Beneath thy roof, Argyle, are bred

Such thoughts as prompt the brave to lie
Stretch'd out in honour's nobler bed,
Beneath a nobler roof-the sky.

Such flames as high in patriots burn,
Yet stoop to bless a child or wife;
And such as wicked kings may mourn,
When freedom is more dear than life.

THE CHALLENGE.

A COURT BALLAD.

TO THE TUNE OF 'TO ALL YOU LADIES NOW AT LAND,' ETC.

To one fair lady out of court,

And two fair ladies in,

Who think the Turk1 and Pope 2 a sport,

And wit and love no sin;

Come these soft lines, with nothing stiff in,
To Bellenden, Lepell, and Griffin.3
With a fa, la, la.

What passes in the dark third row,
And what behind the scene,
Couches and crippled chairs I know,
And garrets hung with green;

1 Ulrick, the little Turk.

2 The Author.

8 Ladies of the Court of the Princess Caroline.

I know the swing of sinful hack,
Where many damsels cry alack.
With a fa, la, la.

Then why to courts should I repair,
Where's such ado with Townshend?
To hear each mortal stamp and swear,
And every speech with Zounds end;
To hear 'em rail at honest Sunderland,

And rashly blame the realm of Blunderland.1
With a fa, la, la.

Alas! like Schutz I cannot pun,

Like Grafton court the Germans;
Tell Pickenbourg how slim she's grown,
Like Meadows 5 run to sermons;

To court ambitious men may roam,
But I and Marlbro' stay at home.
With a fa, la, la.

In truth, by what I can discern,
Of courtiers 'twixt you three,
Some wit you have, and more may learn
From court, than Gay or me;
Perhaps, in time, you'll leave high diet,
To sup with us on milk and quiet.
With a fa, la, la.

4 Ireland.

5 Mentioned before in the verses to Mrs. Howe.

At Leicester-Fields, a house full high,
With door all painted green,
Where ribbons wave upon the tie
(A milliner I mean),

There may you meet us three to three,
For Gay can well make two of me.
With a fa, la, la.

But should you catch the prudish itch
And each become a coward,
Bring sometimes with you lady Rich,
And sometimes mistress Howard;
For virgins to keep chaste must go
Abroad with such as are not so.
With a fa, la, la.

And thus, fair maids, my ballad ends;

God send the king safe landing; And make all honest ladies friends

6

To armies that are standing; Preserve the limits of those nations, And take off ladies' limitations. With a fa, la, la.

6 This Ballad was written anno 1717.

THE THREE GENTLE SHEPHERDS.

Or gentle Philips will I ever sing,
With gentle Philips shall the valleys ring.
My numbers too for ever will I vary,

2

With gentle Budgell, and with gentle Carey.
Or if in ranging of the names I judge ill,
With gentle Carey and with gentle Budgell.
Oh! may all gentle bards together place ye,
Men of good hearts, and men of delicacy.
May satire ne'er befool ye or beknave ye,
And from all wits that have a knack, God save ye.

EPIGRAM.

ENGRAVED ON THE COLLAR OF A DOG WHICH I GAVE

TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS.

I AM His Highness's dog at Kew;
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?

1 Ambrose Philips.

8 Henry Carey.

2 Eustace Budgell.

4 Curll said, that in prose he was equal to Pope, but that

in verse Pope had merely a particular knack.

THE TRANSLATOR.

ÖZELL, at Sanger's call, invoked his Muse,
For who to sing for Sanger could refuse?
His numbers such as Sanger's self might use.
Reviving Perrault, murdering Boileau, he
Slander'd the ancients first, then Wycherley;
Which yet not much that old bard's anger rais'd,
Since those were slander'd most whom Ozell prais'd.
Nor had the gentle satire caus'd complaining,
Had not sage Rowe pronounc'd it entertaining;
How great must be the judgment of that writer,
Who the Plain Dealer2 damns, and prints the Biter!

THE LOOKING-GLASS.

ON MRS. PULTENEY.4

WITH Scornful mien, and various toss of air,
Fantastic, vain, and insolently fair,
Grandeur intoxicates her giddy brain,

She looks ambition, and she moves disdain.

1 Egbert Sanger was apprentice to Jacob Tonson, and successor to Bernard Lintot. Lintot published Ozell's transla tion of Perrault's Characters, and Sanger his translation of Boileau's Lutrin, commended by Rowe.

2 A comedy by Wycherley.

8 A comedy by Rowe.

4 The daughter of John Gumley of Isleworth, who acquired his fortune by a glass manufactory.