And here, moved again with fresh indignation at his flan derers, he takes the advice of Horace, fume fuperbiam quæfitam meritis, and draws a fine picture of his moral and poetic conduct through life. In which he fhews that not fame, but VIRTUE was the conftant object of his ambition: that for this he oppofed himself to all the violence of Cabals, and the treacheries of Courts: the various iniquities of which having diftinctly specified, he fums them up in that most atrocious and fenfible of all (Ver. 333 to 360.)

"The whisper, that to greatness still too near,
"Perhaps yet vibrates on his Sov'REIGN's ear.
"Welcome for thee, fair Virtue! all the paft:
"For thee, fair Virtue! welcome ev'n the laft."

But here again his Friend interrupts the strains of his divine enthusiasm; and defires him to clear up one objection made to his Conduct at Court." That it was inhumane to infult "the Poor, and ill-breeding to affront the Great." To which he replies, That indeed in his purfuit of Vice, he rarely confidered how Knavery was circumftanced; but followed it, with his vengeance, indifferently, whether it led to the Pillory, or the Drawing Room (Ver. 359 to 368.)

But left this should give his Reader the idea of a savage intractable virtue, which could bear with nothing, and would pardon nothing, he takes to himself the fhame of owning that he was of fo eafy a nature, as to be duped by the flendereft appearances; a pretence to virtue in a witty woman: fo forgiving, that he had fought out the object of his beneficence in a perfonal enemy: fo humble, that he had fubmitted to the converfation of bad poets: and fo forbearing, that he had curbed in his refentment under the most shocking of all calumnies, abufes on his Father and Mother (Ver. 367 to 388.)

This naturally leads him to give a fhort account of their births, fortunes, and difpofitions; which ends with the tendereft wishes for the happiness of his Friend; intermixed with the most pathetic defcription of that filial Piety, in the exercife of which he makes his own happiness to confift.

"Me, let the tender office long engage
"To rock the Cradle of repofing Age;
"With lenient arts extend a Mother's breath,
"Make Languor fmile, and smooth the bed of Death;
"Explore the thought, explain the afking eye,
"And keep a while one Parent from the fky!"

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS,

Plate XVI

Vol. IV. facing p.9.

I.Hayman inv. et del.

Crignion foulp

Shut, shut the Door, good John fatigud I said Tye up the Knocker, say I'm sick, I'm dead.

Op to Arbuthnor

And now this incomparable Poem, which holds fo much of the DRAMA, and opens with all the disorder and vexation that every kind of impertinence and flander could occafion, concludes with the utmoft calmnefs and ferenity, in the retired enjoyment of all the tender offices of FRIENDSHIP and PIETY [Ver. 387 to the End.]

EPISTLE to Dr. ARBUTHNOT,

BEING THE

PROLOGUE

TO THE

SATIRES.

P.CHUT, shut the door, good John! fatigu'd

P. SHUT faid,

Tye up
the knocker, fay I'm fick, I'm dead.
The Dog-ftar rages! nay, tis paft a doubt,
All Bedlam, or Parnaffus, is let out:

Fire in each eye, and papers in each hand,
They rave, recite, and madden round the land.

NOTES.

S

VER. 1. Shut, fhut the door, good John !] John Searl, his old and faithful fervant: whom he has remembered, under that character, in his Will.

What walls can guard me, or what shades can

hide?

They pierce my Thickets, thro' my

glide,

Grot they

By land, by water, they renew the charge,
They stop the chariot, and they board the barge. 10
No place is facred, not the Church is free,
Ev'n Sunday shines no Sabbath-day to me:
Then from the Mint walks forth the Man of
rhyme,

Happy! to catch me, just at Dinner-time.

Is there a Parfon much be-mus'd in beer, 15 A maudlin Poetess, a rhyming Peer,

A Clerk, foredoom'd his father's foul to cross,
Who pens a Stanza, when he fhould engros?
Is there, who, lock'd from ink and paper, fcrawls
With defp'rate charcoal round his darken'd walls?

VARIATION S.

After Ver. 20. in the MS.

Is there a Bard in durance? turn them free,
With all their brandifh'd reams they run to me:
Is there a 'Prentice, having feen two plays,
Who would do fomething in his Semptiefs' praife-

NOTES.

VER. 12. Ev'n Sunday fhines no Sabbath-day to me] The beauty of this line arifes from the figurative terms of the predicate alluding to the fubject. A fecret, in elegant expreffion, which our Author often practifed.

VER. 13. Mint.] A place to which infolvent debtors retired, to enjoy an illegal protection, which they were there fuffered to afford one another, from the perfecution of their creditors.