Decay of Parts, alas ! we all must feel

5 Why now, this moment, don't I fee

you

steal? 'Tis all from Horace ; Horace long before ye Said, “Tories call'd him Whig, and Whigs a Tory;" And taught his Romans, in much better metre, “ To laugh at Fools who put their trust in Peter.”

But Horace, Sir, was delicate, was nice ; Bubo observes, he lash'd no fort of Vice : Horace would say, Sir Billy serv'd the Crown, Blunt could do Bus°ness, H-ggins knew the Towe; In Sappho touch the Failings of the Sex,

IS In rev'rend Bishops note fome small Negleets, And own, the Spaniard did a waggish thing, Who cropt our Ears, and sent them to the King. His sly, polite, insinuating style Could please at Court, and make Augustus smile :

VARIATIONS.
P. Sir, what I write, mould be correctly writ.
F. Correct ! 'tis what no genius can admit.

Besides, you grow too moral for a Wit. Ver. 12. Bubo observes,] Some guilty person very fond of making such an observation:

VER. 14. H--ggins] Formerly Jaylor of the Fleet prison, enrich'd himself by many exactions, for which he was tried and expelled.

VER. 18. Who cropt our Ears,] Said to be executed by the Captain of a Spanish ship on one Jenkins, a Captain of an English one. He cut off his ears, and bid him carry them to the King his master,

21

An artful Manager, that crept between
His Friend and Shame, and was a kind of Screen.
But 'faith your very Friends will soon be sore :
Patriots there are, who wish you'd jest no more-
And where's the Glory! 'twill be only thought 25
The Great man never offer'd you a groat,
Go see Sir ROBERT-

P. See Sir Robert !--hum-
And never laugh—for all my life to come?
Seen him I have, but in his happier hour
Of Social Pleasure, ill-exchang'd for Pow'r; 30
Seen him, uncumber'd with the Venal tribe,
Smile without Art, and win without a Bribe.
Would he oblige me? let me only find,
He does not think me what he thinks mankind.

VER. 22: Screen.]

Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico

Tangit, et admiffus circum præcordia ludit Perf. Ibid. Screen.] A metaphor peculiarly appropriated to a certain person in power.

VER. 24. Patriots there are, etc.] This appellation was generally given to those in opposition to the Court. Though some of them (which our author hints at) had views too mean and interested to deserve that name,

Ver. 26. The Great man] A phrase, by common use, appropriated to the first minifter.

VER, 31. Seen bim, uncumber'd] These two verses were originally in the poem, though omitted in all the first editions.

VÆR. 34. what he thinks mankind.] This request seems somewhat absurd : but not more so than the principle it refers to. That great Minister, it seems, thought all mankind Rogues ; and that every one had his price. It was usually given as a

36

Come, come, at all I laugh he laughs, no doubt;
The only diff'rence is, I dare laugh out.

F. Why yes : with Scripture still you may be free ;
A Horfe-laugh, if you please, at Honesty;
A Joke on Jekyl, or fome odd Old Wbig
Who never chang'd his Principle, or Wig:
A Patriot is a Fool in ev'ry age,
Whom all Lord Chamberlains allow the Stage:
These nothing hurts ; they keep their Fashion still,
And wear their strange old Virtue, as they will.
If any ask you,

40

Why, answer, LYTTELTON, and I'll engage
The worthy Youth shall ne'er be in a rage :
But were his Verses vile, his Whisper base,
You'd quickly find him in Lord Fanny's case. 50
Sejanus, Wolsey, hurt not honeft FLEURY;
But well may put some Statesmen in a fury.

Laugh then at any, but at Fools or Foes ;
These

you
but
anger,

and
you

mend not those. 54
Laugh at your friends, and, if your Friends are fore,
So much the better, you may laugh the more,
To Vice and Folly to confine the jest,
Sets half the world, God knows, against the rest ;
Did not the Sneer of more impartial men
At Sense and Virtue, balance all agen.

60 Judicious Wits spread wide the Ridicule, And charitably comfort Knave and Fool.

P. Dear Sir, forgive the Prejudice of Youth : Adieu Diftinction, Satire, Warmth, and Truth !

Ver. 47. Wby, answer, Lyttelton.] George Lyttelton, Še. cretary to the Prince of Wales, distinguished both for his writings and speeches in the spirit of Liberty.

VER. 51. Sejanus, Wolsey,] The one the wicked minister of Tiberius : the other, of Henry VIII. The writers against the Court usually bestowed these and other odious names on the Minister, without distinction, and in the most injurious

See Dial. II. ver. 137. Ibid. Fleury,] Cardinal: and Minister to Louis XV. It was a Patriot-fashion, at that time, to cry up his wisdom and honesty.

Come, harmless Characters that no one hit; 65
Come, Henley's Oratory, Osborn's Wit!
The Honey dropping from Favonio's tongue,
The Flow'rs of Bubo, and the flow of Y-ng!
The gracious Dew of Pulpit Eloquence,
And all the well-whipt Cream of Courtly Sense 70
That First was H-vy's, F_'s next, and then
The Ste's, and then H-vy's once agen.
O come, that eafy Ciceronian style,
So Latin, yet fo English all the while,
As, tho’ the Pride of Middleton and Bland, 95
All Boys may read, and Girls may understand !
Then might I fing, without the least offence,
And all I sung should be the Nation's Sense;
Or teach the melancholy Muse to mourn,
Hang the fad Verse on CAROLINA's Urn,
And hail her passage to the Realms of Reit,
All Parts perform’d, and all her Children blest !

80

Ver. 66. Henley - Osborn.] See them in their places in the Dunciad,

VER, 69. The gracious Dew] Alludes to some court fers mons, and florid panegyrical speeches : particularly one very full of puerilities and Aatteries; which afterwards got into an addrefs in the same pretty style ; and was lastly served up in an Epitaph, between Latin and English, published by its. author.

Ver. 78. Nation's Sense ;] The cant of Politics at that time.

Ver. 80. Carolina.] Queen confort to King George II. She died in 1737. Her death gave occasion, as is observed above, to many indiscreet and mean performances unworthy of her memory, whose last moments manifested the utmost courage and resolution,