DEAR EPISTLE II. EAR Col'nel, COBHAM's, and your country's You love a Verfe, take fuch as I can fend. A Frenchman comes, prefents you with his Boy, Bows and begins-" This Lad, Sir, is of Blois : "Observe his fhape how clean! his locks how curl'd! "My only fon, I'd have him fee the world : 6 His French is pure; his Voice too-you shall hear. "Sir, he's your flave, for twenty pound a year. "Mere wax as yet, you fashion him with ease, "Your Barber, Cook, Upholft'rer, what you please : "A perfect genius at an Op'ra fong "To fay too much, might do my honour wrong. II FLO EPISTOLA II. "Hic et LORE, bono claroque fidelis amice Neroni, Si quis forte velit puerum tibi vendere natum Tibure vel Gabiis, et tecum fic agat: "Candidus, et talos a vertice pulcher ad imos, "Fiet eritque tuus nummorum millibus octo; "Verna minifteriis ad nutus aptus heriles; "Litterulis Graecis imbutus, idoneus arti "Cuilibet: argilla quidvis imitaberis uda: 66 Quin etiam canet indoctum, fed dulce bibenti. "Multa fidem promiffa levant, ubi plenius aequo NOTE S. VER. 4. This Lad, Sir, is of Blois :] A Town in Beauce, where the French tongue is fpoken in great purity. 15 "But, Sir, to you, with what would I not part? "Tho' faith, I fear, 'twill break his Mother's heart. "Once (and but once) I caught him in a lye, And then, unwhipp'd, he had the grace to cry : "The fault he has I fairly shall reveal, 20 " (Could you o'erlook but that) it is, to fteal." a Confider then, and judge me in this light; 25 30 "Laudat venales, qui vult extrudere, merces. "Res urget me nulla: meo fum pauper in aere. "Nemo hoc mangonum faceret tibi: non temere a me Quivis ferret idem: femel hic ceffavit, et (ut fit) "In fcalis latuit metuens pendentis habenae: "Des nummos, excepta nihil te fi fuga laedit." • Ille ferat pretium, poenae fecurus, opinor. Prudens emifti vitiofum: dicta tibi eft lex. Infequeris tamen hunc, et lite moraris iniqua. • Dixi me pigrum proficifcenti tibi, dixi Talibus officiis prope mancum ; ne mea faevus Jurgares ad te quod epiftola nulla veniret. Quid tum profeci, mecum facientia jura NOTE S. VER. 24. I think Sir Godfrey] An eminent Juftice of Peace, who decided much in the manner of Sancho Pancha.-Sir Godfrey Kneller. VOL. II. Nay worse, to ask for Verse at such a time! e In ANNA's Wars, a Soldier poor and old Si tamen attentas? quereris fuper hoc etiam, quod 35 40 e Luculli miles collecta viatica multis Praefidium regale loco dejecit, ut aiunt, NOTE S. VER. 33. In Anna's wars, etc.] Many parts of this story are well told; but, on the whole, it is much inferior to the original. VER. 37. This put the man, etc.] Greatly below the original, Poft hoc vehemens lupus, et fibi et hofti Iratus pariter, jejunis dentibus acer. The last words are particularly elegant and humorous. VER. 43. Gave him much praise and fome reward befide.] For the fake of a ftroke of fatire, he has here weakened that circumftance on which the turn of the ftory depends. Horace avoided it, though the avaricious character of Lucullus was a tempting occafion to indulge his raillery. 45 - Next, pleas'd his Excellence a town to batter; f Bred up at home, full early I begun 59 55 Nefcio quod cupiens, hortari coepit eundem. NOTES. VER. 51. Let him take cafties who has ne'er a great.] This has neither the force nor the justness of the original. Horace makes his foldier fay, Ibit, Ibit eo, quo vis, qui zonam perdidit. For it was not his poverty, but his lofs, that pushed him upon danger; many being equal to the one, who cannot bear the other. What betrayed our poet into this inaccuracy of expreffion, was its fuiting better with the application. But in a great writer we pardon nothing. And such should never forget, that the expreffion is not perfect, but when the ideas it conveys fit both the tale and the application: for then they reflect mutual light upon one another. VER. 53. To read in Greek the wrath of Peleus' fon.] This circumftance has a happier application in the imitation than in the original, and properly introduces the 68th verfe. |