed neque parvum Quivis ferret idem : semel hic cessavit, et (ut fit) · Carmen majestas recipit tua; nec meus audet In scalis latuit metuens pendentis habenæ : Rem tentare pudor, quam vires ferre recusent. Des nummos, excepta nibil te si fuga lædit.” Sedulitas autem stulte, quem diligit, urget; 2 llle ferat pretium, pænse securus, opinor. Præcipue cum se numeris commendat et arte. Prudens emisti vitiosuin: dicta tibi est lex.“ Discit enim citius, meminitque libentius illud Insequeris tamen hunc, et lite moraris iniqua. Quod quis deridet, quam quod probat et vene- 3 Dixi me pigrum proficiscenti tibi, dixi ratur Talibus offeris prope mancum; ne mea savus Nil moror officium, "quod me gravat: ac neque Jurgares ad te quod epistola nulla veniret. In "2 pejus vultu proponi cereus usquarn, [licto Quid tum profeci, mecuin facientia jura Nec prave factis decorari versibus opto : Si tamen attentas? quereris super hoc etiam, quod 13 Ne rubeam pingui donatus munere, et una Expectata tili von mittam cariniua mendax. Cum scriptore meo capsa porrectus aperta, * Luculli miles collecta viatica multis 14 Deferar in vicum vendentem thus et odores, Ærumnis, lassus duin noctu stertit, ad assem Et piper, et quicquid charus alnicitur ineptis. Perdiderat : post hoc vehemens lupus, et sibi et hosti 1 3 4 6 3 me 10 12 1 5 Tird with a tedious march, one luckless night, This subtle thief of life, this paltry Time, What will it leave me, if it snatch my'rhyme ? 3 But after all, what would you have me do? He leap'd the trenches, scal'd a castle-wall, When out of twenty I can please not two; Tore down a standard, took the fort and all. When this heroics only deigns to praise, “ Proligious well !” his great commander cry'd, Sharp satire, that, and that Pindaric lays ? Gave him much praise, and some reward beside. One likes the pheasant's wing, and one the leg; Next, pleas'd his excellence a town to batter, The vulgar boil, the learned roast, an egg. (Its name I know not, and 'tis no great matter); Hard task! to hit the palate of such guests, “Go on my friend,” (he cry'd) “see yonder walls! When Oldfield loves what Dartineuf detests. Advance and conquer ! go where Glory calls ! * But grant I may relapse, for want of grace, More honours, more rewards, attend the brave.” Again to rhyme: can London be the place? Don't you remember what reply he gave? Who there his Muse, or self, or soul attends, “ D'ye think me, noble general, such a sot? In crouds, and courts, law, business, feasts, and Let him take castles who has ne'er a groat.” My counsel sends to execute a deed : [friends ? 'Bred up at home, full early I begun A poet begs me I will hear him read: To read in Greek the wrath of Peleus' son. In Palace-yard at nine you'll find me thereBesides, my father taught me from a lad, At ten, for certain, sir, in Bloomsbury-squareThe better art, to know the good from bad : Before the lords at twelve my cause comes on(And little sure imported to remove, There's a rehearsal, sir, exact at oneTo hunt for truth in Maudlin's learned grove.) “Oh but a wit can study in the streets, But knottier points, we knew not half so well, And raise his mind above the mob he meets." Depriv'd us soon of our paternal cell ; Not quite so well however as one ought; And certain laws, hy sufferers thought unjust, A hackney coach may chance to spoil a thought; Deny'd all posts of profit or of trust : And then a nodding beam, or pig of lead, Hopes after hopes of pious papists fail'd, God knows, may hurt the very ablest head. While mighty William's thundering arm prevail'd. Have you not seen, at Guildhall's narrow pass, Por right hereditary tax'd and find, Two aldermen dispute it with an ass? He stuck to poverty with peace of mind; And peers give way, exalted as they are, And me, the Muses help'd to undergo it; Ev'n to their own s-r-v-nce in a car? Convict a papist he, and I a poet. Go, lofty poet! and in such a croud, But (thanks to Homer) since I live and thrive, Sing thy sonorous verse--but not aloud. Indebted to no prince or peer alive, Alas! to grottoes and to groves we run, Sure I should want the care of ten Monroes, To ease and silence, every Muse's son: If I would scribble, rather than repose. Blackmore himself, for any grand effort, 2 Years following years steal something every day, Would drink and doze at Tooting or Earl's-Court. At last they steal us from ourselves away; How shall I rhyme in this eternal roar ? [fore? In one our frolies, one amusements end, How inatch the bards whom none e'er match'd beIn one a mistress drops, in one a friend : 6 The man, who, stretch'd in Isis' calm retreat, To books and study gives seven years complete, Iratus pariter, jejunis dentibus acer, Præsidium regale loco dejecit, ut aiunt, Tendunt extorquere poemata. quid faciam vis ? Summe munito, el multarum divite rerum. 3 Denique non omnes eadem mirantur amantque. Clarus ob id factum, donis ornatur honestis, Carmine tu gaudes: hic delectatur iambis; Accipit et bis dena super sestertia nummům. Ille Bioneis sermonibus, et sale nigro. Forte sub hoc tempus castellum evertere prætor Tres inibi convivæ prope dissentire videntur, Nescio quod cupiens, hortari ccepit eundem Poscentes vario multum diversa palato. [alter: Verbis, quæ timido quoque possent addere mentem: Quid dem? quid non dem? renuis quod tu, jubet I, bone, quo virtus tua te vocat: i pede fausto, Quod petis, id sane est invisum acidumque duobus. Grandia laturus meritorum premia : quid stas? * Præter cætera me Romæ ne poemata censes Post hæc ille catus, quantumvis rusticus, Ibit, Scribere posse, inter tot curas totque labores ? Ibit eo, quo vis, qui zonam perdidit," inquit. Hic sponsum vocat, hic auditum scripta, relictis * ? Romæ nutriri inihi contigit, atquc doceri, Omnibus officiis : cubat hic in colle Quirini, Iratus Graiis quantum nocuisset Achilles. Ilic extremo in Aventino; visendus uterque. Adjecere bonæ paulo plus artis Athene : Intervaila vides humane commoda. “Verum Scilicet ut possem curvo dignoscere rectum, Purr sunt plater, nihil ut meditantibus obstet.” Atque inter sylvas Academi qu:erere verum. Festinat calidus mulis gerulisque redemtor: (num: Dura sed emovere loco me tempora grato; Torquet nunc lapidem, nunc ingens machina tigCivilisque rudem belli tulit æstus in arma, Tristia robustis luctantur funera plaustris: Cæsaris Augusti non responsura lacertis. Hac rabiosa fugit canis, hac lutulenta ruit sus. Unde simul primum me demisere Philippi, 5 I nunc, et versus tecum meditare canoros. (urbes, Decisis humilem pennis, inopemque paterni Scriptorum chorus omnis amat pemus, et fugit Et laris, et fundi, paupertas impulit auılax Rite cliens Bacchi, somno gaudentis et umbra. l't versus facerem: sed, quod non desit ho hentem, Tu me inter strepitus nocturnos atque diurnos Quæ poterunt unqnam satis expurgare cicutæ, Vis canere, et contracta sequi vestigia catum? Ni melius dormire putem, quam scribere versus ? o Ingenium, sibi quod vacuas desumsit Athenas, 2 Singula de nobis anni pradantur euntes; Et studiis annos septem dedit, insenuitque Eripuere jocos, venerem, convivia, ludum; Libris et curis, statua tacituruius exit See! strou'd with learned dust, his nightcap on, 'Tis to small purpose that you hold your tongue, Their own strict judges, not a word they spare, Nay though at court (perhaps) it may find grace; Composing songs, for fools to get by heart? Such they'll degrade; and sometimes, in its stead, 1 The Temple late two brother sergeants saw, * In downright charity revive the dead; Who deem'd each other oracles of law; Mark where a bold, expressive phrase appears, With equal talents, these congenial souls, Bright through the rubbish of some hundred years; One lull'd th’Exchequer, and one stunn'd the Rolls; Command old words that long have slept to wake, Each bad a gravity would make you split, Words, that wise Bacon, or brave Rawleigh spake; And shook his head at Murray, as a wil. Or bil the new be English, ages hence, 'I'was, “Sir, your law"--and“Sir, your eloquence," (For Use will father what's begot by Sense) “ Yours, Cowper’s manner"-"and yours, Talbot's Pour the full tide of eloquence along, 2 Thus we dispose of all poetic merit, (sense.” | Serenely pure, and yet divively strong, Yours Milton's genius, and mine Homer's spirit. Rich with the treasures of each foreign tongue; Call Tibbald Shakespeare, and he'll swear the Nine, Prune the luxuriant, the uncoutb refine, Dear Cibber! never match'd one ode of thine. But show no mercy to an empty line: Lord! how we strut through Merlin's Cave, to see Then polish all, with so much life and ease, No poets there, but Stephen, you, and me. You think 'tis Nature, and a knack to please : Walk with respect behind, while we at ease “ But case in writing tiow's from art, not chance; Weave laurel crowns, and take what names we As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance, “My dear Tibullus !” If that will not do, (please. If such the plague and pains to write by rule, “ L t me be Horace, and be Ovid you ; Better (say 1) be pleas’d, and play the fool; Or, I'm content, allow me Dryden's strains, Call, if you will, bad rhyming a disease, And you shall rise up Otway for your pains." It gives men happiness, or leaves them ease. Much do I sufler, much, to keep in peace There liv'd in primo Georgii (they record) This jealous, waspish, wrong head, rhyming race; A worthy member, no small fool, a lord ; And much must flatter, if the whim should bite Who, though the house was up, delighted sate; To court applause by printing what I write: Heard, noted, answer'd, as in full debate : But let the fit pass o'er, I'm wise enough In all but this, a man of sober life, To stop my ears to their confounded stutt. Fond of his friend, and civil to his wife; • In vain, bad rhymers all mankind reject, Not quite a madman, though a pasty fell; They treat themselves witn most profound respect; And inuch too wise to walk into a well. Him, the damu'd doctors and his friends immur'd, Plerumque, et risu populuin quatit; hic ego rerum They bled, they cupp'd, they purg'd; in short, they curd : Fluctibus in mediis, et tempestatibus urbis, Whereat the gentleman began to stare (care! Verba lyræ motura sonum connectere digner? “My friends!” he cry'd, p-x take you for your * Frater erat Romæ consulti rhetor; ut alter Alterius sermone meros audiret honores: Gracchus ut hic illi foret, huic ut Mucius ille. * Obscurata diu populo bonus eruet, atque Qui minus argutos vexat furor iste poetas? Proferet in lucem speciosa vocabula rerum, 7 Carmina compono, hic elegos; mirabile visu, Quæ priscis memorata Catonibus atque Cethegis, Cælatumque novem Musis opus. aspice primum, Nunc situs informis premit et deserta vetustas; Quanto cum fastu, qnanto molimine circun- Adsciscet nova, quæ genitor pro.luxerit usus: spectemus vacuam Romanis ratibus ædem. Vehemens et liquidus, puroque simillimus amni, Mox etiam (si forte vacas) sequere, et procul audi, Fundet opes, Latiunque beabit divite lingua : Quid ferat, et quare sibi nectat uterque coronam. Luxuriantia compescet: nimis aspera sano Cædimur, et totidem plagis consumimus hostem, Levabit cultu, virtutc carentia tollet: Lento Samnites ad lumina prima duello. Laudentis speciem dabit, torquebitur, ut qui Discedo Alcæus puncto illius ; ille meo quis ? Nunc Satyrum, nunc agrestem Cyclopa movetur, Quis, nisi Callimachus ? si plus adposcere visus : 5 Prætulerim scriptor delirus inersque videri, Fit Mimnermus, et optivo cognomine crescit. Dum mea delectent mala me, vel denique fallant, Multa fero, ut placem genus irritabile vatum, Quam sapere, et ringi. Fuit haud ignobilis Argia Cum scribo, et supplex populi suffragia capto: Qui se credebat miros audire tragados, Idem, finitis studiis, et mente recepta, In vacuo lætus sessor plausorque theatro : Obturem patulas impune legentibus aures. Cætera qui vita servaret munia recto Ridentur mala quicomponunt carinina: verum More; bonus sane vicinus, amabilis hospes, Gaudet scribentes, et se penerantur, et ultro, Comis in uxorem? posset qui ignoscere servis, Si taceas, laudant; quidquid scripsere, beati. Et signo læso non insanire lagenæ : At qui legitimum cupiet fecisse poema, Posset qui rupem, et puteum vitare patentem, Cum tabulis animum censoris sumet honesti: Hic ubi cognatorum opibus curisque refectus, Audebit quacunque parum splendoris habebunt, Expulit olleboro morbum bilemque meraco, Et sino pondere erunt, et honore indigna ferentur, Et redit ad si se : Pol me occidistis, amici, Verba movere loco; quamvis invita recedant, Non servastis, ait; cui sic extorta voluptas, Et versentur adhuc intra penetralia Vesta: Et demptus per vim mentis gratissimus error, 3 a are, IMITATIONS OF HORACE. 263 That from a patriot of distinguish'd note, 1 Heathcote himself, and such large-acred men, Have bled and purg'd me to a simple vote.” Lords of fat E'sham, or of Lincoln-fen, 1 Well, on the whole, plain prose must be my fate: Buy every stick of wood that lends them heat ; Wisdom (curse on it) will come soon or late. Buy every pullet they afford to eat. There is a time when poets will grow dull: Yet these are wights, who fondly call their own lll.e'en leave verses to the boys at school : Half that the Devil o'erlooks from Lincoln-town. The laws of God, as well as of the land, mind, Abhor a perpetuity should stand: 2 Loose on the point of every wavering hour, Ready, by force, or of your own accord, Heir urges heir, like wave impelling wave. [have? All vast possessions, (just the same the case * If, when the more you drink, the more you Alas, my Bathurst! what will they avail? There mingled farms and pyramids appear, Link towns to towns with avenues of oak, * When golden angels cease to cure the evil, Inexorable Death shall level all, Indeed, could wealth bestow or wit or merit, Two of a face, as soon as of a mind. Why, of two brothers, rich and restless one The other slights, for women, sports, and wines, Bows and votes on, in court and parliament; One, driven by strong benevolence of soul, Various of temper, as of face or frame, Each individual; his great end the same. Aut etiam supra, nummorum millibus emtum. Si tibi nulla sitim finiret copia lymphæ, Sub noctem gelidam lignis calefactat ahenum. Limitibus vicina refigit jurgia : tanquam [ræ, * Si vulnus tibi monstrata radice vel herba ? Sit proprium cuiquam, puncto quod nobilis hoNon fieret levius, fugeres radice vel herba Nunc prece, nunc pretio, nunc vi, nunc sorte suProficiente nihil curarier: audieras, cai prema, Rem Di donarint, ille decedere pravam Permutet dominos, et cedat in altera jura. At si divitiæ prudentem reddere possent, Quid vici prosunt, aut horrea? quidve Calabris Præferat Herodis palinetis pinguibus; alter 1 1 THE VERSIFIED 3 Yes, sir, how small socver be my heap, Walk sober off; before a sprightlier age A part I will enjoy, as well as keep. Comes tittering on, and shoves you froin the stage: Niy heir may sigh, and think it want of grace Leave such to trifle with more grace and ease, Ainun so poor would live without a place : Whoin folly pleases, and whose follies please. But sure no statute in his favour says, How free, or frugal, I shall pass iny days: I who at some times spend, at others spare, Divided between carelessness and care. "Tis one thing madly to disperse my store; Another, not to heed to treasure more: SATIRES OF DR. JOHN DONNE, Glad, like a boy, to snatch the first good day, DEAN OF ST. PAULS, And pleas'd, if sordid want be far away. 2 What is't to me (a passenger God wot) Whether my vessel be first-rate or not? The ship itself may make a better figure; Quid vetat et nosmet Lucili scripta legente's But I that sail, am neither less nor bigger: Quærere, num illius, num rerum dura negârit Versiculos natura magis factos, et euntes I neither strut with every favouring breath, Mollius? Hor. Nor strive with all the tempest in my teeth. In power, wit, figure, virtue, fortune, plac'd Behind the foremost, and before the last. SATIRE II. " } But why all this of avarice? I have none." I wish you joy, sir, of a tyrant gone! a Yes; thank my stars! as early as I knew But does no other lord it at this hour, This town, I had the sense to hate it too : As wild and mad? the avarice of power? Yet here, as ev'n in Hell, there must be still Does neither rage inflame, nor fear appall? One giant-vice, so excellently ill, Not the black fear of death that saddens all? That all beside, one pities, not abhors : With terrours round, can Reason hold her throne, As who knows Sappho, smiles at other whores. Despise the known nor tremble at th' unknown? I grant that poetry's a crying sin ; Survey both worlds, intrepid and entire, It brought (no doubt) th' excise and army in : In spite of witches, devils, dreams, and fire? Catch'd like the plague, or love, the Lord knows Pleas'd to look forward, pleas'd to look behind, But that the cure is starving, all allow. (how, And count each birth-day with a grateful mind? Yet like the papist's, is the poet's state, Has life no sourness, drawn so near its end; Poor and disarm’d, and hardly worth your hate! Canst thou endure a foe, forgive a friend ? Here a lean bard, whose wit could never give Has age but melted the rough parts away, Himself a dinner, makes an actor live : As winter-fruits grow mild ere they decay? The thief condemnd, in law already dead, Or will you think, my friend, your business done, So prompts, and saves a rogue who cannot read. When, of a hundred thorns, you pull out one? Thus as the pipes of some carv'd orçan move, * Learn to live well, or fairly make your will; The gilded puppets dance and mount above. You've play'd, and lov'd, and eat, and drank your Th' inspiring bellows lie and pant below. Heav'd by the breath th' inspiring bellows blow: fill : One sings the fair : but songs no longer move; No rat is rhym'd to death, nor maid to love : Utar, et ex modico, quantum res poscet, acervo Rideat, et pulset lasciva decentius ætas. SATIRE IL. Though poetry, indeed, be such a sin, *Pauperiesimmunda domûs procul absit: ego, utrum As I think, that brings dearth and Spaniards in : Nave ferar magna an parva, ferar unus et idem. Though like the pestilence and old-fashion'd love, Non agimur tumidis velis Aquilone secundo: Ridlingly it catch men, and doth remove Non tamen adversis ptatem ducimus Austris. Never, till it be starv'd out; yet their state Viribus, ingenio, specie, virtute, locn, re, disarın'd, like papists, not worth hate. Extremi primorum, extremis usque priores. One (like a wretch, which at barre judg'd as dead, Non es avarus : abi. quid ? cætera jam simul | Yet prompts him which stands next, and cannot read Cum vitio fugere? caret tibi pectus inani (isto And saves his life) gives ideót acters means Ambitione ? caret mortis formidine et ira? (Starving himself) to live by 's labour'd scenes. Somnia, terrores magicos, iniracula, sagas, As in some organs puppits dance above, Nocturnos lemures, portentaqne Thessala rides? And bellows pant below, which them do more. Natales grate numeras ? ignoscis an icis ? One would move love by rhymes; but witchcraft's Lenior et melior fis accedente senceta? charms Quid te extrema levat spinis de pluribus una ? Bring not now their ol{ fears, nor their old barms; * Virere si rerte nescis, decerle peritis. Rams and slings now are silly battery, Lusisti satis, edisti satis, atque bibisti: Pistelets are the best artillery. Is poor, |