THOMAS SHERIDAN, CLERK, TO GEORGE-NIM-DAN-DEAN, ESQ.

July 15, 1721, at night.
I'D have you t'know, George *, Dant, Dean f, and

Nims,
That I've learned how verfe t' compose trim.
Much better b’ half th’n you, n'r you, n'r him,
And th’t I'd rid'cule their ’nd

your

flam-Alim, Ay' b't then, p’rhaps, says you, t's a m'rry whim With 'bundance of mark'd notes i' th'rim, So th’t I ought n't for t’ be morose ’nd t? look grim, Think n’t your 'p'stle put m’in a meagrim; Though ’n rep’t’t’on day, I ’ppear ver' llim, Th’ last bowl 't Helsham’s did m'head i fwim, So th’t I h'd man' aches n’’v'ry fcrubb’d limb, Cause th’ top of th' bowl l'h'd oft us’d tskim; And b'sides D’lan’swears thit l'h'd swall’w'd f'v'r'l brimmers, ’nd that my vis’ge's cov'r'd o'er with r'd pimples : m'r'o'er though m’scull were (s' tis n't)

strong's timber, it must have ak’d. Thi clans of th' c’lledge

Sanh?dtim, Pres’nt the’r humbl' and 'fect'nate respects; that's t'lay,

D’lan', 'chlin, P. Ludl', Dic' St’wart, H’lsham, capt'n P'rr' Walınil', 'nd Longsh’nks Timm 1. * Geo. Rochfort.

+ J. Rochfort. I Mr. Jackson. § Dr. Swift. | Dr. James Stopford, afterwards bishop of Clovne.

GEORGE

1

GEORGE-NIM-DAN-DEAN'S ANSWER.

DE

EAR Sheridan! a gentle pair

Of Gaulstown lads (for such they are),
Besides a brace of grave divines,
Adore the smoothness of thy lines;
Smooth as our bason's silver flood,
"Ere George had robb'd it of its mud;
Smoother than Pegafus' old shoe,
Ere Vulcan comes to make him new.
The board on which we fetxour.as
Is not so smooth as are thy verses,
Compar'd with which (and that 's enough)
A smoothing-iron itself is rough.
Nor praise I less that circumcision,
By modern poets callid elision,
With which, in proper station placid,
Thy polish'd lines are firmly bràc'd.
Thus a wise taylor is not pinching,
But turns at every seam an inch in;
Or else, be sure, your broad-cloth breeches
Will ne'er be smooth, nor hold their stitches.
Thy verse, like bricks, defy the weather,
When smoothi'd by rubbing them together;
Thy words so closely wedg'd and short are
Like walls, more lasting without mortar;
By leaving out the needless vowels,
You save the charge of lime and trowels.

Vol. I.

One

One letter still another locks,
Each groov'd and dove-tail'd like a box ;
Thy Muse is tuckt-up and succinct;
In chains thy syllables are linkt;
Thy words together ty'd in small hanks,
Close as the Macedonian phalaux ;
Or like the umbo of the Romans,
Which fiercest foes could break by no means.
The critick to his grief will find,
How firmly these indentures bind.
So, in the kindred painter's art,
The shortening is the nicest part.

Philologers of future ages,
How will they pore upon thy pages !
Nor will they dare to break the joints,
But help thee to be read with points :
Or else, to shew their learned labour, you
May backward be perus’d like Hebrew,
Where they need not lose a bit
Or of thy harmony or wit.
To make a work compleatly fine,
Number and weight and measure join ;
Then all must grant your lines are weighty,
Where thirty weigh as much as eighty.
All must allow your numbers more,
Where twenty lines exceed fourscore ;
Nor can we think

your

measure short,
Where less than forty fill a quart,
With Alexandrian in the close,
Long, long, long, long, like Dan's long nofe.

GEORGE GEORGE-NIM-DAN-DEAN'S INVITATION

TO THOMAS SHERIDAN.

Gaulstown, Aug. 2d, 1721. DEA

EAR Tom, this verse, which however the be

ginning may appear, yet in the end's good metre, Is sent to defire that, when your August vacation comes,

your friends you 'd meet here. For why should you ftay in that filthy hole, I mean the

city so smoaky, When

you

have not one friend left in town, or at lealer not one that 's witty, to joke w'ye? For, as for honest John *, though I am not sure on 't,

yet I 'll be bang’d, left be Be

gone down to the county of Wexford with that great peer the lord Anglesey. Oh! but I forgot; perhaps, by this time, you may have

one come to town, but I don't know whether he be friend or foe, Delany : But, however, if he be come, bring him down, and

go back in a fortnight, for I know there 's no delaying ye. Oh! I forgot too; I believe there may be one more, I

mean that great fat joker, friend Helfham, be That wrote the prologue †, and if you stay with him, depend on 't, in the end, be 'll pam ye.

Bring Supposed to mean Dr. Walmsley, † One spoken by young Putland, in 1720, before Hippolytus ; in which Dr. Sheridan (who had written

Q?

you shall

*

Bring down Long Shanks Jim too ; but, now I think

on 't, he's not yet come from Courtown, 1 fancy ; For I heard, a month ago, that he was down there

a•courting My Nancy. However, bring down yourself, and you bring down all;

for, to say it we may venture, In thee Delany's spleen, John's mirth, Helfham's jokes,

and the foft foul of amorous Jemmy, center.

POSTSCRIPT.

of, yo

I had forgot to desire you to bring down what I say you

have, and you 'll believe me as sure as a gun, and

own it; I mean, what no other mortal in the universe can boast

own spirit of pun, and own wit. And now I hope you 'll excuse this rhyming, which I

must say is '(though written fomewhat at large) trim

and clean; And so I conclude, with humble respects as ufual, Your moft dutiful and obedient

GEORGE-NIM-DAN-DEAN. a prologue for the cccasion) was most unexpectedly and egregiously laughed at. Both the prologues are printed in the “ Supplement to Swift's Works."

TO