And taught his Romans, in much better metre,
To laugh at Fools who put their trust in Peter."
But Horace, Sir, was delicate, was nice;
Bubo oblerves, he lafh'd no fort of Vice:
Horace would fay, Sir Billy ferv'd the Crown,

Bort could do Bufinefs, Higgins knew the Town;
In Sappho touch the Failings of the Sex,
In reverend Bithops note fome fmall Neglects,
And own the Spaniard did a waggifh thing,

Who crept our Ears, and fent them to the King.
His dy, polite, infinuating ftyle

Could pleafe at Court, and make AUGUSTUS smile:
An artful Manager, that crept between

His Friend and Shame, and was a kind of Screen.
But 'faith your very Friends will foon be fore;
Patriots there are, who with you'd jest no more-
And where's the Glory? 'twill be only thought
The Great man never offer'd you a groat.
Go fee Sir ROBERT-

P. See Sir ROBERT!--hum-
And never laugh-for all my life to come?
Seen him I have, but in his happier hour
Of Social Pleafure, ill-exchang'd for Power;
Seen him, uncumber'd with a Venal tribe,

Art, and win without a Bribe.

find.

F. Why yes: with Scripture ftill you may be free;
A Horse-laugh, if you please, at Honesty;

A Joke on JEKYLL, or fome odd Old Whig,
Who never chang'd his Principle, or Wig;
A Patriot is a Fool in every age,

45

Whom all Lord Chamberlains allow the Stage: These nothing hurts; they keep their Fashion still, And wear their strange old Virtue, as they will. If any afk you, "Who's the Man, so near "His Prince, that writes in Verse, and has his ear?" Why answer LYTTELTON, and I'll engage The worthy Youth shall ne'er be in a rage: But were his Verses vile, his Whisper base: You'd quickly find him in Lord Fanny's cafe. Sejanus, Wolfey, hurt not honeft FLEURY, But well may put some Statesmen in a fury. Laugh then at any, but at Fools or Foes; Thefe you but anger, and you mend not thofe. Laugh at your Friends, and, if your Friends are fore, 55 So much the better, you may laugh the more.

To Vice and Folly to confine the jeft,

Sets half the world, God knows, against the rest;
Did not the Sneer of more impartial men

At Sense and Virtue balance all again.

: Judicious Wits spread wide the Ridicule,

And charitab'

P. Dear

Dif

t Knave and Fool.

e Prejudice of Youth
Warmth, and Truth!
> that no one hit
Ofborn's Wit!

50

60

63

The honey dropping from Favonio's tongue,
The Flowers of Bubo, and the Flow of Young!
The gracious Dew of Pulpit Eloquence,
And all the well-whipt Cream of Courtly Sense,
That firft was H-vy's, F-'s next, and then,

The S-te's, and then H-vy's once agen.
O come, that easy Ciceronian style,

So Latin, yet fo English all the while,

may

As, though the Pride of Middleton and Bland,
All Boys may read, and Girls understand!
Then might I fing, without the leaft offence,
And all I fung should be the Nation's Sense;
Or teach the Melancholy Mufe to mourn,
Hang the fad Verfe on CAROLINA's Urn,
And hail her paffage to the Realms of Reft,
All parts perform'd, and all her Children bleft!
So-Satire is no more-I feel it die-

No Gazetteer more innocent than I

And let, a God's name, every Fool and Knave
Be grac'd through Life, and flatter'd in his Grave.
F. Why fo? if Satire knows its Time and Place,
You ftill may lash the greatest-in Disgrace :
For Merit will by turns forfake them all;
Would you know when? exactly when they fall.
But let all Satire in all Changes spare
Immortal S-k, and grave De-re.
Silent and foft, as Saints remov'd to Heaven,
All Ties diffolv'd, and every Sin forgiven,
These may fome gentle ministerial Wing
Receive, and place for ever near a King!

70

75

There,

There, where no Paffion, Pride, or Shame transport,
Lull'd with the fweet Nepenthe of a Court,

There, where no Father's, Brother's, Friend's difgrace Once break their reft, or stir them from their Place: But past the Sense of human Miseries,

All Tears are wip'd for ever from all eyes;

No cheek is known to blufh, no heart to throb,

Save when they lofe a Question, or a Job.

P. Good Heaven forbid, that I should blast their glory, Who know how like Whig Ministers to Tory, And when three Sovereigns dy'd, could fcarce be vext, Confidering what a gracious Prince was next. Have I, in filent wonder, feen fuch things As Pride in Slaves, and Avarice in Kings; And at a Peer, or Peerefs, fhall I fret, Who ftarves a Sifter, or forfwears a Debt? Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boast; But shall the dignity of Vice be lost ?

110

Ye Gods! fhall Cibber's Son, without rebuke,

115

Swear like a Lord, or Rich outwhore a Duke?
A Favourite's Porter with his Master vie,

Be brib'd as often, and as often lie?

Shall Ward draw Contracts with a Statefman's fkill?

Or Japhet pocket, like his Grace, a Will?

120

Is it for Bond, or Peter, (paltry things)

To pay their Debts, or keep their Faith, like Kings?

VARIATION.

Ver. 112. in fome editions,

Who starves a Mother

If

230

Painted for fight, and effenc'd for the smell, Like frigates fraught with spice and cochinell, Sail in the Ladies: how each pirate eyes So weak a veffel, and fo rich a prize! Top-gallant he, and fhe in all her trim, He boarding her, the flriking fail to him : "Dear Countess! you have charms all hearts to hit!" And "Sweet Sir Fopling! you have so much wit!" Such wits and beauties are not prais'd for nought, For both the beauty and the wit are bought. 'Twould burft even Heraclitus with the spleen, To see those anticks, Fopling and Courtin : The Prefence feems, with things fo richly odd, The mofque of Mahound, or fome queer Pa-god. See them furvey their limbs by Durer's rules, Of all beau-kind the best proportion'd fools!

235

240

Adjust

Shall find their wardrobes inventory. Now
The Ladies come. As pirates (which do know
That there came weak fhips fraught with Cutchanel)
The men board them: and praise (as they think) well,
Their beauties; they the mens wits; both are bought,
Why good wits ne'er wear fearlet gowns, I thought
This caufe, These men, mens wits for speeches buy,
And women buy all red which scarlets dye.
He call'd her beauty lime-twigs, her hair net:
She fears her drugs ill lay'd, her hair loose fet.
Wouldn't Heraclitus laugh to fee Macrine
From hat to fhoe, himself at door refine,