LIB. III. CARMEN IX.

DIALOGUS HORATII ET LYDIÆ.

D

HORAT.

ONEC gratus eram tibi,

Nec quifquam potior brachia candidæ

Cervici juvenis dabat,

Perfarum vigui Rege beatior.

A DIALOGUE

Between the Right Hon. HENRY PELHAM and Madam POPULARITY *.

I.

IN IMITATION OF HORACE, BOOK III. ODE IX.

H. PELHA M.

HILST I was pleafing in your eyes,

WHIL

And you was conftant, chaste, and wife;

Ere yet you had your favours granted

To ev'ry knave or fool who canted,

In peaceful joy I pass'd each hour,

Nor envy'd WALPOLE's wealth and pow'r.

* From the commencement of the Spanish war in 1739, to the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle, figned October 7, 1748, the land-tax was raised from two fhillings to four fhillings. In 1749 it was lowered to three fhillings, at which rate it was continued till 1752, when Mr. Pelham, at that time the minifter, reduced it to two fhillings, at which rate it continued till the time of his death in 1754. This was one, amongst others, of those popular measures which gilded the evening of this minifter's life, and rendered his death an object of public lamentation. To this event we owe this happy imitation, wrote foon after the Land-tax Act of that year paffed.

VOL. I.

E.

LYDIA.

Donec non aliâ magis

Arsisti, neque erat Lydia post Chloën,

Multi Lydia nominis

Romanâ vigui clarior Iliâ.

HORAT.

Me tunc Threffa Chloë regit,

Dulces docta modos, & citharæ fciens;

Pro quâ non metuam mori,

Si parcant animæ fata superstiti.

LYDIA.

Me torret face mutuâ

Thurini Calaïs filius Ornithi;

Pro

MADAM POPULARITY.

2. While I poffefs'd your love alone,
My heart and voice were all your own;
But on my foul 'twou'd vex a faint,
When I've most reason for complaint,
To hear you thus begin to fcold:
Think on BRITANNIA! proud and old!
Are not her interests all your theme,
Your daily labour, nightly dream?

H. PELHAM.

3. My juft regard I can't deny
For her and her prosperity;
Nor am afham'd it is fo great,
That, to deliver her from debt,

From foreign wars and civil ftrife,

I'd freely facrifice my

life.

MADAM POPULARITY.

4. To her your warmest vows are plighted,

For her I ev'ry day am flighted;

Pro quo bis patiar mori,

Si parcant puero fata superstiti.

HORAT.

Quod fi prifca redit Venus,
Diductofque jugo cogit aëneo :
Si flava excutitur Chloe,

Ejectæque patet janua Lydia ?

LYDIA.

Quanquam fidere pulchrior

Ille eft; tu levior cortice, & improbo

Iracundior Adria:

Tecum vivere amem, tecum obeam libens.