novo aliquantulum revivisceret. De nobis nihil ausi polliceri, tuæ, lector, benevolentiæ acceptum referemus, si Romanis auribus non prodeat omnino indignus; si Italis, quibuscum ei docta intercessit consuetudo, non multo ingratior, in hac etiam versione, quam suis est in lingua vernacula popularibus.

Ex promisso, annotationes ipsius Auctoris subjecimus pauculas; cæteris eo consilio omissis, ne nimii videremur, in re non prorsus necessaria, Hoc unicum exorandus restas, amice lector, ut si quid in transferendo hoc carmine interpres vel lubens (quod rarius fit) addiderit aut variaverit, vel genio linguarum aut idiomatum coactus diversitate prætermiserit, et excusandi et condonandi detur locus; qui citius forsan dabitur, si te præfando non ultra detineamus. Vive et bene vale.

THE

AUTHOR's PROLOGUE

TO THE

WISH.

QUID dedicatum poscit Apollinem
Vates? quid orat, de patera novum
Fundens liquorem ?

Hor. Ode 31. Lib. I.

Me quoties reficit gelidus Digentia rivus,
Quem Mandela bibit, rugosus frigore pagus,

Quid sentire putas? quid credis, amice, precari?

Ep. 18. Lib. L

When poets offering at Apollo's shrine,
Out of the sacred goblets pour new wine,
What do they wish? what do they then desire?

When I'm at Epsom, or on Banstead Down,
Free from the wine, and smoke, and noise o'th' town;
When I those waters drink, and breathe that air,
What are my thoughts? what's my continual prayer?

THE WISH.

IF I live to be old, for I find I go down,

Let this be my fate, in a country btown,

May I have a warm house, with a stone at the gate, And a cleanly young girl to rub my bald pate.

CHORUS.

e

May I govern my passion with an absolute sway,

And grow

wiser and better, as my strength wears

away;

Without gout or stone, by a gentle decay.

a "Labuntur anni; nec pietas moram Rugis, et instanti senectæ

"Afferet, indomitaque morti."

"Ocyor cervis, et agente nimbos,

"Ocyor Euro."

"Ocyor et cœli flammis, et tigride fœta."

Hor.

Idem.

Lucan.

"O Rus, quando ego te aspiciam ? quandoque licebit,

"Nunc veterum libris, nunc somno et inertibus horis, "Ducere sollicite jucunda oblivia vitæ ?”

Hor.

SI senii descendam, et cœpi vergere, ad annos,
Rure mihi exigui sint, tepidique lares ;

Præ foribus sit scamnum, et sit non sordida virgo,
Quæ molli foveat tempora calva manu.

CHORUS.

Equo animum imperio subigam, prudentior usu,
Ut carptim attennor, rex dominusque mei.
Nec podagræ, nec lithiasis cruciatibus urar ;
Sed sensim extinctus devehar ad tumulum.

c By the help whereof I may mount my easy Pad-Nag, mentioned in the third stanza; in the west of England, they call it an Upping-Stock..

d "Quæ non offendat sordibus."

Hor.

e Animum rege, qui, nisi paret, "Imperat; hunc frænis, hunc tu compesce catena.”

Idem.

"Lenior et melior" fiam, "accedente senecta." Idem:

May my little house stand on the h side of a hill, With an easy descent to a mead and a 1 mill,

That when I've a mind I may hear my boy read,
In the mill if it rains, if it's dry, in the mead.
May I govern &c.

Near a shady k grove, and a murmuring brook, With the ocean at distance, whereon I may look,

1

g« Parva, sed apta, domus."

Neither on the top nor the bottom; the best situation for a house or a city, affording both conveniency of cellars, and a descent to take off the waters.

It will be thought the old man has made a very ill choice of a mill to hear his boy read in; but they who make this objection, either know not, or at least do not consider, that noise helps deafness, which is incident to old age. That this is a truth, both experience and reason evidence.

I have known several who could hear little or nothing in their chambers; but when they were in a coach rattling upon the stones, heard very well. I also knew a tady in Essex, whose name was Tyrrel, who, while she had occasion to discourse, used to beat a great drum, without which she could not hear at all; the reason whereof is this, the most frequent cause of deafness is the relaxation of the tympanum or drum of the ear, which,' by this violent and continual agitation of the air, is ex