Rage in his heart, diftraction in his eye!
Behold, inhuman hags! your minion lie!
Behold his gay career to ruin run,

By you feduc'd, abandon'd and undone !
Rather in garret pent, fecure from harm,
My mufe with murders fhall the town alarm; 200
Or plunge in politics with patriot zeal,
And fnari like Guthrie for the public weal,
Than crawl an infect in a beldame's power,
And dread the crush of caprice ev'ry hour!
Friend.

'Tis well-enjoy that petulance of style,
And, like the envious adder, lick the file:
What though fuccefs will not attend on all !
Who bravely dares, muft fometimes rifk a fall.
Behold the bounteous beard of fortune fpread;
Each weaknefs, vice and folly yields thee bread;
Would't thou with prudent condefcenfion strive
On the long-fettled terms of life to thrive.

Port.

What! join the crew that pilfer one another,
Betray my friend, and perfecute my brother:
Turn ufurer, o'er cent per cent. to brood,
Or quack, to feed like fleas on human blood?
Friend.

Or if thy foul can brook the gilded curfe,
Some changeling heiress fteal-

Poet.

220

Why not a purse? Two things I dread, my confcience and the law.

Friend.

How? dread a mumbling bear without a claw?
Nor this, nor that, is ftandard right or wrong,
Till minted by the mercenary tongue;
And what is confcience but a fiend of ftrife,
That chills the joys, and damps the fcenes of life?
The wayward child of vanity and fear,
The peevish dam of poverty and care;
Unnumber'd woes engender in the breast
That entertains the rude, ungrateful guest.
Port.

Hail, facred pow'r ! my glory aud my guide!
Fair fource of mental peace, whate'er betide;
Safe in thy fhelter, let difafter roll
Eternal hurricanes around my foul;
My foul ferene amidft the ftorms fhall reign,
And mile to fee their fury burst in vain!

Friend.

Too coy to flatter, and too proud to serve, Thine be the joyleis dignity to starve.

Pucts

230

240

No-thanks to difcord, war fhall be my friend;
And moral rage, heroic courage lend
To pierce the gleaming fquadron of the foe,
And win renown by fome diftinguish'd blow.

Ver 199. Thefe are the dreams and fictions of Grub-street, with which the good people of this metropolis are daily alarmed and entertained.

Ver. 206. This alludes to the fable of the viper and file, applicable to all the unsuccessful efforts of malice and envy.

Ver. 240. This, furely, occafioned Churchill's "Too proud to fatter, too fincere to lie."

An injur'd friend! who challenges the name ?
If you, what title juftifies the claim?

Did e'er your heart o'er my affliction grieve,
Your int'reft prop me, or your praife relieve? Ia
Or could my wants my foul fo far fubdue,
That in diftrefs the crawl'd for aid to you?
But let us grant th' indulgence e'er fo strong;
Difplay without referve th' imagin'd wrong:
Among your kindred have I kindled ftrife,
Deflow'r'd your daughter, or debauch'd your wife;
Traduc'd your credit, bubbled you at game;
Or foil'd with infamous reproach your name ?
Friend.

No but your cynic vanity (you'll own)
Expos'd by private council to the town.

Poet.

40

With all my foul!-th' imputed charge rehearse; I'll own my error and expunge my verse. Come, come,-howe'er the day was loft or won, The world allows the race was fairly run. But left the truth too naked fhould appear, A robe of fable fhall the goddess wear; When sheep were subject to the lion's reign, Ere man acquir'd dominion o'er the plain, Voracious wolves fierce rufhing from the rocks, Devour'd without controul th' unguarded flocks: The fuff'rers crowding round the royal cave, - Their monarch's pity and protection crave : Not that they wanted valour, force or arms, To fhield their lambs from danger and alarms; 50 A thousand rams the champions of the fold, In ftrength of horn, and patriot virtue bold, Engag'd in firm affociation, stood

60

Their lives devoted to the public good:
A warlike chieftain was their fole request,
To marshal, guide, instruct, and rule the reft:
Their pray'r was heard, and by confent of all,
A courtier ape appointed general.-
He went, he led, arrang'd the battle flood,
The favage foe came pouring like a flood,
Then Pug aghaft, fled swifter than the wind,
Nor deign'd in threescore miles to look behind;
While ev'ry band for orders bleat in vain,
And fall in flaughter'd heaps upon the plain:
The fear'd baboon (to cut the matter fhort)
With all his fpced could not outrun report;
And, to appease the clamours of the nation,
'Twas fit his cafe fhould ftand examination.
The board was nam'd-each worthy took his
place;

70

All fenior members of the horned race.-
The wedder, goat, ram, elk, and ox, were there,
And a grave hoary ftag poffefs'd the chair.-

Ver. 34. Sir John Cope.

Ver. 70. It is not to be wondered at that this board confifted of horned cattle only, fince, before the use of arms, every creature was obliged in war to fight with fuch weapons as nature afforded it, confequently thofe fupplied with horns bid faireft for fignalizing themselves in the field, and carrying off the first posts in the army.-But I obferve, that, among the members of this court, there is no mention made of fuch of the horned family as were chiefly celebrated for valour; namely, the bull, unicorn, rhinoceros, &c. which gives reafon to fufpect, that these laft were either out of favour with the miniftry, laid afide on account of their great age, or that the ape had intereft enough at court to exclude them from the

Th' inquiry paft, each in his turn began`
The culprit's conduct variously to scan.
At length the fage uprear'd his awful creft,
And paufing, thus his fellow chiefs addrefs'd.-
If age, that from this head its honours stole,
Hath not impair'd the functions of my foul,
But facred wisdom with experience bought,
While this weak frame decays, matures my
thought;
80

Th' important iffue of this grand debate
May furnish precedent for your own fate;
Should ever fortune call you to repel
The fhaggy foe, so desperate and fell-
'Tis plain, you fay, his excellence Sir Ape
From the dire fieid accomplish'd an escape;
Alas! our fellow fubjects ne'er had bled,
If every ram that fell like him had fled;
Certes, thofe fheep were rather mad than brave,
Which fcorn'd th' example their wife leader gave.
Let us then ev'ry vulgar hint disdain,
91
And from our brother's laurel wash the ftain.-
Th' admiring court applauds the prefident,
And Pug was clear'd by general confent,
Friend.

There needs no magic to divine your scope,
Mark'd as you are a flagrant misanthrope:
Sworn foe to good and bad, to great and small,
Thy rankling pen produces nought but gall:
Let virtue ftruggle, or let glory shine,
Thy verfe affords not one approving line.- 100

Poct.

Hail, facred themes! the mufe's chief delight! O bring the darling objects to my fight! My breaft with elevated thought fhall glow, My fancy brighten, and my numbers flow! Th' Aonian grove with rapture would I tread, To crop unfading wreaths for William's head; But that my ftrain, unheard amidst the throng, Muft yield to Lockman's ode, and Hanbury's fong. Nor would th' enamour'd muse neglect to pay To Stanhope's worth the tributary lay; The foul unftain'd, the fenfe fublime to paint, A people's patron, pride, and ornament! Did not his virtues eterniz'd remain The boafted theme of Pope's immortal strain Not ev'n the pleafing task is left, to raise A grateful monument to Barnard's praise; Elfe fhould the venerable patriot stand Th' unfhaken pillar of a finking land. The gladd'ning profpect let me still pursue, And bring fair virtue's triumph to the view! 120 Alike to me, by fortune bleft or not, From foaring Cobham to the melting Scot. But, lo! a fwarm of harpies intervene, To ravage, mangle, and pollute the scene!

Ver. 108. Two productions resembling one another very much in that cloying mediocrity, which Horace compares to-Crassum ungentum, et fardo cum melle papaver.

Ver. 110. The Earl of Chesterfield.

Ver. 122. Daniel Mackercher, Efq. a man of fuch primitive fimplicity, that he may be faid to

140

You deem it rancour then?-Look round and fee
What vices flourish ftill, unprun'd by me:
Corruption. roll'd in a triumphant car,
Difplays his burnish'd front and glitt'ring ftar;
Nor heeds the public fcorn, or tranfient curfe,
Unknown alike to honour and remorse.
Behold the leering belle, carefs'd by all,
Adorn each private feaft and public ball;
Where peers attentive liften and adore,
And not one matron fhuns the tiled whore.
At Peter's obfequies I fung no dirge;
Nor has my fatire yet fupply'd a fcourge
For the vile tribes of ufurers and bites,
Who fneak at Jonathan's, and swear at White's.
Each low purfuit, and fighter folly bred
Within the selfish heart and hollow head,
Thrives uncontroul'd, and ble ffoms o'er the land,
Nor feels the rigour of my chaft'ning hand: 150
While Codrus fhivers o'er his bags of gold,
By famine wither'd, and benumb'd by cold;
I mark his haggard eyes with frenzy roll,
And feaft upon the terrors of his foul;
The wrecks of war, the perils of the deep,
That curfe with hideous dreams the caitiff's fleep;
Infolvent debtors, thieves and civil ftrife,
Which daily perfecute his wretched life;
With all the horrors of prophetic dread,
That rack his bofom while the mail is read. 160
Safe from the road, untainted by the school,
A judge by birth, by destiny a foel,
Winle the young lordling ftruts in native pride,
His party-coloured tator by his fide,
Pleas'd, let me own the pious mother's care,
Who to the brawny fire commits her heir.

only parting with his cloak and ceat, but with his fhirt alfo, to relieve a brother in diftrefs: Mr. Annefly, who claimed the Anglefea title and eftate.

Ver. 126. A triumvitate of contractors, who, fcorning the narrow views of private ulury, found means to lay a whole flate under contribution, and pillage a kingdom of immenfe fums, under the protection of law.

Ver. 129 A Chriftian of bowels, who lends money to his friends in want at the moderate intereft of gol. per cent A man famous for buying poor feamens ticke's.

Ver. 139. A wit of the first water celebrated for her taient of repartee and double entendre.

Ver. 143 Peter Waters, Elq whofe character

is too well known to need defcription.

Fraught with the fpirit of a Gothic monk,
Let Rich, with dulnefs and devotion drunk,
Enjoy the peal fo barbarous and loud, 169
While his brain fpues new monfters to the crowd;
I fee with joy the vaticide deplore

An hell denouncing priest and sovʼreign whore.
Let ev'ry polish'd dame, and genial lord,
Employ the focial chair and venal board;.
Debauch'd from fenfe, let doubtful meanings run,
The vague conundrum, and the prurient pun;
While the vain fop, with ay ifh grin, regards
The giggling minx half-chok'd behind her cards:
Thele, and a thoufand idle pranks, I deem
The motley fpawn of ignorance and whim. 180
Let pride conceive, and folly propagate,
The fashion ftill adopts the fpurious brat :
Nothing fo ftrange that fashion cannot tame;
By this difhonour ceafes to be shame:
This weans from blufhes lewd Tyrawly's face,
Gives Hawley praife, and Ingolfby disgrace,
From Mead to Thompson fhifts the palm at once,
A meddling, prating, blund'ring, bufy dunce!
And may (fhould taste a little more decline)
Transform the nation to an herd of swine.
Friend.

190

The fatal period haftens on apace!
Nor will thy verfe th' obfcene event difgrace;
Thy flow'rs of poetry, that fmell fo ftrong,
The keeneft appetites have loth'd the fong;
Condemn'd by Clark, Banks, Barrowby, and
Chitty,

And all the crop car'd critics of the city:

know not; but certain it is, that many people of fashion commit the education of their heirs to fome trufly footman, with a particular command to keep mafter out of the ftable.

Ver. 170. Monsters of abfurdity. "He look'd, and faw a fable forc'rer rife, "Swift to whofe hand a winged volume flies. "All fudden, gorgons hifs, and dragons glare, "And ten horn'd fiends and giants rafh to war. "Hell ffes, heaven defcends, and dance on earth, "Gods, imys, and monsters, mufic, rage, and mirth, "A fire, a jig, a battle and a ball, "Till one wide conflagration fwallows all."

Dunciad.

Ver. 174. This is no other than an empty chair, cerried about with great formality to perform vifits: by the help of which a decent correfpondence is often maintained among people of fashion, many years together, without one perfonal interview to the great honour of hofpitality and good neighbourhood.

Ibid. Venal boa d.] Equally applicable to the dining and card-table, where every gueft mult pay an extravagant price for what he has

Ver. 186 Harley. A general fo renowned for conduct and difcipline, that, during an action in which he had a confiderable command, he is faid to have been feen rallying three fugitive dra

THE TEARS OF SCOTLAND, Written in the Year 1746. MOURN, hapless Caledonia, mourn. Thy banish'd peace, thy laurels torn! Thy fons, for valour long renown'd, Lie flaughter'd on their native ground; Thy hofpitable roofs no more, Invite the ftranger to the door; In fmoky ruins funk they lie, The monuments of cruelty.

= The wretched owner fees afar

His all become the prey of war;
Bethinks him of his babes and wife,
Then Imites his breaft, and curfes life.
Thy fwains are famifh'd on the rocks,
Where once they fed their wanton flocks:
Thy ravish'd virgins fhrick in vain;
Thy infants perish on the plain.

What boots it then, in every clime,
Through the wide fpreading waste of time,
Thy martial glory, crown'd with praife,
Still fhone with undiminish'd blaze?
Thy tow'ring fpirit now is broke,
Thy neck is bended to the yoke.
What foreign arms could never quell,
By civil rage, and rancour fell.

The rural pipe and merry lay
No more fhall cheer the happy day':
No focial fcenes of gay delight
Beguile the dreary winter night:
No ftrains but thofe of forrow flow,
And nought be heard but founds of woe,
While the pale phantoms of the flain
Glide nightly o'er the filent plain.
O baneful caufe, oh! fatal morn, ›
Accurs'd to ages yet unborn!
The fons against their father stood,
The parent thed his children's blood.
Yet, when the rage of battle ceas'd,

The naked and forlorn muft feel
Devouring flames, and murd'ring fteel!
The pious mother, doom'd to death,
Forfaken wanders o'er the heath,
The bleak wind whiftles round her head,
Her helpless orphans cry for bread;
Bereft of fhelter, food, and friend,
She views the shades of night defcend;
And stretch'd beneath the inclement skies,
Weeps o'er her tender babes, and dies.
While the warm blood bedews my veins,
And unimpair'd remembrance reigns,
Refentment of my country's fate;
Within my filial breaft fhall beat;
And, fpite of her infulting foe,
My fympathizing verfe fhall flow:

Mourn, haplefs Caledonia, mourn "Thy banish'd peace, thy laurels torn."

VERSES ON A YOUNG LADY PLAYING ON A HARPSICHORD, AND SINGING WHEN Sappho ftruck the quiv'ring wire, The throbbing breaft was all on fire : And when the rais'd the vocal lay, The captive foul was charm'd away! But had the nymph, poffeft with thefe, Thy fofter, chafter pow'r to please; Thy beauteous air of fprightly youth, Thy native fmiles of artlefs truth; The worm of grief had never prey'd On the forfaken love-fick maid; Nor had the mourn'd an hapless flame, Nor dash'd on rocks her tender frame.

LOVE ELEGY.

IN IMITATION OF TIBULLUS.

WHERE now are all my flatt'ring dreams of joy? Monimia, give my foul her wonted reft;

Since first thy beauty fix'd my roving eye, Heart-gnawing cares corrode my penfive breast.

Let happy lovers fly where pleasures call, With feftive fongs beguile the fleeting hour; Lead beauty through the mazes of the ball, Or prefs her wanton in love's rofeate bower.

For me, no more I'll range th' empurpled mead, Where shepherds pipe, and virgins dance around, Nor wander through the woodbine's fragrant

fhade,

To hear the music of the grove refound.

I'll feek fome lonely church, or dreary hall, Where fancy paints the glimm'ring taper blue, Where damps hang mould'ring on the ivy'd wall,

And sheeted ghofts drink up the midnight dew:

There leagued with hopeless anguish and despair, Awhile in filence o'er my fate repine:

Then with a long farewell to love and care,

WHILE with fond rapture and amaze,
On thy tranfcendent charms I gaze,
My cautious foul effays in vain
Her peace and freedom to maintain :
Yet let that blooming form divine,
Where grace and harmony combine,
Thofe eyes, like genial orbs, that move,
Difpenfing gladness, joy, and love,
In all their pomp affail my view,
Intent my bofom to subdue;
My breaft, by wary maxims fteel'd,

Not all thofe charms fhall force to yield.

But, when invok'd to beauty's aid,
I fee th' enlighten'd foul difplay'd;
That foul fo fenfibly fedate
Amid the forms of froward fate!
Thy genius active, ftrong and clear,
Thy wit fublime, though not severe,
The focial ardour void of art,
That glows within thy candid heart;
My fpirits, fenfe, and ftrength decay,
My refolution dies away,
And ev'ry faculty oppreft,
Almighty love invades my breaft?

SONG.

To fix her 'twere a task as vain
To count the April drops of rain,
To fow in Afric's barren foil,
Or tempefts hold within a toil.

I know it, friend, fhe's light as air,
Falle as the fowler's artful fnare;
Inconftant as the paffing wind,
As winter's dreary froft unkind.
She's fuch a mifer too in love,
Its joys fhe'll neither share nor prove;
Though hundreds of gallants await
From her victorious eyes their fate.
Blushing at fuch inglorious reign,
1 fometimes ftrive to break her chain;
My reason fummon to my aid,
Refolv'd no more to be betray'd.
Ah! friend, 'tis but a fhort-liv'd trance,
Difpell'd by one enchanting glance;
She need but look, and, I confefs,
Thofe looks completely curfe or blefs.

So foft, fo elegant, fo fair,

Sure fomething more than human's there; I must submit, for ftrife is vain, 'Twas destiny that forg'd the chain.

BURLESQUE ODE..

WHERE waft thou, wittol ward, when hapless fate

From these weak arms mine aged grannam tore:
These pious arms effay'd too late,

To drive the difmal phantom from the door.
Could not thy healing drop, illuftrious quack,
Could not thy falutary pill prolong her days;
For whom, fo oft, to Marybone, alack!
Thy forrels dragg'd thee through the worst of
ways!

Oil-dropping Twick'nham did not then detain,
Thy steps, though tended by the Cambrian maids;
Nor the fweet environs of Drury-lane;
Nor dufty Pimlico's embow'ring fhades;
Nor Whitehall, by the river's bank,
Befet with rowers dauk;

[fons;

Nor where th' Exchange pours forth its tawny Nor where to mix with offal, foil, and blood, Steep Snow-hill rolls the fable flood;

Nor where the Mint's contaminated kennels runs :
Ill doth it now befeem,

That thou should'ft doze and dream,
When death in mortal armour came,

And ftruck with ruthless dart the gentle dame.
Her lib'ral hand and fympathifing breaft
The brute creation kindly blefs'd:
Where'er the trod grimalkin purr'd around,
The fqueaking pigs her bounty own'd;
Nor to the waddiing duck or gabbling goofe,
Did she glad fuftenance refufe;
The ftrutting cock the daily fed,
And turkey with his fnout fo red;
Of chickens careful as the pious hen,

Nor did the overlook the tomtit or the wren;
While redbreaft hopp'd before her in the hall,
As if the common mother were of all.

For my distracted mind,

What comfort can I find;

O beft of grannams! thou art dead and gone,
And I am left behind to weep and moan,
To fing thy dirge in fad and funereal ray,
Oh! woe is me! alack! and well-a-day!

ODE TO MIRTH.

PARENT of joy! heart-eafing mirth!
Whether of Venus or Aurora born;
Yet goddess fure of heavenly birth,
Vifit benign a fon of grief forlorn :
Thy glittering colours gay,
Around him mirth display:
And o'er his raptur'd fenfe
Diffufe thy living influence!

So fhall each hill in purer green array'd,
And flower adorn'd in new-born beauty glow.
The grove fhall fmooth the horrors of the fhade
And ftreams in murmurs fhall forget to flow.

• Smollett, imagining bimfelf ill treated by Lerd Lyttleton, wrote the above burlesque on that nobleman's monody on the death of his lady,