WHITHER
HITHER away, now, GEORGE*, into the city,
And to the village, must thou bear, my ditty.
Seek NYKY out, while I in verfe complain,
And court the Muse to call him back again.
Baotian Nymphs, my favorite verse inspire ;
As erft ye NYKY taught to ftrike the lyre.
For he like PнæBUS' felf can touch the ftring,
And opera-fongs compofe-like any thing!
What shall I do, now NYKY's fled away?
For who like him can either fing or fay?
IMITATIONS.
Quo te, Mori, pedes; an quò via ducit in urbem?
Nymphæ, nofter amor, Libethrides, nunc mihi carmen,
Quale meo Codro, concedite; proxima Phœbi
*The brother and conftant companion of Roscius; the Mercury of our theatrical Jupiter, whom he difpatches with his divine commands to mortal poets and miserable actors..
For me, alas! who well compos'd the fong
When lovely PEGGY * liv'd, and I was young;
'By age impair'd, my piping days are done,
My memory fails, and ev'n my voice is gone.
My feeble notes I yet must strive to raise ;
Boeotian Muses! aid my feeble lays
A little louder, and yet louder ftill,
Aid me to raise my failing voice at will
Aid me as loud as Hercules did bawl,
For Hylas loft, loft NYKY back to call;
While London town, and all its fuburbs round
In echoes, NYKY, NYKY, back refound.
Cantando puerum memini me condere foles
Nunc oblita mihi tot carmina: vox quoque Morim
Omnia fert ætas, animum quoque.
Mufæ paulò majora canamus.
Hylan nautæ quo fonte relictum
Clamaffent ; ut littus Hyla, Hyla, omne fonaret.
* PEGGY WOFFINGTON, on whom our ROSCIUS, then her inamora
to, made a famous fong, beginning with the following stanza :
Once more I'll tune the vocal shell,
To bills and dales my paffion tell,
A flame which time can never quell,
That burns for thee, my Peggy.
Whom fliest thou, frantic youth, and whence thy fear? Bleft had there never been a grenadier!
Unhappy NYKY, by what frenzy feiz'd,
Couldft thou with fuch a monftrous thing be pleas'd ?.
What, tho' thyself a loving horse-marine,†.
A common foot-foldier's a thing obscene.
Not fabled Nymphs, by fpleen turn'd into cows,
Bellow'd to nasty bulls their amorous vows ;.
Tho' turn'd their loving horns upon each other,
Butting in play, as brother might with brother.
Unhappy NYKY, whither doft thou ftray,
Loft to thy friends, o'er hills and far away?
Quem fugis? Ah demens !
Et fortunatam, fi nunquam armenta fuiffent,
Pafiphaën nivei folatur amore juvenci.
Oh, virgo infelix, quæ te dementia cepit ? ›
Protides implêrunt falfis mugitibus agros :
At non tum turpes pecudum tamen ulla fecuta eft
Concubitus: quamvis collo timuiffet aratrum,.
Et fæpe in levi quæfiffet cornua fronte.
Ah, virgo infelix, tu nunc in montibus erras.!!
Time, however, effects ftrange things, as the poet fays, and many have been the paffions which have fince agitated, and have been alfo quelled in the bofom of Roseius.
A horfe-marine is a kind of.
+ NYKY is a half-pay officer of marines meretricious HOBBY-HORSE, modò vir modò fœmina..
Yet to Euryalus as Nifus true,
So fhall thy Roscius, NYKY, prove to you ;
Whether by impulfe mov'd, itself divine,
Or fo I'm bound to call it, as it's mine,
A mighty feat prefents itself to view,
Which for our mutual gain I yet will do.
Mean-time do thou beware, while I bemoan,
How far thou trufteft feas or lands unknown,
To Tyber's ftream, or to the banks of Po,
Safe in thy love, fafe in thy virtue, go;
Yet even there with caution be thou kind,
And look out fharp and frequently behind.
But ah, beware, nor truft, tho' native Mud,+
The banks of Liffy, or of Shannon's flood;
Or there, if driv'n by fate, be hush'd thy strain ?
Nor of thy wayward lot, nor mine complain.
IMITATIONS.
Nifus ait," Diine hunc ardorem mentibus addunt
Euryale? An fua cuique deus fit dira Cupido?
Aut pugnam, aut aliquid jamdudum invadere magnum
Mens agitat mihi
Hàc iter eft; tu ne qua manus fe attollere nobis
A tergo poffit, cuftodi et confule longè.
+ NYKY it feems was born and bred in Ireland; where his christian name was John. How he came by the Jewish appellation of Ifaac is not generally known. Whether it was bestowed upon him for his resemblance to the chofen people, or given him by poetical licence, may poffibly be a matter of difquifition for future fcholiafts.
Left female Bacchanals, when flush'd with wine,
Serve thee, like Orpheus, for thy song divine;
Nay back return, left my too plaintive verse
Entail on me the fame Orphean curse ;
Left Venus' train of Drury and the Strand
Attack my house by water and by land;
Hot with their midnight orgies, madly tear
My little limbs, and throw them here and there;
Casting, enrag'd at my provoking theme,
Th' inditing brain into the neighbouring stream :
When, as my skull shall float the tide along,
Thy much-lov'd name, the burthen of my song,
Shall ftill be stutter'd, later than my breath;
NYKY---NYK---Ny---till ftopt my tongue in death :
Through London-bridge shall Wapping Nyky roar,
And NYK be even heard to Hampton's fhore.*
IMITATION S.
Spreto Ciconum quo munere matres
Inter facra deûm, nocturnique orgia Bacchi,
Difcerptum latos juvenem fparsêre per agros.
Tum quoque marmoreâ caput à cervice revulfum,
Gurgite cum medio portans Oeagrius Hebrus
Volveret, Eurydicen vox ipfa et frigida lingua
Ah miferam Eurydicen anima fugiente, vocabat:
Eurydicen toto referebant flumine ripæ !
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