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Barnard in "spirit, sense, and truth, abounds; 85 "Pray then, what wants he?" Fourscore thousand

pounds;

A Pension, or such Harness for a slave
As Bug now has, and Dorimant would have.
Barnard, thou art a °Cit, with all thy worth:
But Bug and D*1, Their Honours, and so forth. 90
Yet ev'ry Child another song will sing,
"Virtue, brave boys! 'tis Virtue makes a King."
True, conscious Honour is to feel no sin,
He's arm'd without that's innocent within ;
Be this thy Screen, and this thy Wall of Brass; 95
Compar'd to this, a Minister's an Ass.

And say, to which shall our applause belong,
This new Court jargon, or the good old song?
The modern language of corrupted Peers,
Or what was spoke at 'CRESSY and POITIERS? 100
Who counsels best? who whispers, "Be but

great,

With Praise or Infamy leave that to fate;
Get Place and Wealth, if possible, with grace ;
If not, by any means get Wealth and Place."

NOTES.

wall of brass; for, says Dacier, "Chacun se fait des difficultés à sa mode, et demande des remarques proportionnées a son goût :" he then sets himself in good earnest about this important inquiry; and, by a passage in Vegetius, luckily discovers, that it signified an old veteran, armed cap-a-pie in brass, and PLACED TO COVER HIS FELLOW. Our Poet has happily served himself of this impertinence to convey a very fine stroke of Satire. W.

Ver. 97. And say, &c.] The court jargon for Roscia Lex, and Cressy and Poitiers for Curiis, is happy.

Ut "propius spectes lacrymosa poemata Pupî!
An "qui, fortunæ te responsare superbæ
Liberum et erectum, *præsens hortatur et aptat?

Quod si me Populus Romanus forte roget, cur
Non, ut porticibus, sic judiciis fruar îsdem ;
Nec sequar aut fugiam, quæ diligit ipse vel odit :
Olim quod vulpes ægroto cauta leoni
Respondit, referam : Quia me vestigia terrent
Omnia te adversum spectantia, nulla retrorsum.

Bellua multorum est capitum. nam quid sequar, aut quem ?

Pars hominum gestit conducere publica: sunt qui

NOTES.

Ver. 106. eye a King. Our Author is so perpetually expressing an affected contempt for kings, that it becomes almost a nau

seous cant.

-the pride of kings

- some monster of a king

-pity kings-the gift of kings-
-gods of kings-much above a king-
- Settle wrote of kings -

-Midas; and a king, and many others. Hawkins Brown laughed at him for his affectation, in the pleasant Imitations of English Poets, on Tobacco.

"Come let me taste thee, unexcised by kings."

Kings have been of late years spoken of with even much more disrespect.

Ver. 116. Because I see,] Both poets have told this Fable, which Plato also was fond of, with an elegant brevity, a quality for which Babrius was eminent, and in which our modern fabulists miserably fail. Why did Pope omit ægroto? And why would he connect the passage that immediately follows in a forced and quaint manner, which Horace never thought of? As if the word bellua had any relation to the lion before mentioned ?

For what? to have a "Box where Eunuchs sing,
And foremost in the Circle eye a King.

Or whe, who bids thee face with steady view

106

Proud Fortune, and look shallow Greatness through :

X

And, while he bids thee, sets th' Example too?

y

If such a Doctrine, in St. James's air,

110

Should chance to make the well-drest Rabble stare;

If honest S*z take Scandal at a Spark,

That less admires the Palace than the Park :

Faith I shall give the answer Reynard gave :
"I cannot like, dread Sir, your Royal Cave : 115
Because I see, by all the tracks about,
Full many a Beast goes in, but none come out."
Adieu to Virtue, if you're once a Slave :
Send her to Court, you send her to her grave.

Well, if a King's a Lion, at the least

120

The People are a many-headed Beast:

Can they direct what measures to pursue,
Who know themselves so little what to do?

Alike in nothing but one Lust of Gold,

C

Just half the land would buy, and half be sold : 125 Their Country's Wealth our mightier Misers

drain,

Or cross, to plunder Provinces, the Main;

The rest, some farm the Poor-box, some the Pews;

Some keep Assemblies, and would keep the Stews;

NOTES.

Ver. 129. Some keep Assemblies,] This was written fifty years ago. What would our Author have said of the increase of this infamous practice in the year 1796? In what glowing colours would he have proscribed it!

Crustis et pomis viduas venentur avaras,

Excipiantque senes, quos in vivaria mittant:

e

Multis occulto crescit res fenore.

fverum

Esto, aliis alios rebus studiisque teneri :

Iidem eadem possunt horam durare probantes?

g

* Nullus in orbe sinus Baiis prælucet amænis,

Si dixit dives; lacus et mare sentit amorem
Festinantis heri: cui si vitiosa libido

Fecerit auspicium; cras ferramenta Teanum

NOTES.

Ver. 130. Dotards fawn;] The legacy-hunters, the hæredipetæ, were a more common character among the ancients than with us. The ridicule, therefore, is now not so striking. Lucian has fivé pleasant dialogues on the subject, from page 343 to 363, in the Quarto Edition of Hemsterhusius. Horace himself appears to have failed more in exposing this folly, than in any other of his Satires; and principally so, by mixing ancient with modern manners, and making Tiresias instruct Ulysses in petty frauds, and artifices too subtle for the old prophet and hero to dictate and to practise. Sat. 5. lib. ii.

Ben Jonson's Fox is not much relished from our not being acquainted with such characters, which are finely ridiculed by Plautus, in the Soldier, 3d Act.

Illi apud me edunt, me curant; visunt quid agam, ecquid velim;
Priusquam lucet, assunt; rogitant, ut nocte somnum ceperim;
Eos pro liberis habeo, qui mihi mittunt munera ;
Sacrificant? dant inde partem mihi majorem, quam sibi;
Abducunt ad exta; me ad se, ad prandium, ad cœnam vocant.

See Sir Charles Hanbury Williams's Satire on Lord Sidney Beauclerc.

"Who got by Topham what he lost by Reeve."

Ver. 138. Sir Job] Superior to the original; a pleasing little landscape is added to the Satire. But Greenwich-hill is not an exact parallel for Baiæ; where the Romans of the best taste and fashion built their villas. Pope's is the villa of a citizen. The

132

Some with fat Bucks on childless Dotards fawn;
Some win rich Widows by their Chine and Brawn;
While with the silent growth of ten per cent
In dirt and darkness, hundreds stink content.
Of all these ways, if each pursues his own,
Satire, be kind, and let the wretch alone :
But shew me one who has it in his pow'r
To act consistent with himself an hour.

135

140

Sir Job sail'd forth, the ev'ning bright and still,
"No place on earth (he cry'd) like Greenwich-hill !"
Up starts a Palace, lo, th' obedient base
Slopes at its foot, the woods its sides embrace,
The silver Thames reflects its marble face.
Now let some whimsey, or that 'Dev'l within
Which guides all those who know not what they mean,
But give the Knight (or give his Lady) spleen;
"Away, away! take all your scaffolds down,
For Snug's the word: My dear! we'll live in Town."

146

NOTES.

absurd and awkward magnificence of some opulent citizens has of late been frequently exposed; but no where with more humour than in the Connoisseur, and in the characters of Sterling and Mrs. Heidelberg, in the Clandestine Marriage. This ridicule of citizens was borrowed from the French. We have some citizens whose good taste is equal to their riches.

Ver. 143. Now let some whimsey, &c.] This is very spirited, but much inferior to the elegance of the Original:

"Cui si vitiosa Libido

" Fecerit auspicium;"

which alluding to the religious manners of that time, no modern imitation can reach. W.

Ver. 147. live in Town.] Horace says, he will carry his build

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