Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

AN EPISTLE

TO DR. SHEBBEARE:

TO WHICH IS ADDED AN ODE TO SIR FLETCHER

NORTON, 1 N

VIII. BOOK IV.

IMITATION OF HORACE, ODE

BY MALCOLM MACGREGGOR, OF KNIGHTS-BRIDGE, ESQ AUTHOR OF THE HEROIC

SIR WILLIAM CHAMBERS, &c.

*

EPISTLE TO

For a thousand tongues and every tongue Like Johnson's, arm'd with words of fix feet

long,

ADVERTISEMENT.

Though I look upon this Poem, in point of elevation of dic tion and fublimity of fentiment, to be as highly heroical, as my Epistle to Sir William Chambers, yet I have not thought proper to add that epithet to it on the title-page. I am willing to with that first production of my muse may preserve the distinction which it now possesses, of being called, The Heroic Epißtle, par excellence. Befides this confideration, the different ranks of the two perfons, to whom these two works are addreffed, require a difference to be made in this matter; and it would be unpardonable in me not to difcriminate between a Comptroller of his Majesty's Works, and the Hackney Scribbler of a Newspaper; between a Placeman and a Perfioner, a Knight of the Polar Star, and a broken Apothecary.

Ver, 2. Words of fix feet long.] Sefquipedalia verba. HOR,

In multitudinous vociferation

5

To panegyricize this glorious nation,
Whofe liberty refults from her taxation.
O, for that pafive penfionary spirit,
That by its prostitution proves its merit!
That rests on RIGHT DIVINE, all regal claims,
And gives to George, whate'er it gave to James :
Then should my Tory numbers, old Shebbeare, 10
Tickle the tatter'd fragment of thy ear!

Then all that once was virtuous, wife, or brave,
That quell'd a tyrant, that abhorr'd a flave,
Then Sydney's, Ruffel's patriot flame should fall,
Befmear'd with mire, like black Dalrymple's gall, 15
Then, like thy profe fhall my felonious verfe
Tear each immortal plume from Naffau's hearfe,
That modern monarchs, in that plumage gay,
Might ftare and ftrut, the peacocks of a day.

Ver. 11. Tickle the tatter'd fragment.] Churchill, alluding to this capital anecdote in our Doctor's life, fays, in his poem called The Author,

The whole intent

Of that parade, was fame, not punishment. Intimating that his ears received no detriment in the pillory. My line intimates, that they did. However, if my ntimation be falfe, it is eafily refuted: the Door has only to expofe his ears again to the public, and the real fact will be grint. C 2

Bot

But I, like Anfty, feel myself unfit

20

Το
run, with hollow speed, two heats of wit.
He, at first starting won both fame and money,
The betts ran high on Bladud's Ciceronè;
Since distanced quite, like a gall'd jade he winces,
And lashes unknown priests, and praises well-known
princes.

So I, when first 1 tun'd th' heroic lay

Gain'd Pownall's praife, as well as Almon's pay.
In me the nation plac'd its tuneful hope,
Its fecond Churchill, or at least its Pope :

25

Ver 23. Blaudud's Ciceronè.] Anglice, Bath Guide. Ver. 25. Lashes unknown priefts. Without a note pofterity will never understand this line. Two or three years ago this gentleman found himself libelled in a newspaper; and, on fufpecting a certain clergyman to be the author, he wrote first a canto of a poem, called the Prieft Diffected, in which he prepared all chirurgical matters previous to the operation. In the mean time the parfon proved an alibi, and faved his bacon. To this first and unique canto, the author prefixed a something in which he exculpated himself from being the author of the Hercic Epifle, which it feems had been laid to his charge during the time the clan of Macgreggors continued without a Jame, and which, as the world well knows, was the only rea fon which prevented me from claiming the merit of that production. It is to this fomething, that the latter part of the line alludes. For in it he had told the public, that his Majefty had ten children, which it knew very well before. Hence the epithet well-known,

Proudly

[ocr errors]

૩૦

Proudly I prick'd along, Sir William's fquire,
Bade kings recite my ftrains, and queens admire ;
Chafte maids of honour prais'd my ftout endeavour,
Sir Thomas fwore "The fellow was

"clever."

But popularity, alas! has wings

[ocr errors]

damn'd

And flits as foon from poets as from kings.
My pompous Poftfcript found itself difdain'd
As much as Milton's Paradife Regain'd
And when I dar'd the Patent Snuffers handle,
To trim, with Pinchy's aid, Old England's candle,
The lyric mufe, fo lame was her condition,
Could hardly hop beyond a third edition.
Yes, 'tis a general truth, and strange as true,
(Kenrick fhall prove it in his next Review)
That no one bard, in thefe degenerate days,
Can write two works deferving equal praife.
Whether the matter of which minds are made
Be grown of late mephitic and decay'd,
Or wants phlogiston, I forbear to say,
The problem's more in Doctor Priestley's way.
He knows of fpirit the material whole,
For Priestly has the cure of Sh-lb-e's foul,

35

40

49

50

Enough

Ver. 33. Sir Thomas.] The Petronius of the prefent age needs not the addition of a firname to make the world certain who is meant by this appellative.

Ver. 51. The cure of Sh-lb-ne's Soul.] It is not here infinuated, that the foul in question wants curing. The word

[blocks in formation]

Enough of fouls, unless we waste a line,
Shebbeare! to pay a compliment to thine:
Which forg'd, of old, of strong Hibernian brafs,
Shines thro' the Paris plaifter of thy face,

And bronzes it, fecure from fhame, or fenfe,
To the flat glare of finish'd impudence.

55

Wretch that from Slander's filth art ever gleaning,
Spite without fpirit, malice without meaning;
The fame abufive, bafe, abandon'd thing,
When pilloried, or penfion'd by a King.

60

Old as thou art, methinks, 'twere fage advice, That N--th fhould call thee off from hunting Price. Some-younger blood-hound of his bawling pack Might forer gall his prefbyterian back.

65

Thy toothless jaws fhould free thee from the fight: Thou canft but mumble, when thou mean'ft to

bite.

Say, then, to give a requiem to thy toils,

What if my mufe array'd her in thy spoils?
And took the field for thee, thro' pure good-na-

ture;

70

Courts prais'd by thee, are curs'd beyond her fatire.

cure is here put for care, in the fenfe in which ecclefiaftical lawyers ufe cura animarum.

Ver. 63. From hunting Price.] See a feries of wretched letters, written by Shebbeare, in the Public Advertiser, and other papers.

Yet

« ElőzőTovább »