ADVERTISEMENT.

TH

HE following piece is a burlesque imitation a fpecies of poetry, whofe chief excellence confifts in a lucky and humourous application of the words and fentiments of any author to a new fubject totally different from the original. This is what is ufually forgot both by the writers and readers of these kind of compofitions; the first of whom are apt to ftrike out new and independent thoughts of their own, and the latter to admire fuch injudicious excrefcencies: these immediately lofe fight of their original, and those scarce ever cast an eye towards him at all. It is thought proper therefore to advertise the reader, that in the following epiftle he is to expect nothing more than an appofite converfion of the serious fentiments of Horace on the Roman poetry, into more ludicrous ones on the fubject of English politicks; and if he thinks it not worth while to compare it line for line with the original, he will find in it neither wit, humour, nor even common fenfe; all the little merit it can pretend to confifting folely in the closeness of fo long, and uninterrupted an imitation.

HORATII

***

HORATII

Ep. I. Lib. II.

Ad AUGUSTU M.

UM tot fuftineas, & tanta negotia folus,

CUM

Res Italas armis tuteris, moribus ornes, Legibus emendes, in publica commoda peccem, Si longo fermone morer tua tempora, Cæfar. 'Romulus, & Liber pater, & cum Castore Pollux, Poft ingentia facta, deorum in templa recepti, Dum terras hominumque colunt genus, afpera bella Componimt, agros affignant, oppida condunt,

Ploravere

THE

FIRST EPISTLE

OF THE

Second Book of HORACE,

IMITATE D.

WHI

HILST you, my lord, fuch various toils
fuftain,

Prefide o'er Britain's Peers, her laws explain,
With ev'ry virtue ev'ry heart engage,
And live the bright example of the age,
With tedious verse to trefpafs on your time,
Is fure impertinence, if not a crime.

5

b All the fam'd heroes, ftatefmen, adinirals, Who after death within the facred walls Of WESTMINSTER with kings have been receiv'd, Met with but forry treatment, while they liv'd; 10 And tho' they labour'd in their country's cause, With arms defended her, and form'd with laws,

с

Ploravere fuis non refpondere favorem

Speratum meritis: diram qui contudit hydram,
Notaque fatali portenta labore fubegit,
Comperit invidiam fupremo fine domari:
Urit enim fulgore fuo qui prægravat artes,
Infra fe pofitas; extinctus amabitur idem.
Prefenti tibi maturos largimur honores,
Jurandafque tuum per nomen ponimus aras,
'Nil oriturum alias, nil ortum tale fatentes.
Sed tuus hic populus fapiens & juftus in uno,
Te noftris ducibus, te Graiis ante ferendo,
Cætera nequaquam fimili ratione modoque
Æftimat, & nifi quæ terris femota, fuifque
Temporibus defuncta videt, faftidit, & odit.
h Sic fautor veterum, ut tabulas peccare vetantes
Quas bis quinque viri fanxerunt, fædera regum
Vel Gabiis, vel cum rigidis æquata Sabinis,
Pontificum libros, annofa volumina Vatum,
Dictitet Albano Mufis in monte locutas.

* Si quia Græcorum funt antiquiffima quæque
Scripta vel optima, Romani penfantur eadem

Scriptores

Yet ever mourn'd they till'd a barren foil,

And left the world ungrateful to their toil.

Ev'n* He, who long the houfe of Com--ns led, 15

That Hydra dire, with many a gaping head,

Found by experience to his latest breath,
Envy could only be fubdu'd by death.

"Great men whilft living muft expect difgraces,

Dead they're ador'd-- when none defire their places.

This common fate, my lord, attends not you

Above all equal, and all envy too;

With fuch unrivall'd eminence you fhine,
That in this truth alone all parties join,
The feat of juftice in no former reign
Was e'er fo greatly fill'd, nor ever can again.

But tho' the people are fo juft to you,
To none befides will they allow their due,
No minifter approve, who is not dead,
Nor till h' has loft it, own he had a head;
Yet fuch respect they bear to ancient things,
They've fome for former minifters and kings;
And, with a kind of fuperftitious awe,

Deem Magna Charta ftill a facred law.

But, if becaufe the government was beft Of old in FRANCE, when freedom the poffeft,

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