Else all my prose and verse were much the same;

This prose on stilts, that, poetry fall'n lame.

Did on the stage my fops appear confin'd?

My life gave ampler lessons to mankind.

Did the dead letter unsuccessful prove?

The brisk example never fail'd to move.

190

Yet sure, had Heav'n decreed to save the state,
Heav'n had decreed these works a longer date.
Could Troy be sav'd by any single hand,
This gray-goose weapon must have made her stand.
What can I now? my Fletcher cast aside,
Take up the Bible, once my better guide?

Or tread the path by vent'rous heroes trod,
This box my thunder, this right hand my God?
Or chair'd at White's amidst the doctors sit,
Teach oaths to gamesters, and to nobles wit?

VARIATIONS.

Not that my quill to critics was confin'd,
My verse gave ampler lessons to mankind;
So gravest precepts may successless prove,
But sad examples never fail to move,
As, forc'd from wind-guns, &c.

195

200

v. 15. Yet sure, bad Heaven, &c.] In the former edit.
Had Heav'n decreed such works a longer date,
Heav'n had decreed to spare the Grub-street state.
But see great Settle to the dust descend,

And all thy cause and empire at an end!
Could Troy be sav'd,---&c.

IMITATIONS.

v. 195.---bad Heav'n decreed, &c.]

"Me si coelicolæ voluissent duccere vitam,

"Has mihi servassent sedes,"

Virgl. En. II.

v. 197,198. Could Troy be sav'd--- This gray-goose weapon.]

"Si Pergama dextra

Defendi possent, etiam hac defensa fui scat. ig. Hid.

Or bidst thou rather party to embrace?

(A friend to Party thou, and all her race;
'Tis the same rope at diff'rent ends they twist;
To Dulness Ridpath is as dear as Mist).
Shall I, like Curtius, desperate in my zeal,

205

O'er head and ears plunge for the commonweal? 210
Or rob Rome's ancient geese of all their glories,
And cackling save the monarchy of Tories?
Hold---to the minister I more incline;

215

To serve his cause, O Queen! is serving thine.
And see! thy very Gazetteers give o'er,
Ev'n Ralph repents, and Henley writes no more.
What then remains? Ourself. Still, still remain
Cibberian forehead, and Cibberian brain.
This brazen brightness, to the 'squire so dear;
This polish'd hardness, that reflects the peer:
This arch absurd, that wit and fool delights,
This mess, toss'd up of Hockley-hole and White's;
Where dukes and butchers jcin to wreathe my crown,
At once the Bear and Fiddle of the Town,

220

225

O born in sin, and forth in folly brought! Works damn'd, or to be damn'd; (your father's fault)

IMITATIONS.

v. 202. This box my thunder, this right hand my God?] "Dextra mihi Deus, et telum qued missise libro." Virgil, of the Gods of Mezentius,

VARIATIONS.

v. 213. Hold---to the minister.] In the former edition: Yes, to my country I my pen consign,

Yes, from this moment, mighty Mist! am thine. v. 225. Oborn in sin, &c.] in the former edition: Adieu. my Children! better thus expire Unstall'd, unsold; thus glorious mount in fire,

Go, purify'd by flames, ascend the sky,

My better and more Christian progeny!
Unstain'd, untouch'd, and yet in maiden sheets,
While all your smutty sisters walk the streets.
Ye shall not beg, like gratis-given Bland,
Sent with a pass and vagrant through the land;
Nor sail with Ward, to Ape-and-monkey climes,
Where vile Mundungus trucks for viler rhymes:
Not sulphur-tipt, emblaze an ale-house fire!
Not wrap up oranges, to pelt your sire!

REMARKS.

230

235

v. 231. ---gratis-given B.and,---Sent with a pass.] I was a practice so to give the Daily Gazetteer, and ministerial pamphlets, (in which this B. was a writer), and to send them post-free to all the towns in the kingdom.

v. 233.---wi.b Ward, to Ape-and-monkey climes.] "Ed"ward Ward, a very voluminous poet in Hudibrastic verse, but best known by the London Spy, in prose. "He has of late years kept a public house in the City, I(but in a genteel way) and with his wit, humour, "and good liquor, (le) afforded his guests a pleasur

VARIATIONS.

Fair without spot, than greas'd by grocers' hands,
Or shipp'd with Ward to Ape-and-monkey lands;
Or wafting ginger, round the streets to run,
And visit alehouse, where ye first begun.
With that he lifted thrice the sparkling brand,
And thrice he dropp'd it, &c.

IMITATIONS.

Var. And visit alebouse.] Waller on the Navy:
Those tow'rs of oak o'er fertile plains may go,
And visit mountains where they once did grow.
v. 229. Unstain'd, untouch'd, &c.]

- Felix Priameia virgo!

Jussa mori: quae sortitus, non pertulit ullos, "Nec victoris heri tetigit captiva cubile!

Nos, patria insensa, diversa per aequora vectae," &c. Virg. Æn. III.

O pass more innocent, in infant state,
To the mild limbo of our father Tate:
Or peaceably forgot, at once be blest
In Shadwell's bosom with eternal rest!
Soon to that mass of nonsense to return,

240

Where things destroy'd are swept to things unborn. With that, a tear (portentous sign of grace!)

Stole from the master of the sev❜nfold face;
And thrice he lifted high the birth-day brand,

245

And thrice he dropt it from his quiv'ring hand;

Then lights the structure with averted eyes;
The rolling smoke involves the sacrifice.

Th' op'ning clouds disclose each work by turns,
Now flames the Cid, and now Perolla burns;

250

REMARKS.

"able entertainment, especially those of the High"church party." Jacob, Lives of Poets, vol. II. p. 225. Great number of his works were yearly sold into the Plantations. Ward, in a book called Apollo's Maggot, declared this account to be a great falsity, protesting that his public-house was not in the City, but in Moorfields. v. 238, 240. ---Tale---Shadwell. Two of his predecessors in the Laurel.

VARIATIONS.

v. 250. Now flames the Cid, &c.] In the former edit. Now flames old Memnon, now Rodrigo burns,

IMITATIONS.

v. 245. And thrice be lifted high the birth-day brand.] Ovid, or Althae,on a like occasion, burning her offspring: "Tum conata quater flammis imponere torrem, "Coepta quater tenuit."

v. 150. Now flames the Cid, &c.]

Jam Deiphobi dedit ampla ruinam, "Vulcano superante domos; jam proximus ardet * Ucalegon."

Great Cæsar roars, and hisses in the fires;

King John, in silence, modestly expires:

No merit now the dear Nonjuror claims,

Moliere's old stubble in a moment flames.
Tears gush'd again, as from pale Priam's eyes,
When the last blaze sent Ilion to the skies.

255

Rouz'd by the light, Old Dulness heav'd the head, Then snatcht a sheet of Thule from her bed; Sudden she flies, and whelms it o'er the pyre; Down sink the flames, and with a hiss expire. Her ample presence fills up all the place;

260

A val of fogs dilates her awful face:

[may'rs

Great in her charms! as when on shrieves and
She looks, and breathes herself into their airs.
She bids him wait her to her sacred dome:
Well pleas'd he enter'd, and confess'd his home.
So spirits, ending their terrestial race,

265

Ascend, and recognize their native place.

VARIATIONS.

In one quick flash see Proserpine expire,

And last, his own cold

schylus took fire,

Then gusht the tears, as from the Trojan's eyes
When the last blaze, &c.

After v. 268. In the former editions followed those

two lines,

Raptur'd, he gazes round the dear retreat,

And in sweet numbers celebrates the seat.

IMITATIONS.

. 263. Great in her charms! as when on shrieves and may'rs

She looks, and breathes herself into their airs.]

Alma parens confessa deam; qualisque videri
Coelicolis, et quanta solet."-

"Et laetos oculis afflavit honores."

Virg. Æn. II.

Id. n. I.