O DE

TO SIR FLETCHER NORTON,

IN IMITATION OF

HORA C E,

O DE VIII. BOOK IV.

Q. HORATII FLACCI,

CARMEN VIII. LIB. IV.

DONAREM pateras, a grataque commodus,

Cenforine, meis æra fodalibus:

Donarem tripodas, præmia fortium

Graiorum neque tu peffima munerum,

Ferres, divite me fcilicet artium,

Quas aut b Parrhafius protulit, aut Scopas;

Hic faxo, liquidis ille coloribus

Solers nunc hominem ponere, nunc deum.

Sed non hæc mihi vis; nec e tibi talium

HORACE, ODE VIII. BOOK IV.

IMITATE D.

MUSE! were we rich in land, or stocks,
We'd fend Sir Fletcher a a gold bux;
Who lately, to the world's furprize,
Advis'd his Sovereign to be wife.

The zeal of cits fhou'd ne'er furpafs us,

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We'd make him Speaker of Parnaffus.

Or could I boast the mimic eye
Ofb Townshend, or of Bunbury,

Whofe art can catch, in comic guife,

"The manners living as they rife,"
And find it the fame easy thing
To hit a Jollux or a king;

I'd hangings weave, in Fancy's loom,

Enough for me in thefe hard times,
When ev'ry thing is tax'd but rhymes,

Line 12. A Jollux.] A phrafe ufed by the bon ton for a fat parfon. See a fet of excellent Caricatures published by Bretherton,

in New Bond-street.

To

Ver. 11. Guades carminibus.] The imitator found himfel bligedto deviate in this place a little further from his original, than perhaps the strict critic will tolerate. But as he was not quite fo certain of Sir Fletcher's fondness for poetry, as Horace feems to have been about the taste of Cenforinus, he thought it best to express himself with a modest diffidence on that subject.

Laudes,

To f tag a few of thefe together:
Tho' I am quite uncertain, whether
My verfe will much rejoice the knight,
As g great a store as I fet by't.

For verfe, (l'd have Sir Fletcher know it)
When written by a genuine poet,

Has more of meaning and intent,
Thanh modern acts of Parliament.

'Tis i fit and right, when heroes die,
The nation fhould a tomb fupply;
Yet, not the votes of both the houses,
Without th' affiftance of the mufes,
Can give that permanence of fame
That heroes from their country claim.
And tell me pray, to our good King,

What fame our prefent broils can bring,

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25

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Ev'n k fhould the Howes (which fome folks

Ver. 37. Unless his Treasurer.] The late promotion of a poet to the treasurership of the houshold, muft neceffarily give to all true votaries of the mufes (as it does to me) great delectation. 'Tis whispered, by fome people in the fecret, that the very pacific cast of the Laureat's birth-day oće, occafioned