Yet, when the pleafes, fhe can deal in praife:
Exempli gratia, hear her fluent lays

Extol the present, the propitious hour,

When Europe, trembling at Britaania's power, 75
Bids all her princes, with pacific care,

Keep neutral distance, while fhe wings the war
Cross the Atlantic vaft; in dread array,

Herfelf to vanquish in America.

Where foon, we trust, the brother chiefs fhall fee 80
The Congress pledge them in a cup of tea,
Toaft peace and plenty to their mother nation,
Give three Huzzas to George and to taxation,
And beg, to make their loyal hearts the lighter,
He'd fend them o'er Dean T--k-r, with a mitre. 85
In Fancy's eye, I ken them from afar

Circled with feather wreaths, unftain'd by tar:
In place of laurels, thefe fhall bind their brow,
Fame, honour, virtue, all are feathers now.
Ev'n beauty's felf, unfeather'd, if we spy,
Is hideous to our Macaroni eye.

Foolish the bard, who, in fuch flimfy times, Would load with fatire or with fense his rhymes :

No, let my numbers flutter light in air,

As careless as the filken Goffimer.

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90

95

OFF

Enough of fouls, unless we waste a line,
Shebbeare! to pay a compliment to thine:
Which forg'd, of old, of strong Hibernian brass,
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 toothlefs jaws fhould free thee from the fight: Thou canst 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-
70

ture;

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

Yet, when the pleafes, fhe can deal in praife:
Exempli gratia, hear her fluent lays

Extol the prefent, the propitious hour,

When Europe, trembling at Britaania's power, 75
Bids all her princes, with pacific care,

Keep neutral distance, while the wings the war
Cross the Atlantic vaft; in dread array,

Herfelf to vanquish in America.

85

Where foon', we trust, the brother chiefs fhall fee 80
The Congress pledge them in a cup of tea,
Toaft peace and plenty to their mother nation,
Give three Huzzas to George and to taxation,
And beg, to make their loyal hearts the lighter,
He'd fend them o'er Dean T--k-r, with a mitre.
In Fancy's eye, I ken them from afar
Circled with feather wreaths, unftain'd by tar:
In place of laurels, thefe fhall bind their brow,
Fame, honour, virtue, all are feathers now.
Ev'n beauty's felf, unfeather'd, if we spy,
Is hideous to our Macaroni eye.

Foolish the bard, who, in such flimsy times, Would load with fatire or with sense his rhymes:

No, let my numbers flutter light in air,

As careless as the filken Goflimer.

C 4

90

95

OFF

Or, fhould I, playful, lift the mufe's fcourge,
Thy cocks fhould lend their tails, my cocking
G-----

To make the rod. So fear not thou the fong;
To whip a poft, I ne'er will waste a thong.
Were I inclin'd to punish courtly tools,
I'd lash the knaves before I flapt the fools.
Gigantic vice should on my ordeal burn,
Long ere it came to thy poor pigmy turn.

100

105

But fure 'tis beft, whate'er rafh Whigs may fay, To fleep within a whole skin, while one may; For Whigs are mighty prone to run stark mad, If credence in A--hb----ps may be had. Therefore I'll keep within difcretion's rule, And turn true Tory of the M--------d school, So fhall I 'fcape that creature's tyger paw, Which fome call Liberty, and fome call Law: Whose whale-like mouth is of that favage fhape, Whene'er his long-rob'd fhewman bids him gape, With tufks fo strong, with grinders fo tremendous, And fuch a length of gullet, Heaven defend us! 115

Ver. 97. My cocking G

110

A great cock fighter, and little fenator, who, in the laft Parliament, called the Heroic Postfcript a libel.

Ver. 111. Which fome call Liberty.] With courtiers and churchnenth terms are fynonimous. See a late Sermon.

That

That should you peep into the red-raw track, 'Twould make your cold flesh creep upon your

back.

A maw like that, what mortal may withstand? 'Twould swallow all the poets in the land.

Come, then, Shebbeare and hear thy bard deliver

Unpaid-for praises to thy penfion-giver.

120

Hear me, like T--k-r, fwear, "fo help me muse !"
I write not for preferment's golden views.
But hold-'tis on thy province to intrude:
I would be loyal, but would not be rude.

To thee, my veteran, I his fame confign;
Take thou St. James's, be St. Stephen's mine.

Hail, genial hot-bed! whofe prolific foil

125

So well repays all North's perennial toil,
Whence he can raife, if want or whim inclines, 130
A crop of votes, as plentiful as pines.

Wet-nurfe of tavern-waiters and Nabobs,

That empties first, and after fills their fobs :

(As Pringle, to procure a fane fecretion,

Purges the prime via of repletion.)

135

Ver. 122. Like T--k-r fwear.] The reverend Dean took a folemn oath in one of his late pamphlets, that he would not be.

a bishop.

C 5

What