For all his Lordship knows, but they are Wood. For Locke or Milton 'tis in vain to look, These shelves admit not any modern book..
And now the Chapel's silver bell you hear, That summons you to all the Pride of Pray'r: Light quirks of Music, broken and uneven, Make the soul dance upon a Jig to Heav'n. On painted Ceilings you devoutly stare, Where sprawl the Saints of Verrio or Laguerre, Or gilded clouds in fair expansion lie, And bring all Paradise before your eye. To rest, the Cushion and soft Dean invite, Who never mentions Hell to ears polite. But hark! the chiming Clocks to dinner call; A hundred footsteps scrape the marble Hall: The rich Buffet well-colour'd serpents grace, And gaping Tritons spew to wash your face.
Is this a dinner? this a Genial room? No, 'tis a Temple, and a Hecatomb. A solemn Sacrifice, perform'd in state, You drink by measure, and to minutes eat. So quick retires each flying course, you'd swear Sancho's dread Doctor and his Wand were there. Between each Act the trembling salvers ring, From soup to sweet-wine, and God bless the King.
In plenty starving, tantalis'd in state,
And complaisantly help'd to all I hate, Treated, caress'd, and tir'd I take my leave,
Sick of his civil Pride from Morn to Eve; I curse such lavish cost, and little skill,
And swear no Day was ever pass'd so ill.
Yet hence the Poor are cloth'd, the Hungry fed; Health to himself, and to his Infants bread The Lab'rer bears: What his hard Heart denies,
His charitable Vanity supplies.
Another age shall see the golden Ear Imbrown the Slope, and nod on the Parterre, Deep Harvest bury all his pride has plann'd, And laughing Ceres reassume the land.
Who then shall grace, or who improve the Soil? Who plants like BATHURST, or who builds like BOYLE. 'Tis Use alone that sanctifies Expense, And splendour borrows all her rays from Sense.
His Father's Acres who enjoys in peace, Or makes his Neighbours glad, if he increase : Whose cheerful Tenants bless their yearly toil, Yet to their Lord owe more than to the soil; Whose ample Lawns are not asham'd to feed The milky heifer and deserving steed; Whose rising Forests, not for pride or show, But future Buildings, future Navies, grow: Let his plantations stretch from down to down, First shade a Country, and then raise a Town. You too proceed! make falling Arts your care, Erect new wonders, and the old repair; Jones and Palladio to themselves restore, And be whate'er Vitruvius was before: 'Till Kings call forth th' Ideas of your mind, (Proud to accomplish what such hands design'd), Bid Harbours open, public Ways extend, Bid Temples, worthier of the God, ascend; Bid the broad Arch the dang'rous Flood contain, The Mole projected break the roaring Main; Back to his bounds their subject sea command, And roll obedient Rivers thro' the Land; These honours, Peace to happy Britain brings, These are Imperial Works, and worthy Kings.
BEING THE PROLOGUE TO THE SATIRES
Neque sermonibus vulgi dederis te, nec in præmiis humanis spem posueris rerum tuarum; suis te oportet illecebris ipsa virtus trahat ad verum decus. Quid de te alii loquantur, ipsi videant, sed loquentur tamen.--CICERO.
[And do not yield yourself up to the speeches of the vulgar, nor in your affairs place hope in human rewards: virtue ought to draw you to true glory by its own allurements. Why should others speak of you? Let them study themselves-yet they will speak.]
This paper is a sort of bill of complaint, begun many years since, and drawn up by snatches, as the several occasions offered. I had no thoughts of publishing it, till it pleased some persons of Rank and Fortune (the authors of Verses to the Imitator of Horace, and of an Epistle to a Doctor of Divinity from a Nobleman at Hampton Court) to attack, in a very extraordinary manner, not only my Writings (of which, being public, the Public is judge), but my Person, Morals, and Family, whereof, to those who know me not, a truer information may be requisite. Being divided between the necessity to say something of myself and my own laziness to undertake so awkward a task, I thought it the shortest way to put the last hand to this Epistle. If it have anything pleasing, it will be that by which I am most desirous to please, the Truth and the Sentiment; and if anything offensive, it will be only to those I am least sorry to offend, the vicious or the ungenerous.
Many will know their own pictures in it, there being not a circumstance but what is true; but I have for the most part
spared their Names, and they may escape being laughed at if they please.
I would have some of them know it was owing to the request of the learned and candid Friend to whom it is inscribed that I make not as free use of theirs as they have done of mine. However, I shall have this advantage and honour on my side, that whereas, by their proceeding, any abuse may be directed at any man, no injury can possibly be done by mine, since a nameless Character can never be found out but by its truth and likeness.
P. SHUT, shut the door, good John! fatigu'd, I said; Tie up the knocker, say I'm sick, I'm dead.
The Dog-star rages! nay 'tis past a doubt,
All Bedlam, or Parnassus, is let out:
Fire in each eye, and papers in each hand,
They rave, recite, and madden round the land.
What walls can guard me, or what shades can hide?
They pierce my thickets, thro' my Grot they glide,
By land, by water, they renew the charge,
They stop the chariot, and they board the barge.
No place is sacred, 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 Parson, much bemus'd in beer,
A maudlin Poetess, a rhyming Peer, A Clerk, foredoom'd his father's soul to cross, Who pens a Stanza, when he should engross? Is there, who, lock'd from ink and paper, scrawls With desp'rate charcoal round his darken'd walls? All fly to TWIT'NAM, and in humble strain Apply to me, to keep them mad or vain. Arthur, whose giddy son neglects the Laws, Imputes to me and my damn'd works the cause:
Poor Cornus sees his frantic wife elope, And curses Wit, and Poetry, and Pope. Friend to my Life! (which did not you prolong, The world had wanted many an idle song) What Drop or Nostrum can this plague remove? Or which must end me, a Fool's wrath or love? A dire dilemma! either way I'm sped, If foes, they write, if friends, they read me dead. Seiz'd and ty'd down to judge, how wretched I! Who can't be silent, and who will not lye: To laugh, were want of goodness and of grace, And to be grave, exceeds all Pow'r of face. I sit with sad civility, I read
With honest anguish, and an aching head; And drop at last, but in unwilling ears, This saving counsel, "Keep your piece nine years." 40 "Nine years!" cries he, who, high in Drury Lane, Lull'd by soft Zephyrs thro' the broken pane, Rhymes ere he wakes, and prints before Term ends, Oblig'd by hunger, and request of friends: "The piece, you think, is incorrect? why take it, I'm all submission; what you'd have it, make it." Three things another's modest wishes bound, My Friendship, and a Prologue, and ten pound. Pitholeon sends to me: "You know his Grace, I want a Patron; ask him for a Place." Pitholeon libell'd me- "But here's a letter Informs you, Sir, 'twas when he knew no better. Dare you refuse him? Curll invites to dine, He'll write a Journal, or he'll turn Divine." Bless me! a packet. -" 'Tis a stranger sues, A Virgin Tragedy, an Orphan Muse." If I dislike it, "Furies, death and rage!" If I approve, "Commend it to the Stage."
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