HORACE, ODE VIII. BOOK IV. IMITATE D. a MUSE! were we rich in land, or stocks, But d arts like thefe I don't pursue, Nor does Sir Fletcher heed virtù. Enough for me in these hard times, When ev'ry thing is tax'd but rhymes, To Line 12. A Jollux.) A phrafe used by the bon ton for a fat parfon. See a fet of excellent Caricatures published by Bretherton, in New Bond-Street, 1 Ver. 11. Guades carminibus.) The Imitator found himfelf obliged to deviate in this place a little further from his original, than perhaps the ftri& critic will tolerate. But as he was not quite so certain of Sir Fletcher's fondness for poetry, as Horace feems to have been about the tafte of Cenforinus, he thought it beft to exprefs himself with a modeft diffidence on that fubject. f To tag a few of these together: Tho' I am quite uncertain, whether My verfe will much rejoice the knight, go For verfe, (I'd have Sir Fletcher know it) Has more of meaning and intent, h Than modern acts of Parliament. 'Tis i fit and right, when heroes die, 20 25 30 fhould the Howes (which fome folks doubt) 35 Put Washington to total rout, Unless his Treasurer in an ode, Exalt the victor to a god. What Ver. 37. Unless his Treasurer.) The late promotion of a poet to the treasurership of the houfhold, muft neceffarily give to all true votaries of the muses (as it does to me) great delectation. 'Tis whifpered, by fome people in the fecret, that the very pacific caft of the Laureat's birth-day ode, oc cafioned What tho' Earl Temple got a name, By making John the Painter peach Will all the Jackals of Jack Ketch A man, I know, may get a penfion m Say, Johnson! where had been " Fingal, Firft plung'd, then pluck'd him from oblivion's flood, And bad him blufter at his ease, Among the fruitful Hebrides. 55 A cafioned the noble bard's exaltation; as it was thought expedient to have another poetical placeman in readiness to celebrate the final overthrow of the American rebels. Nay, it is affured, that a reverfionary grant of the office of laureat has in this instance been superadded to the treasurership, yet with the defalcation of the annual butt of fack, which the Lord Steward calculates will be a confiderable saving to the nation. |