So shall the poet wreaths unfading wear, THE POET'S CHORUS TO FOOLS. Come, trim the boat, row on each Rara Avis, Crowds flock to man my Stultifera Navis. T2 SECTION XLV. OF IMPERIAL FOOLS. O, but man! proud man! Drest in a little brief authority, Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd, His glassy essence; like an angry ape, Plays such fantastic tricks before high Heav'n, COME, senseless men, and view your god, Who rears on earth the idiot's rod, And, prostrate 'fore his stool, To sing your mighty sovereign's praise, Who can peruse the annals of the Roman emperors, without allowing the truth of this remark; as, with very few exceptions, their reigns were characterized with murder, prodigality, incest, extravagance, voluptuousness, bestiality, and, in short, every folly and vice that is abhorrent to human nature. As to the emperor who made a consul of His glitt❜ring crown, his purple robe, And armed legions see; While, bending at his nod, appear Here view the despot, void of friend; That would at heav'n aspire.* his horse, he can scarcely be denominated a fool; as that noble animal is, most assuredly, deserving any dignity, when placed in the company of a set of asses. * Many instances might be displayed of this inordinate folly in imperial idiots: but one, which particularly stands on record, and, at the present moment, occurs to my recollection, is adduceable in the person of Alexander the Great, who thought fit to bastardize himself, by assuming a certain degree of heathenish godhead, in pretending to derive his being from the great Jupiter Ammon. Here's public smiles-thoughts that appal, With grave-consigning breath: * Nothing can possibly display more forcibly the folly of imperial or kingly vanity, than the energetic lines of Shakspeare, in his tragedy of King Richard the IId. which run thus: I pr'ythee, friends, let's sit upon the ground, Keeps death his court; and there the antic sits, To monarchise, be fear'd, and kill with looks, Whose bolt, when least expected, flies, Of fate the common slave. So farewel grandeur; for, 'tis found, L'ENVOY OF THE POET. If lowly men could view turmoils of state, power. The greatest earthly curse is to be great; For, like the fire, it doth itself devour. * The renowned William the Conqueror affords an instance, even more striking than the fact above stated; since it is recorded, that after his demise, his corpse continued some days above ground, on account of the difficulty there was, even to procure a spot of earth in order to bury him, owing to the animosity that individual entertained towards him while living, on whose domain he expired. The great Charles the Fifth, the emperor, after all his conquests and glory, terminated his career by entering a monastery; and thus relinquishing that, for which he had toiled with so much assiduity. Then, farewel to regal folly! for |